BLAST under fire after allowing es3tag to stand-in for FaZe Clan instead of k0nfig
2023-01-20 09:11:00BLAST explained the situation with FaZe Clan and Kristian "K0nfig" Wienecke in Spring Groups. The tournament operator admitted mistakes made on their side during the communication with the team and officially confirmed Patrik "es3tag" Hansen as the team's stand-in. But the decision caused a new outburst in the community.
The issue is that es3tag is still contracted to NiP, which hurts the competitive integrity of the event. Especially if the teams, which start in different groups, will end up facing each other in the second knockout stage. HLTV journalist Milan "Striker" Svejda pointed out the inconsistency of BLAST's decision on Twitter.
The confusion with the stand-ins happened due to mismanagement between BLAST and FaZe Clan. It was known that k0nfig was practicing with the team before the event, and the TO initially accepted him. But since he was registered as a substitute for Heroic, BLAST had to back off, reportedly under pressure from other participants.
FaZe could've used their official substitute, olofmeister, but he didn't even know about being listed. The Swede explained on stream that it was too late to travel to the event and that he had other assignments. All this led to Es3tag standing in the last moment.
FaZe Clan will face their first opponent today, January 20, at 12:00 CET. The team will play against Complexity.
