Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken’s move from Team Liquid to FaZe Clan has already been announced by both teams, but nobody knows who the Canadian will replace — until now. According to Spirit scout and CS2 insider Aleksey “OverDrive” Biryukov, Twistzz will replace Håvard “rain” Nygaard in FaZe’s lineup.
OverDrive broke the news on his Telegram channel on September 17, before Liquid and FaZe played an elimination series at the FISSURE Playground 2 group stage. Many thought that FaZe would bench Jakub “jcobbb” Pietruszewski, the team’s rookie, but it turns out that it’s rain who’s on the chopping block.
Should Twistzz replace rain on FaZe, rain would step down from FaZe’s active lineup for the first time since January 2016, when he joined the organization. But, we’ll only know for sure in a few days, as Liquid qualified for FISSURE Playground 2 playoffs over FaZe, so the Canadian star will play some more matches for them before joining FaZe.
The Norwegian star is the only remaining member from the original G2 lineup that FaZe acquired in 2016. rain only missed official games this year, 2025, when he sat out of IEM Dallas due to the birth of his second child, and FaZe signed Felipe “skullz” Medeiros as a temporary stand-in.
Rain is the most decorated FaZe player in Counter-Strike by a comfortable margin. He helped FaZe win 16 big events, including their sole Major championship at PGL Antwerp 2022 — in which the event also named him the MVP.
rain is a legend, but Twistzz is undoubtely playing better than him this year. Credit: Sebastian Pandelache | © PGL
Even though Twistzz has shown over the years that he’s a cracked entry-fragger at times, it’s more likely that jcobbb will remain the entry-fragger. The rookie, alongside the IGL Finn “karrigan” Andersen, will likely do the dirty work and make space for Twistzz to trade.
This makes the most sense because Twistzz is a very capable player when it comes to clutches. We could see Twistzz go for some first kills occasionally, if he has a good spawn on T-side, but it seems a waste to make him go first when you already have jcobbb willing to be the sacrificial lamb.
In 2025, Twistzz is a better player than rain, according to both the eye test and the statistics. Twistzz beats rain in every one of the metrics below:
| rain | Twistzz |
|---|---|
| 1.06 rating | 1.14 rating |
| +0.22% Round Swing | +0.91% Round Swing |
| 75.9 ADR | 79.2 ADR |
| 1.00 K/D ratio | 1.08 K/D ratio |
| 72.0% KAST | 75.2% KAST |
| 16.2% Multi-kill | 17.8% Multi-kill |
So, all in all, letting rain go to add Twistzz seems like a solid move, despite all the history the Norwegian has in FaZe Clan.
Feature image credit: Luc Bouchon | © ESL
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