by FaZe Clan Counter-Strike player Russel “Twistzz” van Dulken slammed BLAST on Friday for its treatment of players.
The usually stoic player made his rounds on social media following FaZe Clan’s loss to Heroic in the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023 quarterfinals on June 8. The teams faced off for a place in the tournament’s semi-finals which FaZe eventually lost 2-0.
In a series of tweets, Twistzz acknowledged his team’s shortcomings during the match, congratulated Heroic for their win, and went on to call out BLAST for the way the entire tournament was being handled.
Twistzz claimed that the Thursday game’s schedule, which ended just past midnight, put FaZe and Heroic in a terrible position.
No excuses, that was a bad game by us in the end. Unfortunate we both have to play CS at this time, gg's @heroicgg
— Russel van Dulken (@Twistzz) June 9, 2023
“No excuses, that was a bad game by us in the end. Unfortunate we both have to play CS at this time, gg’s @heroicgg,” the player wrote.
“We’re athletes and try our best no matter the conditions, but to have a schedule that can put teams in this position is bullshit.”
The three matches that played out before the FaZe and Heroic match had extremely close time margins and lasted longer than was expected. This led to the last game of the day between Heroic and FaZe, which was only two maps, starting late in the evening and concluding just after midnight.
The CS:GO player also pointed out that if the preceding match between Cloud9 and Team Vitality had extended to a third map, they would have likely started their game much later.
“Imagine if C9 and vitality went 3 maps, our bo3 would start at 11pm most likely, Should be treated like humans first,” Twistzz added.
In response to a comment by a follower, Twistzz proposed that a second stream be introduced in situations like this. This will ensure that all games start and were concluded at the scheduled time.
Twistzz also pointed out that cases like this could pile up and lead to player burnout and that there were even more issues he could not publicly address.
“All of this stuff adds to burnout at the end of the day, there are more issues that I can’t say. Everything adds up eventually and I should have made these tweets earlier,” Twistzz concluded.
Despite losing to Heroic, FaZe Clan are not out of the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023 yet. The team will face off against Team Vitality in the quarter-finals next for a chance to advance to the semi-finals.
