FaZe CS:GO star dismisses retirement rumors: ‘I’m here to stay’

He loves playing Counter-Strike.

Photo by Michal Konkol via BLAST

Rain, one of FaZe Clan’s CS:GO riflers and a veteran player, has shot down retirement rumors spread in the community months after the Counter-Strike 2 announcement in March and the birth of his first child in January.

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After helping FaZe qualify for the BLAST Paris Major Legends Stage, the 28-year-old Norwegian said in an interview with HLTV on May 10 that he in fact just renewed his contract with FaZe and his family supports him to keep playing Counter-Strike professionally.

“Yeah, I don’t know what the fuck everybody is talking about,” rain said. “I also read somewhere that Pimp was talking on the analyst desk that I was planning on retiring as well, there are no plans. I just re-signed a contract with FaZe, I’m here to stay. My family, my wife, everybody is really supportive of what I’m doing. I’m not going anywhere. Counter-Strike is what I love to do and I have the full support of everybody at home, so I’m staying for as long as I feel I can perform.”

Related: FaZe pro breaks CS:GO community with cheeky sticker combination at Paris Major

The retirement rumors might have started after Valve revealed CS2 is launching worldwide this summer and because rain’s first child was born earlier this year. Lots of professional esports players would consider retiring in his situation to spend more time with family instead of the constant travel, especially because he’s won everything he possibly could with FaZe—including the PGL Antwerp Major in 2022 and the Intel Grand Slam in March. But rain confirmed that isn’t the case with him right now.

Despite being a CS:GO veteran, rain hasn’t shown signs of getting worse, either. The 28-year-old was FaZe’s second-highest-rated player at the BLAST Paris Major Challengers Stage with a 1.08 rating, according to HLTV, and top-fragged in May 10’s advancement series against FORZE.

Author
Image of Leonardo Biazzi
Leonardo Biazzi
Staff writer and CS:GO lead. Leonardo has been passionate about games since he was a kid and graduated in Journalism in 2018. Before Leonardo joined Dot Esports in 2019, he worked for Brazilian outlet Globo Esporte. Leonardo also worked for HLTV.org between 2020 and 2021 as a senior writer, until he returned to Dot Esports and became part of the staff team.