FaZe Clan has a new fifth player and coach going into the next CS:GO season.
Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev and Janko “YNk” Paunovic will complete the European powerhouse’s roster heading into the IEM Katowice Major in February. They’ll be taking the vacant spots left by Finn “karrigan” Andersen and coach Robert “RobbaN” Dahlstrom over the last two months.
Related: FaZe officially bench karrigan
These changes come after months of subpar results from the European lineup with karrigan. FaZe won IEM Katowice 2018 and ESL One Belo Horizonte under his leadership, but eventually, the team lost the flare that it had when they first gained steam. With Nikola “NiKo” Kovac becoming the IGL, FaZe took the EPICENTER title in October, and karrigan’s role as a support became less important.
When AdreN was on Gambit, he filled a number of important roles in different time spans, like IGL, AWPer, and entry fragger, before the team benched him in December. AdreN will likely play whatever role the team needs him to fill, even support, considering FaZe’s current structure where every player—including NiKo, Olof “olofmeister” Kjajber, Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovacs, and Havard “rain” Nygaard—is capable of making big plays.
YNk, on the other hand, is coming over from MIBR, following a brief stint with the North American-Brazilian mix team. In a recent interview with HLTV, YNk revealed that he didn’t have that much power within the team before he was replaced by former Team Liquid coach Wilton “zews” Prado.
AdreN and YNk’s first event with FaZe will be the IEM Katowice Major in February. NiKo will lead his troops into battle starting with the New Legends stage of the Major on Feb. 20.
