Twistzz details burnout

It's safe to say that FaZe have not had the easiest time in the last year and a half. The squad have been one of the best teams in the world, winning a Major and an Intel Grand Slam, but at the same time have had significant low points, highlighted by their recent struggles during qualification for the BLAST.tv Paris Major, and a 9-12th place exit at IEM Rio.

Part of the problem with being such a good team is the heavy weight of expectations that fall on the players, especially when they are considered, individually, to be among some of the best in the world. With three players featured within the Top 11 of the best players in 2022, the expectations are always high.

Recently, FaZe have had to endure some up and down moments. A top 8 finish at IEM Katowice where the squad lost to Liquid was followed up with a successive win at ESL Pro League Season 17, which was then followed by going 2-3 at the BLAST.tv Paris Major European RMR A after starting 2-0.

FaZe were lucky to be able to have a Last Chance RMR Qualifier, where they had to then beat #5 team Cloud9, which in any other event might as well be a grand final, rather than a qualifier for one final spot at the last CS:GO Major in a region that grants them 17 spots.

For Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken, the pressure, the travel schedule, and the recent events have been understandably overwhelming. In a tweet posted last night after being eliminated by Vitality in IEM Rio, the star rifler spoke about how he hasn't been able to sleep and has had no appetite.

The tournament schedule, especially during a mid-Major cycle, has become increasingly packed, to levels not truly seen since the pre-pandemic days when teams would literally have to fly after winning a Grand Finals event on Sunday night because they were expected to play in another continent in less than 48 hours.

This was the case for Evil Geniuses at IEM New York 2019 when the squad had to be shuttled off of the stage, bags thrust into their hands, and race to the airport for a flight to Malmö for DreamHack Masters Malmö 2019 to play mousesports that Tuesday morning.

For FaZe, they had a quite similar case as the BLAST.tv Paris Major European RMR Last Chance Qualifier ended on April 15th and the European team was then put on a flight to Brazil to play in their first match in Rio de Janiero on April 17th.

With the travel schedule picking up more steam, especially for the partner teams that are obligated to compete in top events, it might not just be Twistzz that we see suffering from the stress and hectic schedule.