FaZe Clan has unexpectedly forfeited its opening match in the ESL Pro League Season 22 Stage 2 against G2 Esports.
The news was confirmed by the official ESL X handle just a few hours prior to the scheduled start of the match, catching Counter-Strike fans throughout the world off guard.
At the time of writing, neither FaZe nor ESL has issued an official statement explaining the reason behind the team’s decision to forfeit the match.
As per an HLTV report, this decision may have been the result of a disagreement between FaZe and ESL over the lineup that the team was eligible to use for the tournament.
For the uninitiated, ESL’s General Rules and Roster Restrictions rulebooks require teams to retain a minimum of three out of five players from the roster listed in the invitation ranking. The lineup that FaZe was intending to use at the event only included two of the five players from the July 7 Valve Regional Standings, which served as the basis for tournament invites.
FaZe’s originally submitted roster featured Håvard “rain” Nygaard, thereby meeting the majority requirement. The rule was subsequently violated when he was replaced by Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken, who was listed as a substitute.
The FaZe vs G2 match was replaced by FURIA vs 3DMAX, which fans can watch live on ESL’s official Twitch channel.