FaZe has moved Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski, its American star, to the bench on August 22. But, rather than signing another proven player, FaZe is putting its chips on Jakub “jcobbb” Pietruszewski, a 21-year-old Polish rifler who was playing for Betclic.
The decision to part ways with EliGE comes after FaZe failed to make a deep run in IEM Cologne, BLAST Bounty Season 2, and, most recently, the Esports World Cup 2025.
Despite being the second-highest rated player on FaZe (1.11), EliGE never had the same impact that Robin “ropz” Kool used to have on the roster. This is understandable, as EliGE is a far more aggressive player than the Estonian and didn’t survive to play as many clutches.
FaZe said that the decision to bench EliGE was “mutual” and that he’ll remain under contract for the time being, as the organization explores its options.
While removing EliGE makes sense, given that he never fulfilled the expectations, replacing him with jcobbb definitely raises question marks.
Could jcobbb reignite FaZe’s fire? Credit: © PGL
Jcobbb played for Betclic between November 2024 and August 2025, and rarely had the opportunity to play in tier-one. But he did have a convincing performance this year at PGL Bucharest, his first tier-one tournament.
He helped Betclic to upset Astralis and The MongolZ in the Swiss group stage of PGL Bucharest, though he had uninspiring performances against FURIA, Aurora, and curiously, FaZe, later on.
Jcobbb, like EliGE, is someone who’s not afraid to be the entry fragger, and he also excels at finding opening kills. The problem is that he isn’t exactly a clutch player, the sort of player that FaZe have lacked since ropz departed to Vitality in January.
Perhaps, what convinced FaZe to sign jcobbb is the fact that Anja Suder, Finn “karrigan” Andersen’s wife, worked closely with the Polish youngster during her time as Betclic’s sports psychologist. There’s no proof of this, but Anja knows jcobbb’s personality and mindset far better than anyone on FaZe, so she could have tipped off karrigan.
“New generation is here in FaZe, it’s a privilege to have him join us, and it will shake something up role-wise wise and there will be a transition period,” karrigan wrote on X. “I’m excited to start a new process and looking forward to playing.
Jcobbb will debut for FaZe next week at BLAST Open London, which kicks off on August 27.
Feature image credit: © PGL
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