Image: FaZe Clan
EliGE will be taking over as FaZe Clan's rifler following the departure of ropz at the end of 2024.
FaZe Clan have retooled their roster for the 2025 Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) season with the addition of former 
Complexity Gaming star riflier 
Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski, as announced by the organisation on Friday (January 10). EliGE will be taking over the position of FaZe's rifler from 
Robin “ropz” Kool, who left the team on December 31, 2024.
In a lighthearted skit accompanying the announcement, FaZe said they acquired EliGE to help them lift the ‘curse’ that has plagued the team since they won the PGL Major Antwerp and Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) XVII - Cologne in 2022.
EliGE had all the qualities FaZe were looking for, including being a ‘chill guy with good aim that thrives in chaos’ and, most importantly, bald – ribbing the fact that some of FaZe's players didn't follow up on their promises to shave their heads following their victories in 2022. Not to mention the fact that many of the greatest athletes in both sports and esports are known for being bald or shaving their heads.
On a more serious note, EliGE is set to be a fitting replacement to fill in the sizable gap in FaZe's lineup left by ropz's departure. EliGE will be joining a FaZe squad that has gone through a tumultuous 2024 season, where they claimed the championship of IEM Chengdu 2024 as well as two second-place finishes in the Copenhagen and Shanghai Majors with middling results in between. 2024 notably ended in heartbreak for FaZe following a narrow loss to Team Spirit in the grand finals of the Shanghai Major.
Meanwhile, EliGE – one of the best CS players to ever come out of North America – will be moving to Europe to reinforce FaZe after a disappointing stint with Complexity. Despite EliGE's constant heroics, Complexity failed to produce any meaningful results and only had a couple of victories in A-Tier tournaments like the BLAST Premier: Fall American Showdown 2023 and ESL Challenger at DreamHack Summer 2024. Complexity's disappointing showing culminated in a 17th-19th place exit from the Shanghai Major to close out 2024.
Despite his former team's lack of results, EliGE still proved himself to be one of the best players in the world, notably earning him 19th place in HLTV's list of Top 20 CS2 players of 2024.
With a Top 20 player in the world in EliGE rounding out a squad that made it to the grand finals of both Majors in 2024, FaZe seems set to be one of the biggest contenders for the 2025 CS2 season.
FaZe Clan CS2 roster for 2025:
Håvard “rain” Nygaard
Helvijs “broky” Saukants
Finn “karrigan” Andersen
David “frozen” Čerňanský
