Niko hits back at FaZe Clan haters after ESL One Cologne elimination
ESL
After an 0-2 loss to Team Vitality in the second round of the Lower Bracket in the ESL Cologne EU bracket, CSGO fans were directing their displeasure about the team on social media. The mounting furor was directed at many FaZe players, but largely aimed at newcomer Markus ‘Kjaerbye’ Kjærbye.
While players usually work off critiques and typically welcome feedback to build upon, there was a wave of comments that didn’t sit too well with the in-game leader.
“Enough with the hate on my team and Kjaerbye,” NiKo said. “We had 5 days of practice and we nearly won against the number two team in the world who has been bootcamping over two weeks.”
Enough with the hate on my team and @KjaerbyeCS, we had 5 days of practice and we nearly won against nr 2. team in the world who has been bootcamping over 2 weeks. Give us some time to work on our mistakes before judging, we are doing everything we can to improve asap. #FaZeUp
— NiKo (@fazeniko) August 26, 2020
The best of three was one of the day’s best matchups with both teams unrelenting on either side of the map. On FaZe’s map pick of Dust 2 in Game 1, it was a game of CT sides as both teams commanded the defensive side to take it to overtime.
It’s there where the French team were able to pull away with a 4-1 scoreline in OT after FaZe came back down 7-15 in regulation. That ultimately put FaZe in a dire predicament for Game 2 as they faced Vitality on their map pick of Nuke, where they’ve won 53 times of the 85 total matches played in their team’s history.
There were many reactions to FaZe’s performance, particularly to the moments in which they had man-advantages just to concede the round, failed to trade kills at pivotal moments, or gave up early picks to Vitality.
Separately from NiKo’s comment’s, coach Janko ‘YNk’ Paunović also said that the team still had “some rust from the vacation which showed in an embarrassing amount of rounds lost where we had a numbers advantage.”
Lost 2-0 to Vitality, gg's! Still having some rust from the vacation which showed in an embarrassing amount of rounds lost where we had a numbers advantage…
Straight back to work, EPL starts next week and we WILL do better, thanks to everyone who cheered for us! #FaZeUp #IDEMO
— Janko Paunovic (@YNk) August 26, 2020
Regardless, it was clear that NiKo wasn’t ready to roll over with what was being said about his team.
As FaZe prepares for upcoming CSGO events around the corner, there’s going to be more opportunities to prove how far this iteration of the lineup fare with the quality of players it has on the roster.
