FaZe rain at IEM Cologne: “After losing to NIP, I told myself I need to step up individually”

Counter-Strike

August 16, 2024

Bruno Sobieraj

After a long and strenuous lower bracket run at IEM Cologne 2024, fighting against all odds, FaZe have somehow managed to make it into the playoffs, where they’ll be facing the surprise team of the competition – SAW. We got to speak with Havard “rain” Nygaard ahead of the game.

Bruno: Congrats on getting to the playoffs. It wasn’t easy – yesterday against Liquid it was a tough game.

Credit: Helena Kristiansson | © ESL

What happened during that game?

rain: I think overall we felt very in control. Coming into Inferno and Nuke as well we were very in control. Going up 12-9 on the CT side and they didn’t even have a good buy and we had a read on the situation. And three on five, they just rush ramp, we have two guys there and the game is technically over there in my eyes. I’m already like ok, it’s a wrap. We have two holding for the bait setup and everything.

We managed to lose the round and then we go into Mirage and we just get stopped on our T-side.

Everything we did, everything we called just didn’t work. They seemed like they were four people everywhere where we were going. So, it was a very tough Mirage. The only thing that, when we switched over to the CT-side we were just laughing. And I just remember like “Oh my god, this game was supposed to be over, we were supposed to have 2-0 and be chilling in the hotel right now”. But we’re here and we just said fuck it and let’s just play the game and if we start rolling on the CT-side.

It’s Twistzz first really big event where he’s calling, so it can get really tough. Especially, he knows us as well, he knows our mentality and when we start rolling it’s gonna be very hard for opponents.

And did you have any extra motivation given that Liquid is basically Twistzz team, to beat him specifically?

rain: No, not really. It doesn’t really matter about other teams. I think it was just more about getting to the playoffs. It doesn’t really matter if it Twistzz at the end of the server.

Bruno: Afterwards on the desk karrigan said that he’s been micro managing more this tournament.

Why is that and do you think that’s the way forward or just a one time thing?

rain: I think there’s a mix between micro managing and making sure we don’t waste a lot of utility on the T-side. That’s a problem we’ve had in the past where people throw grenades and utility without really a purpose. And it ends up with karrigan having to call like a miracle round with a smoke and a flash only, right? On T-side it’s impossible. So he’s trying to control it a bit more.

For us at the same time, his calls are more intuition based I feel like, how he’s reading the game. It’s not like we’re playing the game and looking at the playbook only, right? Now it’s more about figuring out what the opponents are doing and going from there.

Do you think that’s the way forward to have karrigan have more control over the rounds to get back to your best?

rain: I think so. I think for now it’s the way to go and I think it’s working out with our players.

Bruno: You’ve been playing really well individually this tournament as well.

Credit: FaZe Clan

Is it down to the fact that’s it’s Cologne and you have that extra kick to play well or are you doing something different?

rain: I think it’s a little bit of both. After losing to NIP, I told myself I need to step up individually. I can’t be slacking behind, I need to do better. So I have a thing I do every night before sleep. I have such ritual that I’m doing this week and I feel like it’s helping out my confidence and movement and everything like that, so it’s been going good.

Bruno: In your first game on the stage you’re playing SAW, who beat G2 and TheMongolz.

What do you think about that matchup? Have you played them in scrims?

rain: We played them in scrims, we also played them last month on BLAST… Not last month, three months ago, two months ago. So we have some experience with them and we’ve had a really close game with them before. So it’s gonna be a tough game and the Counter-Strike they played versus G2 as well was great, especially with G2, how they are playing now and SAW is the only one that’s beat them, right? We have to show them respect and just play our game.

Bruno: Let’s say you get to the final.

Would G2 be your dream matchup?

rain: Nah, I wanna play NAVI. They took a trophy away from us, they took BLAST away from us, they took a lot of things away from us recently, so we’ve got some revenge to do there.

Lastly, what is your favorite IEM Cologne moment?

rain: There’s a mix. Winning in 2022 is of course gonna be the highest one. But, at the same time, going on the stage here in 2015 with Kinguin and getting to the stage with the first international lineup. Being there is also something I’ll remember forever.

Bruno: Thank you and good luck.