Havard “rain” Nygaard from FaZe Clan: “I think that in CS2, movement in general feels a bit off.”

Several days ago, Fragster had the pleasure of speaking with Havard “rain” Nygaard from FaZe Clan. I asked him about his personal life, FaZe Clan, and Counter-Strike 2. Here’s the essence of what was discussed.

You’re one of the relatively few professional players who really need to worry about maintaining a work-family balance. How challenging is it?

I’m quite new to it. It’s only been around 8 months [since the birth of my first child] and I definitely feel it when I’m leaving home. At home as well, it’s a very different environment and a different way of practicing. There’s less time to play individually outside of team practice. Other than that, it’s just the sleep schedule that’s a bit different.

FaZe Clan had a phenomenal season in 2022, probably the best in the org’s Counter-Strike history. Let’s say that your form was at 10 out of 10 back then. How would you rank your team’s form right now?

Right now, I think we’re going through a bit of an identity crisis. So I’d say we’re at 6 out of 10. There are some things we have to work on and get better at. We’ve played together for a long time and have gotten a bit too comfortable. Sometimes we don’t push each other hard enough. This is something that’s going to change in CS2.

For the past 6-7 months since CS2 was announced, we’ve been waiting for the game to be released and probably haven’t put into CS:GO the same amount of effort that we used to.

Your current roster has been competing together for more than a year and a half. At this point, you have a major experience advantage over most of the other teams. But how do you maintain your motivation as a group, especially after you’ve had so many incredible results since Ropz joined?

Fortunately for us, CS2 will soon be released and will bring a breath of fresh air. There are new mechanics, more grenades to use, novel tactics, and so on. It feels like learning a new game almost.

What do you think of Counter-Strike 2 so far?

I’ve played it for about 6-10 hours. Overall it still feels a little bit clunky and not like a finished game. But I hope it will get better before the official release. I heard some rumors about the servers and it’s a little bit concerning if they haven’t upgraded to 128-tick servers.

Hopefully, things will get better. I think they’re working really hard right now and are releasing updates left and right. So the finished product is probably going to be different from what we see now.

When do you think it will be ready for the official launch? This autumn or do you think it will take until early 2024?

Given that all the maps have been released and that things are improving rapidly, I have a feeling that ESL Pro League S18 will be the last CS:GO tournament. After that, we’ll probably switch to CS2.

Some players have complained about the spray control. Would you say it’s a bit bugged?

Yes, it’s a little bit weird. It’s probably also something that I need to get used to. I’ve played left-handed for about 15 years. So for me, the new spray looks weird and it’s catching me off-guard sometimes. Other than that, the spray feels a little bit clunky but it is what it is.

Do you think that there should be an option for left-handed people to adjust the visuals to suit their preferences?

Yes. CS has always been a game where you can personalize your experience and change your view mode to make it your own. It would be a shame if they take that away from players.

Support the cause https://t.co/tGGKyPpVR2

— Håvard Nygaard (@FaZe_rainCS) August 7, 2023

What else would you change about CS2? What would be absolutely needed to have a fair and competitive experience, at least at the professional level? As an amateur, I can play the game without noticing all the tiny details. But what would it take for you to feel like the game is ready to be played in professional tournaments?

I think that in CS2, movement in general feels a bit off. The jumps are very slow and not consistent, so they should tweak that part a bit more. CS:GO took nearly 10 years to perfect, so I’m not expecting CS2 to be perfect from the start. But I think they’re doing a good job when it comes to pushing updates and listening to the community.

But if there’s still a lot to change about the game in order to make it a smooth experience in tournaments, don’t you think that it should be delayed until early 2024? I know that Valve promised us that until the end of September it will be released, but if it’s not ready, pro players might not enjoy it very much.

Yes, I think the overall skill ceiling is going to go down if they release it right now. But at the same time, for spectators, I think it’s going to look better. So I guess we’re in a win-lose situation. Valve shot themselves in the foot a little bit when they said they were going to release it this early. So now they’re in a rush to deliver on their promise.

They’re probably sleeping even less than you are.

Yes, they’re likely working around the clock right now.

FaZe Clan won the previous season of ESL Pro League. What’s the plan for this edition? You have one of the easiest groups of the four. Do you expect to finish the group in the top 2?

For sure. When we look at our group, I think we are one of the favorites. Even though we’ve been a little bit out of shape recently, we’re still the favorites to win the group, together with Na’Vi. So top-2 is definitely our goal.

What do you think of the current Na’Vi roster? They made huge changes to their roster several months ago. How do you evaluate the new roster relative to the previous one? Is it stronger or weaker?

I think it’s significantly weaker, partly because players like electroNic and Perfecto had such a good understanding of each other. It’s definitely a downgrade at the moment. The new roster will probably need more time to adapt.

It’s also the first international team for both s1mple and b1t. S1mple played in Liquid, but I think it’s still difficult for them to go from speaking their native language to speaking English.

From the outside, it doesn’t look like they’re having that much fun playing. On the cameras, the players look very frustrated sometimes, which is something they’re going to have to work on if they want to go further.

S1mple has a CIS mentality. If you come from a calm European team and he’s screaming in your ear, it might take some time to adapt.

Excluding Faze Clan, who do you think are the best 3 teams in the race?

Team Vitality, G2, and ENCE. I would have also said Heroic, but they’ve already been defeated, which is very surprising. But I think Vitality is in a really good form. It’s not the ZywOo show anymore. It’s the young kid show, and I think they have a very strong foundation.

What do you think happened with ENCE? They’ve become so good almost overnight. As a professional player, you’ve experienced this kind of rapid transformation. One week, things are not going that well. And then all of a sudden, everyone’s on the same page and you’re performing exceptionally well in tournaments.

It feels like it has a lot to do with what they do outside of the game. They’re a momentum team. If the mood is good, they will play really well. How they handle each other and hang out with each other probably contributes a lot to their success. They clearly enjoy playing together, which is very important in CS.

I also think that Snappi has gotten better lately and he’s utilizing the talents of his teammates really well.

So you would say that the psychological part is really important to achieve the kind of success that ENCE has achieved this season?

At this level, it’s certainly one of the main parts.

Ok. Rain, thank you for the interview, and good luck at the tournament!

Thank you!

Header: FaZe Clan