enkay J on replacing broky: "It was a very hard choice, but it was inevitable"

The FaZe coach said that the decision to replace the Latvian AWPer was made after the trip to Barcelona.

FaZe are through to the semi-final stage of the XSE Pro League after making light work of BetBoom in a quick 2-0 series.

It has been a fantastic turnaround in form for FaZe, who began their campaign in Guangzhou with BO1 losses to TYLOO and MIBR but have since won four consecutive series, three of which without losing a map.

After the match against BetBoom, FaZe coach Niclas "⁠enkay J⁠" Krumhorn spoke with HLTV about what went wrong in the first two games, gave his first impressions of Jason "⁠JBOEN⁠" Boe Nielsen and opened up about the difficult process of replacing longtime AWPer Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants.

"It was very clear that broky would need to be replaced after our last event in Barcelona, which was Stake Ranked 2," he said. "It was very clear not only to me but also to the upper management that he needed to be replaced, even though on a personal level it's very sad, and with the legacy he had with FaZe it was a very hard choice. But it was inevitable."

Congratulations on the quarter-final win. You dominated on the server. What was the key to success in this match?

As of right now we're somewhat of a momentum-based team, I'd say. The key factor was probably winning three out of four pistols, in all honesty. We also had a very good game plan coming into both Cache and Ancient, Ancient more so on the CT side than the T side, unfortunately. We were also a bit surprised that they actually wanted to start T on Cache, because this map is still a bit CT-sided at the moment. So yeah, just getting a good start. People firing on all cylinders, that helped as well. Winning some important clutches here and there. Everything was going our way.

Most importantly, we just got a good start, because in the matches we did lose here in Guangzhou, we never had a good start. Against TYLOO and against MIBR, we didn't win any pistols and it was just a completely different team.

How have you turned the tide since going 0-2? Was there a moment of doubt about whether you could do it?

No. Honestly, coming into this event, we didn't have the most practice. We had two days of practice with Jason (JBOEN), then we had to fly directly here to Guangzhou. So after going 0-2 we just had a team talk. I was a bit harder on the boys, which was, in all honesty, probably not the fairest. Because if you go into an event like this with just two days of practice, and you had your vacation before where you didn't play CS at all for two or three weeks, you need to set lower expectations. But I was a bit rougher on the boys, it helped, we woke up. We changed some minor things in our approach to how we prepare for matches, and the boys took it really well. It's been going really great so far.

You've won two Caches at this event, both in dominant fashion. Do you have a really good Cache, or are other teams just poor on it at the moment? How do you see it?

Probably a mix of both. We've invested a lot of time preparing for Cache. We had some off days where we couldn't practice because we didn't have an AWP yet, so we took an entire day theorycrafting together, all of us except Jason. We just talked about the game, how we want to approach things, what we can do. Obviously it also helps that I'm German, and Germans are notorious for finding utility on the map, so that came in handy.

But everybody was also super excited, and I think that's quite important, that they really wanted to play the map because of its history, because of how it was in the past for Russ (Twistzz), for example. On Liquid, they used to be one of the strongest teams in CS:GO back in 2019. So everybody was excited, everybody put in the work, and some of the teams we've played so far probably haven't had as much time to invest in Cache as we have So that came into our favor too. But like I said, a mix of both: us being maybe overprepared and others maybe not being as prepared.

Did the map pool change come in handy for you, given you're a little bit in a rebuild phase and are now able to take advantage of it?

Yeah, of course it came very much in handy for us. We were kind of gambling with Cache. We also went through Overpass, but not as in-depth as we have with Cache. So it definitely came in handy for us. Like I said, we were a bit gambling, hoping they'd implement Cache for this tournament. Luckily it happened, kind of last notice for us, so we were really excited when we saw the news.

And so far, like I said, we have had two days of practice, so our pool hasn't been tested entirely yet. It's very likely going to be tested tomorrow, because I know PARIVISION's map pool. Tomorrow is going to be a different kind of topic.

You brought JBOEN into your roster before this event. Did you expect he could put on a debut like this?

I didn't expect him to put up that performance, but I knew what he was capable of. I know what his mechanical skills look like, I watched a lot of his demos. I watched some matches even, a couple from the beginning of the year or last year. He stood out from the rest of BIG Academy, and even when he was standing in for BIG in Atlanta and in India, he was doing a really good job, and he didn't have any practice with them. So I knew he had a very high skill ceiling; it's up to him and the boys to set him up. It really comes down to how well he can fit in on a personal level, how welcome he feels, how much energy the boys can give him, how much he can feed off the energy of the crowd, all these things. And so far he's done an excellent job.

Can you tell me a bit more about what options you had? How did you end up with this particular change?

I can't tell you the names specifically. Some names out there were right, some were wrong. How did it come down to Jason? He was one of our top three priorities. It's obviously also important that we find a long-term solution, but when we were running out of time a bit and negotiations were stalling here and there, we just pulled the trigger and said, 'You know what? Let's go with Jason'. Best option ,not only short-term but potentially long-term.

So did you have any other big names in consideration?

There were definitely big names in consideration. But it always comes down to the other party being interested, too. And if you look at where we are right now, standings-wise and roster-wise, let's be honest, the names on FaZe right now might not be as appealing to top-tier AWPers, top 10 or top 15 AWPers, as they might have been two years ago. I fully understand that if someone looks at the roster and sees frozen and Twistzz, and they're like, 'Oh, insane.' But then looking at Neityu and jcobbb, they obviously don't have the names, the experience, the kind of aura the other two do, you know? So I fully understand that. But there were definitely bigger names on the list than JBOEN.

Was it an obvious decision to replace broky, or did you think about taking it in some other direction?

No, it was very clear that broky would need to be replaced after our last event in Barcelona, which was Stake Ranked 2. It was very clear not only to me but also to the upper management that he needed to be replaced, even though on a personal level it's very sad, and with the legacy he had with FaZe it was a very hard choice. But it was inevitable.

Now you're up for a semifinal against PARIVISION, who have also made some changes. What do you think of this upcoming matchup? Do you feel like underdogs?

I personally think we're underdogs. The odds might look even to fans, or maybe to PARIVISION themselves. But just by looking at the roster, I know we're the underdogs coming into this. They made two roster changes, bringing in HObbit. He knows dastan, he knows the system of dastan and Jame as well, so the transition period for him coming back was probably very short and very smooth. And slaxejezzz has also been doing really well. But it's a new game tomorrow. Let's see. Maybe they'll have a difficult time facing us tomorrow against the crowd and us, so we'll have to see.

Here you're an absolute crowd favorite. How much does it help you?

Oh, it helps a lot, honestly. They're giving us so much energy, showing us so much love and support. The players love it. Russ told me, 'Hey, it's going to be crazy in China, you have no idea,' I was, like, 'Yeah, yeah, you're talking bullshit.' But then I got here and it's actually crazy how supportive the fans are, how much they love FaZe. So I can just say thank you to the fans for supporting us, and we'll need their energy again tomorrow. Hopefully we can feed off it over there.