rain

Facts about rain

Håvard "rain" Nygaard (born August 27, 1994) is a Norwegian CS:GO player representing FaZe Clan. He is the player that has been on the roster for the longest time, as he has played under the FaZe banner since the beginning. Like many other Scandinavians, his first love was football. An injury in his early career set back the dream, which led him to turn to computer games.

rain has only made it to the HLTV Top 20 Player Rankings twice, placed 4th in 2017 and 18th in 2018. He has always been one of the top-performing players on the FaZe roster, which is one of the reasons of why he still has a place in the roster. rain’s individual CS:GO career peaked at the PGL Major Antwerp 2022, where he won his first Major and took home the MVP medal, destroying everyone that came in his way to try and stop him. The Norwegian has always been overlooked while he has been performing on a consistently high level. His composure and game sense are two of the biggest reasons why he has been performing at that high level.

The early career of rain

rain started his career at partyastronauts back in 2013. Everybody got to start somewhere and this is exactly what rain’s thoughts were when he started his career. He focused on developing his skills and wanted to be the best player that he could be. He transferred from partyastronauts to London Conspiracy in 2014 and attended his first Major with the team. London Conspiracy placed 13th which was okay by a team that didn’t have top-tier players in the roster. The Norwegian played a decent tournament and continued his development in the following years. LGB Esports was his next team as the Norwegian organization picked up the London Conspiracy roster.

rain and his team continued performing good which led him to join his first big organization, Team Kinguin. Team Kinguin was the first international team and rain finally had a chance to show what he was capable of with world-class teammates on the big stage. Many doubted the team, but with hard work and dedication, the team made it work out. After some months, G2’s owner, Carlos, saw huge potential in the roster and bought them. G2 thought that they could beat any team and wanted to prove it to the world.

After a poor run at their first Major together, their IGL, dennis, chose to join the Swedish side Fnatic. The IGL role then fell to rain. But that wasn’t the biggest change for rain as his team was picked up by the American organization, FaZe Clan, not long after.

The Faze era

As the team was transferred to the American organization it wasn’t without any changes. The team was struggling and trying to find the perfect lineup. One thing was certainly not changing, and that was rain. He always stayed on the roster, as the organization knew his abilities to perform on the server no matter what the circumstances were. In 2016 the team wasn’t able to compete with the absolute top teams of the sport. They always fell short when it was time to perform against the best. It wasn’t until ESL One: New York 2017 that the team picked up an S-tier tournament victory. The long-awaited win was enough to push the team to two S-tier tournaments in a row, defeating one of the best teams ever in Astralis in the final of ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2017. Rain performed well and was still a vital part of the team’s success. But then came the Major. The ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 had high expectations for the roster, but they failed to get the victory in the end. In the final, the team lost to the North American side, Cloud9, in a huge upset.

Then came PGL Major Antwerp 2022. FaZe Clan came in as favorites as they were the #1 team in the world, according to the HLTV rankings. And the team delivered. FaZe Clan ended up winning the title with rain playing at his best level ever. After all the hard work through the years with different teammates and organizations, rain finally won a Major trophy. Not only did he win a Major, but he also took home the MVP medal for his outstanding performances.