It is the first time the veteran rifler has skipped an S-Tier CS:GO tournament since IEM Katowice 2022 in February of last year.

FAZE CLAN CS:GO UPDATE@FaZe_rainCS is expecting the birth of his child and will not be participating in BLAST Premier Spring Groups. We look forward to him returning to the team as soon as possible!

We will provide further roster news ahead of our opening match on Friday. pic.twitter.com/wLPenkj9B7

— FaZe Clan (@FaZeClan) January 18, 2023

On that occasion, the team won the $500,000 event with the help of stand-in Justin “jks” Savage.

After a strong 2022 season, the Norwegian was named the 13th-best player of 2022 at the HLTV awards last weekend, so his absence leaves a massive hole in the line-up.

To further compound their roster issues, FaZe will also be without their coach, Robert “RobbaN” Dahlstrom, with his return expected to be the next couple of weeks ahead of IEM Katowice in late January.

FaZe have not announced who will replace rain for the BLAST Premier Spring Groups, but there are reports that Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke or Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer could be added to the roster.

However, with k0nfig still being apart of the active roster for Heroic as a stand-in, the move to make him a stand-in for rain has been met with some resistance from other teams involved in the tournament.

At the moment it is unknown whether BLAST will allow k0nfig to play with FaZe, with the rulebook saying that an emergency replacement cannot be “a participant who is active on another roster participating in the tournament”.

It is unclear if k0nfig would be considered “active” as a substitute for Heroic, making this an interesting situation for the events organisers.

BLAST decides whether to allow or deny such a move on a case-by-case basis, and with under 48 hours before FaZe Clan’s first series against Complexity, we expect a decision to made in the next 24 hours.

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The two-time CS:GO Major champion revealed that he had lost the desire to continue playing at the highest level and needed some time off to recharge his batteries and rediscover his love of competitive esports.

“I have decided to take a break from Counter-Strike. During the last period, I have felt increasingly fatigued and that I have been losing motivation needed to do myself, my teammates and the FaZe brand justice,” said olofmeister.

“I still love the game and the scene but I need to regain my motivation. I am going to take some time off to recuperate and think about my future.”

The announcement comes shortly after FaZe concluded their venture through ESL One: Road to Rio – Europe, where they finished third behind G2 Esports and Astralis. Olofmeister put up below-average showings throughout the tournament, which was an extension of his struggles through ESL Pro League Season 11: Europe.

Across the last 52 maps played, the 28-year-old Swedish veteran averaged a poor 0.90 rating. That is a far cry from his 1.04 average since joining FaZe in August 2017.

This marks Olofmeister’s second departure from FaZe’s active roster. He took a personal leave of absence in April 2018 and remained inactive for over three months, missing out on five LAN events. FaZe’s roster uncertainties during that period led to the departure of their star in-game leader, Finn “karrigan” Andersen, who left for Team Envy and later joined mousesports.

While it is still unclear who will take over for olofmeister, there have been reports suggesting FaZe are in talks with Aurimas “Bymas” Pipiras. The 16-year-old Lithuanian pro is a relative unknown whose career-best achievements to date are gold medals at Baltic Masters Season 3 and ESL Italia Championship: Spring 2020, but his efforts have caught the attention of Nikola “NiKo” Kova?.

“There’s this guy Bymas from FPL who really surprised me,” said FaZe Clan’s IGL.

“I watched him a couple of times and I think he’s pretty good and a pretty versatile player. He’s not going to be in the Top 20 next year, but I believe he’s going to be a big thing. I believe he has the potential to make it to the top and do some good things.”

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