FaZe rain on pro CS2 in 2025: “There’s way too much oversaturation; its going to be mentally tough”

The downside of this, however, is the worry of oversaturation — something the pros are already believing will happen as soon as next year.

The open calendar gives teams, like Håvard "rain" Nygaard’s FaZe Clan, a little more control in how they’ll approach the competitive season — and they’re making it clear they won’t be picking events solely for prize money.

“We’re playing for glory, we want to play in the greatest events with the greatest stadiums and the most prestige,” rain said to esports.gg. “I think some teams are probably gonna pick smaller events where they have bigger prize pool but you don't get to play on stage, for example.”

The increase in event count allows multiple pathways to earn vital ranking points for Valve’s Majors. With RMRs and qualifiers scrapped in 2025 and beyond, teams will battle across the calendar earning points, with top events featuring the best teams and multi-regional qualifiers.

At the same time, the overwhelming list of events is already playing on rain’s mind. Between the current major tournament organizers (BLAST, ESL, and PGL) as well as the return of StarLadder, multiple top-tier events are already slated each month.

It’s not lost on rain that next year will impact him greatly. Between constant travel, a young family at home, and the already stressful level of competition, he admits staying at his peak won’t be easy. “I think mentally it's gonna be very tough next year,” rain said. “I think there's way too much oversaturation. 

He believes fatigue will stretch beyond the players, too, with some events at risk of flopping viewership-wise due to oversaturation. “It's going to be events on top of events and the viewership I feel is going to drop because some people want to watch this event and others will watch that event.” 

As a result, picking the right events to attend is key — and is something rain fears could play against the open format. “I think there are also some organizations or organizers that are going hand out money or something to certain teams if they stay within their circuit and finishing all those rounds,” rain said. “I don't know if they're trying to make it like ‘Come to us, we have money for the organization,’ it could create like a little bubble for themselves.”

“We haven't really discussed with FaZe how we're gonna do it next year, but we'll take it as it comes.”

There’s more than just prize money and glory on the line for rain and FaZe this week in Singapore at the BLAST Premier World Final. Pundits and analysts believe the roster is on a knife’s edge after eight straight events without a trophy or grand final appearance.

IEM Chengdu, FaZe’s last win, came what feels like an age ago in March. As rain explains, the team has been hard at work righting their wrongs. “I feel like that win [in Chengdu] kind of hurt us a little bit in a way,” rain said. “I feel like we let our guard down a little bit and teams caught up, we didn't really evolve in the right direction.“

The past six months are a stark contrast to how FaZe opened the CS2 era. Rain and FaZe jumped out of the gates at speed, claiming three tournament wins before landing back-to-back second places at the 2023 BLAST Fall and World Finals. 

This all came just months after the addition of David "frozen" Čerňanský who has been stellar for the European outfit despite the almost-barren trophy cabinet. Expectations for FaZe are always high, and rain admits they haven’t met the mark. 

“I think it’s just about finding the groove again,” he explains. “We're still the same guys that reached all the finals so I don't think a lot of it has changed. I think it's more we haven't really figured out a way that makes us comfortable at the moment.”

Up first for FaZe is MOUZ, who shocked the CS2 world in Rio by beating rain and co. for the first time in eight series. Rain wasn’t surprised then at MOUZ’s ferocity and admits it was going to happen sooner or later.

“[MOUZ] finally managed to beat us, but it had to happen at some point, right? It's not like they're a lower end team, they're still at the top and they're a really good team,” rain said.

But the Norwegian rifler says it would be very sweet to get back into the winner’s column against the young MOUZ lineup, and the team has been hard at work ahead of the Singapore event. “We learned from our mistakes there and we want some revenge coming into the tournament.”

Rain and FaZe begin their BLAST World Final campaign on Wednesday, Oct. 30 at 1:30am PT.

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