FaZe falter in debut without rain

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 14/10/2025

FaZe have fallen into the lower bracket of the CS Asia Championships 2025 after a defeat to FUT in Shanghai.

The loss puts FaZe into the lower bracket, where they will face the longest possible road to playoffs, starting against another Ukrainian core in B8.

How FaZe vs FUT played out

Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen’s men looked in complete control after a 9-3 CT-side in the best of 1 contest on Mirage.

The international roster shut down FUT’s T-side to take control of the match behind 13/5 and 12/7 performances from FaZe’s now main rifling duo of Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken and David ‘frozen’ Čerňanský, respectively.

It seemed that the contest would be simple for FaZe, now playing with their permanent roster, after the benching of Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard in favour of keeping young gun Jakub ‘jcobbb’ Pietruszewski in the active roster.

After losing their T-side pistol round and the conversion, FaZe once again looked in control as they converted Deagle half-buy, and the following round to take an 11-5 lead.

That would be the last round FaZe would win in the contest.

FUT, the core of the former NaVi Junior roster, won retake after retake, until FaZe’s rounds devolved into not even getting the plant to be retaken.

Only 18-year-old Dmytro ‘dem0n’ Myroshnychenko starred on FUT’s T-side, but the young roster were faultless to a man on the CT-side, with each player having moments of huge impact.

FaZe seemed out of ideas as a tepid 11-11 round gave away a map and match point.

FUT converted the opportunity to advance to their top bracket contest against Heroic.

Remaining in the top bracket is key for the six-team playoff event, as only one playoff spot is available in the lower bracket whereas both upper finalists will advance.

For FaZe, they must now walk that long path, starting with B8 in their next Bo3 contest.

Should FaZe fans be worried?

There is no reason to panic after a single Bo1 contest, following an extremely quick turnaround from FaZe’s fourth place finish as ESL Pro League.

The loss does, however, highlight interesting dynamics in FaZe’s new roster.

Now missing their 10-year veteran, FaZe now face very different dynamics in their T-sides, which were highlighted today.

rain has long been a sacrificial piece in FaZe’s game plan, capable of selflessly taking space and doing the dirty work.

While FaZe undoubtedly have more firepower with Twistzz, the challenge will be balancing those who want to trade against the need to take space and threaten across the map.

Were FaZe’s struggles to get space on Mirage a result of missing rain? That is perhaps presumptuous.

The truth will be revealed in patterns and repetition as karrigan embarks on his first roster without rain since returning from mousesports in 2021.

karrigan will look to their young addition in jcobbb for entry duties, and will hope that he can do that work.

In interview with ENUK, karrigan was quick to praise jcobbb’s selflessness, which perhaps can be the long-term balm to rain’s absence.

karrigan stated, “He has the aim and the explosion of a Twistzz, but he has the soldier mentality of a rain”

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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