Finn “karrigan” Andersen has never been known for hiding behind excuses, and his interview with Banks is perhaps the clearest example of that. The Falcons captain offered a brutally honest look at FaZe’s downfall, speaking openly about the team’s internal issues, failed roster decisions, and the personal challenges that made the period even harder to navigate.
For the first time since leaving FaZe and joining Falcons, Finn “karrigan” Andersen openly addressed one of the most difficult periods of his career. In his interview with Banks, he breaks down the mistakes that led to FaZe’s decline, discusses the failed EliGE experiment, the loss of RobbaN, internal dysfunction within the roster, and the personal tragedy he was dealing with behind the scenes.
karrigan is not trying to soften the picture
The main value of this conversation is that karrigan does not try to smooth over the edges. He does not hide behind general wording, and he does not pretend everything broke because of one single reason. On the contrary, his words sketch out an entire chain of problems: overestimating the team’s form after the Major, losing RobbaN, a lack of individual stability, EliGE being a poor fit, and the team’s overall exhaustion.
read more
The Major did not prove FaZe’s strength
After a strong Major run, FaZe could have believed that the team had finally found the right direction. But karrigan now looks back on that stretch far more harshly and admits that the result masked the real problems rather than solving them.
That is why his words about the Major sound so sharp. He literally admits that the successful run gave the team a distorted view of its true level.
It was a Major fluke when you look at it now. Of course, it was a fluke that we went that far. But in the end, you can see that when we connected, we played really well
This sets the tone for the entire interview. karrigan does not deny that FaZe could play great in bursts, but at the same time he says directly that the deep run did not erase the systemic problems that later exploded after the tournament.
Losing RobbaN was the first serious blow
karrigan also explains very clearly that one of the first truly painful moments for FaZe was RobbaN’s departure. For him, it was not just a staff change, but the loss of the person who kept the right balance inside the team and understood Finn himself extremely well.
This part of the interview shows just how much impact RobbaN had not only on the overall atmosphere, but also on the captain’s daily work. karrigan effectively calls him the best coach of his career.
The first part that was worrying was that we lost RobbaN and that I lost a really good coach — the best coach I’ve had to this day. Not because he was totally controlling the game. We just had these perfect roles between us
After that, FaZe could still survive on momentum, but this was the first real crack, at least in karrigan’s eyes. From that point on, every new problem landed on a much less stable structure.
FaZe did not have a superstar who could save everything alone
Another very important segment is his explanation of why FaZe struggled so much during bad stretches. In karrigan’s view, the team had never been built around one monstrous carry player, but around synergy and the proper distribution of roles.
And when several players lost form at the same time, that model started to fall apart. Because unlike Spirit or Vitality, FaZe did not have a constant safety rope in the form of one superstar who could almost single-handedly carry series.
In that FaZe team, we never had a superstar. We never had a super carry. So when we had rough games where nobody could shine, it was very hard for our team. It had to be team cohesion that made us win
That is, in essence, the short explanation for the whole decline. When the team structure worked, FaZe remained dangerous. But once the drop-offs started in roles, form, and communication, there was nobody to compensate for it individually.
EliGE turned out to be a strong player, but not a fit for FaZe
The EliGE topic is addressed without unnecessary drama, but very directly. karrigan does not say the problem was only one player, but he does admit that over time it became obvious the fit was not working the way FaZe had hoped.
And this is not only about roles or playstyle, but about something much broader — how the sacrifices made by different players did not produce the needed result. The team gave a lot, but it did not lead to trophies.
What stopped everything was that everybody sacrificed a bit for EliGE, and then EliGE felt he sacrificed something. In the end, everybody sacrificed. The conclusion is that we just didn’t mesh with EliGE
This is probably one of the harshest and at the same time most honest lines in the entire conversation. It does not place all the blame on one side, but it very clearly captures the main point: the EliGE project did not come together in the long run.
Replacing broky with s1mple was a sign of total chaos
karrigan also devotes a separate section to the decision to bench broky and temporarily bring in s1mple. And here he does not speak like someone who had everything under control, but like a captain who had already realized the team had reached the point where simple answers no longer existed.
His words make it clear that this was not some genius reinvention of FaZe, but more of a desperate move, when everything inside had already started to fall apart and something had to change.
The team started being hostile with each other. You could feel that the foundation of the team was breaking apart. There was complete dysfunction within the team
After that, karrigan reinforces the picture with another line: “There is something full dysfunction in the team… all the foundation is gone.” That is why he presents the broky and s1mple situation not as an isolated sensation, but as a symptom of the broader collapse of the system.
Personal tragedy broke FaZe’s leader
The strongest part of the interview is personal. karrigan talks about his brother’s death, about how Counter-Strike once again became a way for him to shut the pain off, at least for a while, and how all of that overlapped with FaZe’s internal crisis.
At this point, it is no longer about maps, roles, or transfers. It is about the state of a person who, at one moment, had to be both the support for his family and the captain of a team, while internally barely holding together himself.
The reason I got into Counter-Strike was that I had depression when I was younger, and Counter-Strike became my getaway. Once I got into practice, everything went away. But the moment practice was done, I started crying on the couch
An even more painful line from that same part is: “Without her, I would probably quit.” It shows very clearly just how critical his wife’s support was at that moment, and how close he truly came to the edge.
read more
The hardest personal period
The first part of karrigan’s interview with Banks turned out to be much more than just a conversation about FaZe’s failed season. It is a far harsher and more honest story about how the team gradually lost its internal cohesion, while its captain was simultaneously going through the hardest personal period he had faced in many years.
