Twistzz joins European CS:GO team FaZe Clan

FaZe Clan has announced Canadian Counter-Strike: Global Offensive professional player Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken to their starting roster. FaZe Clan is a North American based esports organization that has expanded its teams to Europe in CS:GO, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Rainbow Six Siege and FIFA. They are known mostly for their CS:GO roster which has been has become known as the super-team despite having not won a major.

Twistzz has been playing professional CS:GO since 2015 when he joined the amateur tram Tectonic. He bounced around several mid-tier teams before landing on Team Liquid in early 2017. Liquid quickly became one of the best teams in North American CS:GO. Twistzz was a critical part of the team’s success and has made a definitive name for himself in the scene. However, North American CS:GO has been on the decline since COVID-19 shutdown any offline events.

INTRODUCING FAZE TWISTZZ

🇨🇦 @Twistzz | #FaZeUp pic.twitter.com/7mBGBZ1P8h

— FaZe Clan (@FaZeClan) January 30, 2021

This forced teams to play within their region without any sign of returning to international play. Europe had enough teams to counterbalance the lack of offline events while North America continued to struggle. Many professionals left the scene to join Riot Games’ first-person shooter Valorant when the scene began to die out. Another member from the original Liquid roster, Nick “nitr0” Cannella, also left CS:GO to join the 100 Thieves Valorant roster. The lack of tournaments within the North American scene has forced others to leave the region and flee to Europe.

Twistzz heads to Europe

Twistzz becomes the first North American CS:GO player for FaZe Clan since the team was founded in 2016. There have been several nationalities that have been on the team in the past, but Twistzz is the first Canadian to join. He is currently the only active player in European CS:GO from Canada as well.

Gg's and congrats to @AstralisCS, no other team i'd rather play against in a final and especially my last game with @TeamLiquid, the fans and family i've made here over the past 3 and a half years. These are some of the most important memories of my career. Thank you all ❤

— Russel van Dulken (@Twistzz) December 20, 2020

Liquid recently acquired Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo from MIBR to replace Twistzz, who left the active roster in late December. This was advertised as a mutual agreement between the two parties with Twistzz expressing his gratitude for what the team had done for him in the past three years. He will now be fulfilling the role of Nikola “NiKo” Kovač who recently left FaZe Clan to join rival team G2 Esports.

You can watch Twistzz face off against his former team in the Blast Premier Spring group stage on Feb. 12. For more CS:GO coverage, stay tuned to Daily Esports.