The post Es3tag to stand in for FaZe Clan at BLAST Premier Spring Groups appeared first on Esport Bet.
]]>The news comes after BLAST didn’t allow the CS:GO organisation to use Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke, due to his being an active player on Heroic’s roster.
That left FaZe with very little time to find a new substitute, and they were lucky that es3tag — currently benched by Ninjas in Pyjamas — lives in Denmark and was able to travel to Copenhagen in time.
Es3tag has played several roles for throughout his Counter-Strike career, including support and primary sniper and rifler, which makes him one of the best candidates to stand-in for FaZe.
The stand-in buff is back
Please welcome @es3tag to our roster for BLAST Premier Spring Groups. #FaZeUp pic.twitter.com/8CrE5HNrli
— FaZe Clan (@FaZeClan) January 19, 2023
However, es3tag is still under contract with Ninjas in Pyjamas, which could still cause headaches for the world number four, with FaZe and NiP having come to an agreement that will see es3tag sit out if the two teams happen to face each other at any stage in the tournament.
With FaZe and NiP drawn in different groups, it is unlikely for the two teams to meet early, but there is a possibility that they could clash in the final stages of the playoffs.
Although FaZe have found their stand-in, there have been some rumbling on social media — especially from one FaZe member, Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken — questioning the legitimacy of the decision made by BLAST to not allow k0nfig to feature for the Danish outfit.
According to Twistzz, the change has been allowed by BLAST “for some time” before “suddenly overnight everything changed”.
Informed for some time now by blast that we could use him, suddenly over night everything changed
— Russel van Dulken (@Twistzz) January 19, 2023
With all of the drama now behind them, FaZe Clan will be very short favourites (-588.24 with BetOnline) when they begin their BLAST Premier Spring Groups campaign against Complexity on Friday at 12pm CET.
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]]>The post Rain to miss BLAST Premier Spring Groups for FaZe Clan appeared first on Esport Bet.
]]>It is the first time the veteran rifler has skipped an S-Tier CS:GO tournament since IEM Katowice 2022 in February of last year.
FAZE CLAN CS:GO UPDATE@FaZe_rainCS is expecting the birth of his child and will not be participating in BLAST Premier Spring Groups. We look forward to him returning to the team as soon as possible!
We will provide further roster news ahead of our opening match on Friday. pic.twitter.com/wLPenkj9B7
— FaZe Clan (@FaZeClan) January 18, 2023
On that occasion, the team won the $500,000 event with the help of stand-in Justin “jks” Savage.
After a strong 2022 season, the Norwegian was named the 13th-best player of 2022 at the HLTV awards last weekend, so his absence leaves a massive hole in the line-up.
To further compound their roster issues, FaZe will also be without their coach, Robert “RobbaN” Dahlstrom, with his return expected to be the next couple of weeks ahead of IEM Katowice in late January.
FaZe have not announced who will replace rain for the BLAST Premier Spring Groups, but there are reports that Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke or Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer could be added to the roster.
However, with k0nfig still being apart of the active roster for Heroic as a stand-in, the move to make him a stand-in for rain has been met with some resistance from other teams involved in the tournament.
At the moment it is unknown whether BLAST will allow k0nfig to play with FaZe, with the rulebook saying that an emergency replacement cannot be “a participant who is active on another roster participating in the tournament”.
It is unclear if k0nfig would be considered “active” as a substitute for Heroic, making this an interesting situation for the events organisers.
BLAST decides whether to allow or deny such a move on a case-by-case basis, and with under 48 hours before FaZe Clan’s first series against Complexity, we expect a decision to made in the next 24 hours.
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]]>The post k0nfig to stand in for Heroic at BLAST Premier World Final appeared first on Esport Bet.
]]>The Danish team has chosen to give stavn more time off this winter break and he will not travel with the rest of the team to Abu Dhabi, UAE, for the final event of the year.
Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke will be replacing Martin “stavn” Lund for the BLAST World Final 2022.
The decision has been made a while ago to give Martin some rest after a long year and a 2023 season where we as a team wish to start our preparation for the year early. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/S5SOm65wa7
— HEROIC (@heroicgg) December 4, 2022
Heroic are willing to risk their no.1 world ranking to give stavn the extra time off and begin their preparations for 2023 early.
K0nfig has not played professional Counter-Strike since his contract was terminated by Astralis in October, after an altercation with a club promoter in Malta that resulted in physical injury was made public.
The 25-year-old stated in November that he was ready to return to action after working with a therapist, and he now has his chance to show what he has got on the world stage at the BLAST Premier World Final.
Heroic will enter the tournament with a lot of momentum behind them after they finished as runners-up at the IEM Rio Major and then won the BLAST Premier Fall Final.
Since the news broke about stavn being rested and k0nfig standing in, Heroic have drifted from +300 favourites to +400 third-favourites with esports betting sites for the BLAST Premier World Final, which will begin on December 14.
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]]>The post CS:GO star k0nfig facing fresh allegations of banned alt account appeared first on Esport Bet.
]]>The Danish Counter-Strike player’s FACEIT account was infiltrated on May 15 by an unknown hacker who then posted on Discord a few words about previous allegations of a VAC ban.
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While there were rumours that k0nfig had suffered a prior suspension to one of his alt accounts, those stayed unconfirmed. Nonetheless, it was claimed by the Dust2.dk website that Valve knew about the banned account in 2015, but did nothing.
It is understood that Valve did not have enough evidence to punish the Dane then; however, with the new information surfacing, the firm may be forced to take action.
The OpTic Gaming star confirmed on Twitter that his FACEIT account had been hacked:
The hacker then claimed k0nfig used the same email and password to log in into the account in question, which previously used names such as “k0nfig” and “kR1ST1AN”. More about that can be found in a Reddit post where the hacker unravelled his findings:
If k0nfig is found to have had any of his accounts suspended, he could face a lifetime ban from CS:GO Majors and other high-profile tournaments.
He is yet to release an official statement on the matter.
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