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FaZe adds es3tag as a stand-in for rain at Blast Premier Spring Groups

FaZe Clan has announced that Patrick “es3tag” Hansen will take the place of Norwegian CS:GO superstar Håvard “rain” Nygaard at... Shubh | 19. January 2023

FaZe Clan has announced that Patrick “es3tag” Hansen will take the place of Norwegian CS:GO superstar Håvard “rain” Nygaard at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups.

Just a few hours before the team’s opening match at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups, FaZe has restacked its roster with Patrick “es3tag” Hansen, who will stand in for the  Norwegian rifler rain. The organization has appointed its director of esports operations Edward Han as the interim head coach, who will take over RobbaN’s duties in FaZe’s upcoming match against Complexity. 

Having put all the pieces into place, FaZe can breathe a sigh of relief after a desperate search for a replacement for rain. Although BLAST has given es3tag permission to compete with FaZe, he won’t be able to do so if FaZe runs into Ninjas in Pyjamas in the Knockout round, which might happen if neither team advances directly to the Spring Final from the group stage.

The two-time Major winner Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer Gustafsson was the official substitute FaZe registered for BLAST Premier Spring Groups. The Swedish CS:GO veteran, though, contends that he was unaware of his selection as FaZe’s replacement for the competition. According to FaZe’s star Robin “ropz” Kool, Olofmeister was registered as a stand-in for BLAST Groups because the name registered by the organization was the same for the BLAST Premier World Final, which occurred in December 2022.

Es3tag has been hunting for a new club since December 2022, when Ninjas in Pyjamas benched him to make room for Daniil “headtr1ck” Valitov. NiP may not have had much success with es3tag, but the Danish player displayed decent individual performance, earning a 1.04 rating over 24 maps played in the last three months of his stint with the Swedish club. The 28-year-old rifler has played 1371 maps throughout his career, totaling 24521 kills with an average kill-to-death ratio of 1.03.

Blast clears the air around FaZe’s substitute mishap 

The North American organization had been planning to use Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups but they had never listed him as a sub. Other teams apparently objected to the transfer because k0nfig was not formally registered as a member of FaZe’s roster but rather as Heroic’s replacement.

According to some dissatisfied FaZe members, BLAST refused the emergency replacement, reversing their prior decision to let k0nfig participate. Now, BLAST has clarified the situation in a statement posted on its Twitter account. BLAST admitted that unclear timings for the roster lock and k0nfig’s eligibility to play contributed to the misunderstanding around his participation with FaZe.

Header: Stephanie Lindgren/DreamHack