Finn “karrigan” Andersen just lived through the worst stretch of his 20-year career. And he knows it.

Speaking to HLTV after FaZe’s 0-2 elimination by Inner Circle at PGL Bucharest, the 35-year-old Danish IGL delivered one of the rawest, most unfiltered interviews a Tier 1 player has ever given. No media training. No deflection. Just a man staring at the wreckage of a season and wondering if he can survive it.

“It’s one that’s going to put a scar in me, and that’s gonna be a scar I try to heal, or it’s gonna break me.”

That’s not hyperbole. That’s a player genuinely unsure if he has another chapter left.

FaZe’s Cologne Major Miss: The Full Picture

Let’s put this in context. FaZe Clan have attended every single Major since entering Counter-Strike in 2016. They made playoffs at seven of the last eight. Three months ago, this same roster was playing Vitality in the Budapest Major grand final. Now they’re out of the IEM Cologne Major entirely, and it’s not even close to debatable whether they deserve to be.

karrigan didn’t sugarcoat it.

“I think we played shit all season. I don’t think it’s something that is very surprising that suddenly there are cracks shown, I think there’s been cracks showing the whole season since the Major run.”

The numbers are brutal. 12th-14th at PGL Cluj-Napoca. 9th-12th at IEM Kraków. 13th-16th at BLAST Open Rotterdam, where they lost to TYLOO. Then the final indignity: signing up for HLC Belgrade PRO, a $30K event, as a last-ditch attempt to scrape together enough VRS points. They made the grand final. Lost to BIG 1-2. Got 3-13’d on Anubis. Season over.

The Bucharest showing was a formality at that point. FaZe forfeited their first two Swiss matches while in Belgrade, showed up 0-2, and got swept by Inner Circle, a team ranked 42 spots below them. They dropped 23 Valve points and fell out of the top 30 in global VRS.

“Playing this game was literally impossible,” karrigan said. “We showed up as professionals but we did not show up as a team.”

The Confidence Virus

The most telling part of the interview wasn’t about strategy or map picks. It was about psychology.

karrigan described FaZe’s collapse as something closer to a contagion than a tactical failure. Individual confidence cracked, and once it started spreading, nothing could stop it.

“With these team performances individuals are going to have confidence cracks. It’s spreading, it’s a virus everywhere.”

He singled out frozen as the only player who maintained his level. Everyone else, karrigan included, has been “subpar and nowhere near where minimum expectations for the players are.”

There’s a fascinating detail buried in the interview: FaZe have been good in practice all season. In scrims, it works. On stage, it collapses.

“The most frustrating thing is how good we do in practice and how bad we do in officials. I have never been in a team like this. All my past teams have been bad in practice and good in officials, and here it’s the opposite way.”

That’s a textbook confidence problem. The skill is there. The execution isn’t. And karrigan, one of the greatest IGLs to ever touch the game, can’t fix it with calls alone when his players aren’t converting.

karrigan’s Future in CS2 Is an Open Question

Here’s where the interview went from candid to genuinely shocking. karrigan, a man who has played professional Counter-Strike since 2006, who won the PGL Antwerp Major at 32, who has over 2,600 maps on his HLTV profile, openly discussed stepping down.

“I have also told FaZe that if I need to step down, I’m ready to do that. I just want FaZe back at the top, with or without me.”

He turns 36 next week. The 0.89 rating this season is the lowest of his career. And while karrigan has always been the first to say his individual stats don’t matter, there’s only so long you can run a team where the IGL’s firepower is a genuine liability.

But this isn’t as simple as “old player should retire.” karrigan’s calling wasn’t the problem in Belgrade. His players collapsed around him. broky, a top-20 player in 2024, is now rating lower than most IGLs. Twistzz has flashes but can’t sustain. jcobbb looks like a raw prospect who needed more time in a system that no longer has time to give.

The NEO firing a few weeks before the end of the season didn’t help, either. karrigan called it “a signal to the team that there are a few months left for people to step up.” They didn’t.

What Happens Now

FaZe have two events left: BLAST Rivals (April 29) and IEM Atlanta (May 11). Both are critical for VRS positioning, but at this point, they’re playing for next season’s seeding, not this season’s glory.

The roster question looms. karrigan’s offered himself up. frozen is the only untouchable. broky’s decline is alarming. Twistzz is 26 with a skillset that belongs on a contender. jcobbb might need a lower-pressure environment to develop.

karrigan closed the interview with something that stuck.

“Social media hasn’t been fun lately. I know a lot of hate is going to come our way again. In the end we are humans as well, and you can feel the last few days that we are not being treated like humans.”

Twenty years of professional Counter-Strike. A Major title. Fifteen hundred matches. And it might end like this: in a half-empty arena in Bucharest, after losing to a team ranked 42 spots below you, with the internet calling for your head.

karrigan deserves better than that. Whether FaZe can give it to him is another question entirely.