The legendary in-game leader publicly doubled down on the FaZe Clan that made the Starladder Budapest Major final, only to fail to make the next one in humiliating fashion.
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
The move from Falcons to get karrigan out of a sinking ship has one word written all over it: gamble. The Saudi Arabian organization with massive ambitions and funding behind it has put it all on the legendary Danish IGL to try and give Falcons the extra push they need to win tournaments.
The community is split two ways: they either believe that karrigan can still deliver the calling he’s known for, or that he is still well past his prime.
But it’s easy to forget that players are not binary robots joining the server, but people with doubts, fears and “scars“, as karrigan said himself to HLTV. FaZe Clan was, to some extent, karrigan’s project, which he was responsible for. And it crashed out in the most brutal way possible.
The most pyrrhic ‘victory’ of all time: FaZe Clan’s Budapest Major Run
FaZe Clan’s Major run should have ended in Stage 1 with a smoke defuse by Red Canids. Instead, they were in the Major final after three grueling weeks. After losing convincingly in the end, karrigan said this:
Hopefully no changes.
Karrigan got exactly what he wanted. No roster changes, with the inexperienced jcobbb and the inconsistent broky still in the ranks of FaZe. Even their coach, NEO, remained after a weak 2025.
FaZe’s record in series on LAN in 2026 was 7 wins and 11 losses, which seems mediocre, until you see the teams. Those seven wins were against BC.Game, HEROIC, aimclub, BEE, Drama, CYBERSHOKE and Illwill. They had zero wins against any team above rank #22 on HLTV.
They failed to make the final of Digital Crusade DracuLAN, despite karrigan himself calling the tournament the equivalent of a “barfight”. FaZe got knocked out just after a single beer.
Then, at HLC Belgrade Pro, they gave themselves a “last-ditch opportunity” to get to the Major by essentially forfeiting a different tournament, gifting golden VRS points. They made it to the final in Belgrade, won their map pick 13-3 against BIG, only to be bested in the next two.
jcobbb and broky were the two lowest-rated players on FaZe in that series, the former the lowest on the server. jcobbb was supposed to be the talent that karrigan was working to develop.
Calling the 2026 a colossal failure is an understatement by karrigan’s standards. “It can’t get worse from here” was FaZe’s mantra throughout, only finding themselves deeper in the hole each time.
A scar that may not heal
Despite people wanting to believe in karrigan, and for good reason given his stature, there are some wounds which are too difficult to heal.
In early 2025, it seemed that FaZe was only one or two roster moves away from challenging again. The BLAST Austin Major in 2025 gave fans hope, with s1mple reigniting the FaZe banner. Since then, FaZe has only ‘zigged’ where they should have ‘zagged’. Each time, the hole only grew deeper.
It is still very much in doubt whether karrigan can dig himself out of that hole. His ability to call under the highest pressure is the best we’ve ever seen, but it’s been since at least 2024 that we’ve seen that. His calling at the Budapest Major left one ambivalent, as FaZe was carried by strong CT sides.
It’s naive to assume that a mind can bring itself back to its unburdened state, especially after such a “scar” has built up over one and a half years of failing on FaZe. Again, the only thing that’s constant is change.
However, if we have seen any captain build himself up from nothing again, it is the Dane. He recovered from being left behind in Envy, North America’s most forgettable project, to winning a Major a couple of years later.
The biggest expectations with the shortest of time
We’ve seen players like cadiaN drop into irrelevancy and build himself back up. But it takes time – which karrigan doesn’t have. He has two tournaments on Falcons before the IEM Cologne Major: PGL Astana and CS Asia Championships. Two tournaments before the tournament that may decide how we remember karrigan.
And it’s not an easy task either. He has to get a team of gifted superstars to work together when they never have before – with the looming shadow of NiKo and zonic behind him, two authority figures who previously decided he was not good enough.
The pressure of Falcons is no joke, as TeSeS himself told Pley.gg. Add to that potentially the greatest team threat that has ever existed in Counter-Strike: 2026 Team Vitality.
Karrigan is the greatest showman CS has ever seen – only when it seems impossible does he pull the magic out. At IEM Katowice 2022, he took out a superteam with NiKo and m0NESY firing with a ragtag squad. But just as it was naive to write off karrigan after being removed from TSM, which later became Astralis, it is also naive to assume he can be the one from 2022.
Conclusion: elation or disappointment with no in-between
In classic karrigan fashion, he has given himself no space or time to let himself work.
Like he made it work when he was given jks instead of ropz and then rain in 2022, he has thrown himself at the biggest challenge in Counter-Strike esports in Falcons, with no time to rest or prepare after the greatest failure of his career.
The expectation to win is unreasonable, maybe even insane, but that is the karrigan we want in CS. The one who will risk it all, even his legacy, for the small chance to make the greatest highlights. “The most entertaining team in Counter-Strike history” would not have been possible without karrigan.
