Last weekend, karrigan once again had us all by the heartstrings. In his first outing with Falcons at PGL Astana, as always, the man found a way to keep us on the edge of our seats the entire tournament long. Firstly with the Falcons’ group stage loss to a well playing 9z, which successfully piqued a healthy dose of naturally instinctive doubt. Just like that, you’re hooked! Then the 8-4 to overtime comeback on a Mirage decider to secure the playoffs berth over Mongolz and la crème de la crème; an all-time center stage instant classic versus a recently impressive FURIA that will undeniably contend for match of the year.
In part because of the fantastic crowd in Kazakhstan, but mostly due to the obscene spectacle inside the server, we were blessed with a slice of magnificently entertaining Counter-Strike. By the end of the weekend, it would feel like expectations fell upon the Falcons despite them only having 8 days of practice. A glorious sequence of success for a notorious team that wants nothing more than to bask in the bright lights again, holding trophies over their heads. Right on queue, that’s exactly where they would fall short.
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Regardless of wherever Counter-Strike is played, karrigan forever remains a fan favourite. Every arena he steps into rings out with man made ambulance sirens. Each playoff match he competes in, an eruption of applause. Hell, even at the StarLadder Budapest Major with a native local sitting across from FaZe Clan. It took karrigan seconds to find himself winning over favour with what we expected to be the first MOUZ court advantage. Why? Because Finn Andersen’s Counter-Strike career, and therefore his life’s journey, is decorated with unwavering commitment to realizing a dream he’s held onto for decades. He visibly gives his everything in the face of constant emotional defeat. There’s no human being on this planet that understands the weight of a Counter-Strike loss quite like karrigan. And for this reason, he is the people’s champion.
His reputation as an in-game leader capable of weaponizing star players, reinvigorating exhausted rosters, and squeezing every key moment out of the most important matches are all valuable selling points for a transfer to history’s most expensive – and scrutinized – Counter-Strike project. With one event played in white and green, the seemingly real possibility that karrigan actualizes the potential of the Falcons, and by extension, capstones his career with another period of success is right in front of us. As a romantic, I can’t help but hope that we are on the brink of karrigan’s final, and finest, chapter.
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On the other hand, stacked up against that dream, exists an accumulation of grueling losses capable of fueling nightmares long into his retirement. I’d like to revisit karrigan’s numerous soul-crushing heartbreaks to pay respect to the man who always stands directly next to greatness. Ultimately, allowing us to approach the Falcons’ Cologne campaign with a renewed expectation for the deviously tempting thought of karrigan doing the impossible. One. More. Time.
If there is one match that follows karrigan everywhere, it has to be the Grand Finals of the ELEAGUE Boston Major. At the time, karrigan was a maestro weaving through the server and FaZe Clan looked unstoppable. The roster was filled to the brim with absurd talent, all of which destined for Hall of Fame status: NiKo, GuardiaN, rain, olofmeister, and karrigan himself. Winning this Major felt less like a possibility and more like an inevitability. Across from them was Cloud9, the ragtag gang of North American hopefuls who refused to bow out of a tournament they had no business getting this far in, backed by one of the loudest home crowds our continent has ever produced.
FaZe pushed Cloud9 to the brink on Inferno, the deciding map, and karrigan’s career-defining Championship point appeared within reach. For a moment, the Major trophy practically felt engraved with FaZe. Cloud9 clawed back round after round while the Boston crowd grew louder. What had looked like the coronation of FaZe Clan slowly transformed into panic. Pressure mounted, overtime arrived, and the dream was unraveling. Suddenly the European giants that had spent months terrifying the world looked frozen and Cloud9 completed the comeback, winning 22-19.
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Here we are, years later, still able to describe it as the most painful loss in FaZe Clan history, confirmed by olofmeister’s unwillingness to rewatch that game. It’s not only because they lost, but because of what the victory could have meant. Had FaZe won Boston, karrigan would have established himself then and there as the shepherd of greatness for a FaZe Clan consisting of legendary players who deserved to win a Major.
Instead, the loss has become symbolic of unrealized potential, forcing GuardiaN to retire Major-less and leave NiKo on a chase to this very day. For karrigan, it was devastating on multiple levels. He was not just the in-game leader, but the architect of this project, and the defeat planted doubts about whether his leadership could eventually carry a team across the finish line at the highest level. Those doubts would follow him for years and spring up once again in the newest version of our game.
By the time Counter-Strike 2 arrived, karrigan had, to many, completed his redemption arc by winning the PGL Antwerp Major in 2022. In theory, the pressure was gone. He had finally secured the one achievement missing from his résumé, but Copenhagen rolled around and things felt different. This would be the very first Major of CS2’s history and winning it would mean he’d be legendary once more. A chance to leave his mark on a new era of the game, which for a veteran like karrigan, with retirement inescapable, could be the best chance he’d get to cement his status as the greatest tactical leader of our time.
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FaZe Clan would battle their way through an exhausting playoff bracket filled with elite opposition in the form of Team Spirit and Vitality. Seizing high-pressure moments in classic FaZe fashion, resilience would become the mantra of the team. We couldn’t help but believe that destiny was lining up for karrigan once again. Subsequently, instead of the much desired trophy lift we’d hoped for, FaZe fell short in a flat Grand Finals outing. What made Copenhagen especially painful was really how easy it should have been to finish off their otherwise impressive run. You got blown out by NaVi.. the team that entered the playoffs with the lowest odds of winning the event. This would be the defeat that reopened old wounds, as the ghosts of Boston’s shortcomings waltzed wickedly over karrigan’s career once more, slowly pulling a cover over his triumphant Antwerp run.
Lastly, but most importantly, was the time this beautiful game painfully intersected with karrigan’s personal life, and the Perfect World Shanghai Major would prove to be the loss that hit hardest. This is what I consider to be the most human moment we’ve ever witnessed on a Major stage and a driving reason for why I will cheer for karrigan until the sad day he decides to retire. After the loss of his brother earlier that year, Finn would be carrying more-than-normal emotional weight into Shanghai. Lightened, perhaps, by the lower expectations than in previous Majors, he somehow found world-class fight inside the FaZe Clan again. Through playoffs and into Grand Finals, versus Spirit – home of the cold-hearted donk. The series itself, greater context aside, was intense, emotional, and exhausting. Despite their ability to push back repeatedly and threaten Spirit with the classic FaZe comeback, this game would end once again with the door slammed shut in his face.
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The cameras are there for the show – we all watch from the outside – but what they captured in Shanghai was something different. We could feel his defeat like no time before it. A man who has given himself to the pursuit of a dream through time away from home and loved ones could no longer hold back the intense emotion that earlier that same day had fueled his never-ending ambitions. Years of pressure and brutal shortcomings. All for another fresh reminder that you’re simply not good enough, no matter how badly you needed it.
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Counter-Strike can at times feel viciously impersonal when your favourite rosters make swaps overnight and star players disappear yearly. karrigan’s greatest defeat, that day in Shanghai, serves as the ultimate reminder that trophies and statistics are smoke and mirrors in front of real human beings, managing real burdens. Finn Andersen’s career has exposed the emotional turmoil of competition more so than anybody else’s. He will forever be the human example I look to, when in need of a reminder that none of our lives have a storybook arc. You will face setbacks, self-doubt, and criticism. There are moments where whatever success you chase feels impossibly unachievable.
But karrigan still wakes up, puts on that jersey, and swings for the fucking stars.
