How Twistzz revived a dying FaZe better than Karrigan

How Twistzz revived a dying FaZe better than Karrigan

There is an important distinction to make before comparing Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken and Finn “karrigan” Andersen

Twistzz has not surpassed karrigan’s legacy as an in-game leader. He has not delivered FaZe a Major, an Intel Grand Slam or even a trophy yet. What he has done, however, is revive a declining team more quickly and more convincingly than karrigan managed during the final two years of his tenure.

For most of 2024 and 2025, FaZe survived on moments. They could appear ordinary for weeks and then suddenly summon an extraordinary Major run. Those performances kept the belief alive, but they also concealed the extent of the decay underneath.

Under Twistzz, the ceiling may not yet be as high, but the floor is finally rising. FaZe no longer look like a team waiting for five players to simultaneously rediscover their prime. They look younger, more coordinated and, most importantly, more capable of producing respectable results from one tournament to the next.

That is the difference between creating magic and building progress.

The decline began behind the results

FaZe entered 2024 after replacing Twistzz with David “frozen” Čerňanský. On paper, it was an understandable move. Frozen was already one of the world’s best riflers and had a long history with karrigan from MOUZ. Individually, he delivered.

Structurally, however, FaZe lost something.

Twistzz had been the roster’s connective tissue. He could enter, trade, anchor, clutch or become a secondary voice depending on what a round demanded. With frozen, Robin “ropz” Kool and Helvijs “broky” Saukants together, FaZe became increasingly weighted towards passive players. HLTV’s analysis of the roster later noted that although frozen produced excellent numbers, his arrival disturbed FaZe’s mid-round balance because frozen, ropz and broky all naturally leaned towards more passive tendencies. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}

Initially, the results made those concerns easy to dismiss.

FaZe finished second at IEM Katowice, reached the grand final of the Copenhagen Major and won IEM Chengdu. But Chengdu would become their only trophy of 2024. After that victory, they placed 5th-8th at ESL Pro League Season 19, 5th-6th at IEM Dallas and the BLAST Spring Final, 5th-8th at the Esports World Cup, 5th-6th at IEM Cologne and 13th-16th at ESL Pro League Season 20. :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}

They still reached the Shanghai Major final at the end of the year, just as they had reached the Copenhagen final months earlier. That was both impressive and misleading.

FaZe remained capable of producing heroic tournament runs, particularly when pressure was highest. But across the calendar, the team was no longer operating like a championship contender. It was operating like a dangerous cup team: unpredictable, emotional and capable of eliminating anyone, but incapable of sustaining its level.

Four LAN finals, two of them at Majors, made 2024 appear healthier than it actually was. The harsher statistic was that FaZe converted all of that opportunity into only one trophy. :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}

## Karrigan kept changing pieces, but the picture remained broken

When ropz departed at the end of 2024, FaZe signed Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski. Once again, the logic was understandable. EliGE had averaged a 1.17 LAN rating during 2024 and offered the aggression that FaZe’s increasingly passive setup lacked. :contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}

The move did not restore FaZe.

They opened 2025 with a 9th-16th finish at BLAST Bounty, then placed 7th-8th at IEM Katowice, fourth at PGL Cluj-Napoca, 9th-12th at BLAST Open Lisbon, third at PGL Bucharest and 7th-8th at IEM Melbourne. There were occasional deep runs, but no sense that FaZe had rediscovered a stable identity. :contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}

The changes became increasingly desperate.

Broky was benched and Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev was brought in for IEM Dallas and the Austin Major. FaZe placed 9th-12th in Dallas and reached the Austin quarter-finals before broky was restored to the lineup only two months after being removed. :contentReference[oaicite:6]{index=6}

EliGE was then replaced by the inexperienced Jakub “jcobbb” Pietruszewski. Shortly afterwards, Twistzz returned and rain, the longest-serving player in FaZe’s history, was moved to the bench. By that point, FaZe were no longer carefully refining a proven championship structure. They were searching for any combination that might keep it alive. :contentReference[oaicite:7]{index=7}

The Budapest Major provided one final explosion of FaZe magic. After flirting with elimination in Stage 1, they fought all the way to the grand final before losing 3-1 to Vitality. It was a wonderful run, but FaZe ended 2025 without a trophy. The Major proved that karrigan could still inspire an extraordinary two weeks. It did not prove that the team had been fixed. :contentReference[oaicite:8]{index=8}

The beginning of 2026 exposed the difference.

FaZe exited BLAST Bounty in 17th-32nd, finished 9th-12th at IEM Kraków, 12th-14th at both PGL Cluj-Napoca and ESL Pro League, and 13th-16th at BLAST Open Rotterdam. By the time NEO was removed as coach in March, FaZe had a 3-9 series record for the year and had been eliminated in the group stage of every 2026 tournament they had attended. :contentReference[oaicite:9]{index=9}

Then came the lowest point: FaZe failed to qualify for the Cologne Major after losing the HLC Belgrade PRO final to BIG. It was the first Major FaZe had missed since entering Counter-Strike in 2016. :contentReference[oaicite:10]{index=10}

Karrigan had spent more than two years trying to repair the team. He changed stars, redistributed roles, removed an AWPer, restored that AWPer, introduced a rookie and welcomed Twistzz back. Yet the overall trajectory continued to point downwards.

In April 2026, his second FaZe tenure finally ended. :contentReference[oaicite:11]{index=11}

## Twistzz did not inherit a team. He accepted a rebuild

Twistzz’s first matches as FaZe’s new captain did not immediately suggest a miraculous recovery.

Ryan “Neityu” Aubry arrived as a stand-in, while Niclas “enkay J” Krumhorn replaced NEO as head coach. FaZe lost Twistzz’s IGL debut 2-0 to NAVI at BLAST Rivals and later finished 9th-12th at IEM Atlanta, where they were comfortably beaten by paiN before being eliminated by Vitality. :contentReference[oaicite:12]{index=12}

But there was a significant difference in how the new leadership responded.

Twistzz did not pretend that the existing roster merely needed more time. Enkay J did not protect players because of what they had achieved three years earlier. When FaZe concluded that broky was no longer the right AWPer, they made another change, this time bringing in 21-year-old BIG Academy prospect Jason “JBOEN” Boe Nielsen.

Enkay J later described replacing broky as emotionally difficult but “inevitable.” That word matters. The previous FaZe repeatedly delayed difficult decisions, reversed them or attempted to work around them. The new leadership accepted that sentiment could not be allowed to overrule structure. :contentReference[oaicite:13]{index=13}

JBOEN was not the biggest available name. Neityu was not introduced as a superstar. Jcobbb had already struggled during FaZe’s decline. Yet together, these players gave Twistzz something the previous lineup had gradually lost: energy, role flexibility and a willingness to build new habits rather than reproduce old ones.

Twistzz has also spoken openly about his working relationship with enkay J. The two discuss the game even on off-days, share responsibility for developing T sides and encourage players to contribute ideas within their own positions. Twistzz described the coach as insightful, reflective and productive, while saying that having someone actively helping him improve as a leader had been essential. :contentReference[oaicite:14]{index=14}

That is not a cosmetic coaching change. It is a functioning leadership partnership.

Karrigan’s late FaZe increasingly appeared dependent on his ability to improvise solutions during matches. Twistzz and enkay J are attempting to create an environment in which the entire team understands why a solution works.

## The results are beginning to look repeatable

The sample size remains limited, but the early pattern is difficult to ignore.

Since Twistzz took over the leadership, FaZe have finished 3rd-4th at BLAST Rivals, 9th-12th at IEM Atlanta, third at Stake Ranked Episode 2, 3rd-4th at XSE Pro League Guangzhou and have now secured at least another 3rd-4th finish at BLAST Bounty Season 2.

That is four top-four finishes in five events under Twistzz. :contentReference[oaicite:15]{index=15}

The improvement became more pronounced after JBOEN joined. FaZe’s current five-man lineup recorded 16 map wins and nine losses across its first 25 maps, a 64% win rate, while collecting two LAN top-three finishes. By comparison, the final karrigan-led lineup featuring Twistzz played exactly 100 maps and finished with a perfectly even 50-50 record.

Twenty-five maps cannot outweigh 100, and FaZe have not yet proved themselves against the strongest teams over an entire season. But recovery is first measured through direction. One lineup was stagnating across a large sample. The other is improving across a smaller one.

Their BLAST Bounty quarter-final against The MongolZ captured that change perfectly.

FaZe fell 12-3 behind on Nuke and appeared destined to surrender the opening map. Instead, they won 13 consecutive rounds, stole the map 16-12 and eventually took the series 2-1. JBOEN led FaZe with a 1.16 rating, while every player contributed during the comeback and the Ancient decider.

Old FaZe produced comebacks through chaos and individual heroism. This one felt different. It involved composure, defensive adaptation and contributions from the entire roster. Even with Twistzz ending the series on a 0.97 rating, FaZe still found enough collective impact to win.

That is what a functioning team is supposed to do.

## Why Twistzz has repaired FaZe more effectively

Karrigan spent his final years trying to preserve FaZe’s championship identity while exchanging individual pieces around it. The underlying assumption was that the system still worked and that the right player, role adjustment or burst of confidence could restart it.

Twistzz appears to have accepted a harsher reality: that version of FaZe was already dead.

Rain was gone. Ropz was gone. Broky eventually had to go. NEO was replaced. Karrigan himself departed. Rather than chase another reunion or another established superstar, FaZe handed meaningful responsibility to Neityu, jcobbb and JBOEN.

The new team is not trying to imitate the 2022 Major champions. It is trying to become something that can survive in 2026.

Twistzz has helped by establishing three things that had disappeared from FaZe.

First, accountability. When the team communicated poorly in Atlanta, he publicly called the performance abysmal rather than hiding behind the project’s age,

Second, collaboration. He is building the tactical structure alongside enkay J instead of functioning as a lone authority.

Third, decisiveness. When the first roster version remained limited, FaZe changed the AWPer and committed to a younger lineup rather than waiting for another miraculous Major run to validate the old core.

This does not prove that Twistzz is a better all-time leader than karrigan. It proves that, in this particular moment, he understood the assignment better.

FaZe did not need another magician desperately reaching into an empty hat. They needed someone willing to admit that the old tricks had stopped working.

## FaZe have their heartbeat back

Karrigan built the greatest team in FaZe’s history. No difficult final chapter can erase Antwerp, Cologne, Katowice or the Intel Grand Slam. His contribution to the organisation is far greater than anything Twistzz has achieved as its captain so far.

But rebuilding a dynasty and extending one are different challenges.

Karrigan kept trying to revive the old FaZe. Twistzz has started constructing a new one.

There is still a long road ahead. FaZe need trophies. They need to prove that this consistency can survive against teams such as Vitality, Spirit and NAVI. They also need certainty around Neityu’s future and Twistzz’s permanent status as the in-game leader.

For now, though, FaZe are making playoffs again. Young players are improving instead of shrinking. Deficits no longer automatically become defeats. One poor performance no longer seems capable of destroying an entire season.

The most encouraging sign is not that FaZe can still produce magic. It is that they are beginning to win without needing magic at all.

Karrigan gave FaZe their greatest era.

Twistzz may have finally saved them from spending the rest of their existence trying to recreate it.