FaZe came up with a solution to their sub problem in the nick of time after BLAST put them in the red zone.
FaZe Clan have finally managed to find a substitute in Patrick “es3tag” Hansen after their request to replace teammate Håvard “rain” Nygaard with Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke was revoked “overnight” by BLAST ahead of their opening match on Friday. BLAST revealed to HLTV.org that k0nfig’s participation in the tournament as part of FaZe was denied as he was already registered as a sub for Heroic, who were unsure about the timely return of Martin “stavn” Lund.
The ex-Ninjas in Pyjamas and Cloud9 Dane was recruited in a hurry as FaZe had less than a day to come up with a substitute and few options to choose from. Before his recruitment, FaZe were in a serious fix that was seemingly brought about by a lack of proper communication between the team and the tournament’s organizing body.
The stand-in buff is back 😈
Please welcome @es3tag to our roster for BLAST Premier Spring Groups. #FaZeUp pic.twitter.com/8CrE5HNrli
— FaZe Clan (@FaZeClan) January 19, 2023
Meanwhile, rain will be unavailable as he has chosen to be next to his partner for the birth of his child. The CS:GO professional will supposedly be just in time to play at Intel Extreme Masters Katowice at the end of the month, as he confirmed to his fans through a Tweet.
FaZe superstar Russel “Twitstzz” van Dulken Tweeted last night that the team was “Informed for some time now by blast that we could use him, suddenly overnight everything changed.” This hints that BLAST may have approved of this decision before changing their mind at the last second. BLAST told HLTV.org that they had originally permitted this as FaZe only has four players to face their rivals in the upcoming tournament.
Informed for some time now by blast that we could use him, suddenly over night everything changed
— Russel van Dulken (@Twistzz) January 19, 2023
On Wednesday morning, BLAST released that the decision to reject k0nfig was taken after he was found to be registered as a part of Heroic’s roster for the group stages. With BLAST overturning this decision and the tournament very close to starting, FaZe was in an emergency to find a replacement for rain at the eleventh hour, or potentially be forced to forfeit this leg of BLAST’s yearlong competition.
According to multiple sources, FaZe’s request to play at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups with k0nfig has been turned down because the player was registered by another team for the event. https://t.co/Mud8a9yjdo
— Luís Mira (@luismmira) January 19, 2023
FaZe had also put in a request for Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer back in December, but the two-time Major winner let his fans know while on stream that he had no idea that he was registered as a substitute for BLAST, and had other plans for the duration of the tournament.
The organizing body gave free rein to FaZe — who had only four players ready for action — to lock in a substitute who was not registered with another team, and a few hours later, they announced es3tag.
You can catch FaZe’s new roster on January 20, when they go up against American clan Complexity for their first match of the BLAST Premier Spring Groups.
