FaZe CSGO star Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken has lashed out at BLAST over the condensed schedule of the BLAST Premier Spring Final.
With the group stage in the rearview mirror, FaZe find themselves in a do-or-die situation at the BLAST Premier Spring Final as they prepare to meet Vitality in the opening round of the playoffs.
FaZe placed second in Group B following a 2-0 defeat to Heroic in the winners’ match. The series ended past midnight because of the tournament’s packed schedule during the group stage, which had four best-of-three series per day.
With the three preceding matches being very close affairs and two of them going the full distance, the start time of the FaZe versus Vitality series was pushed back several hours to almost 10 pm. While Twistzz congratulated Heroic for the victory, he said that “to have a schedule that can put teams in this position is bullsh*t.”
“Imagine if C9 and vitality [had gone to] three maps,” he tweeted. “Our BO3 would have started at 11 pm most likely. [We] should be treated like humans first.”
We're athletes and try our best no matter the conditions but to have a schedule that can put teams in this position is bullshit. Imagine if C9 and vitality went 3 maps, our bo3 would start at 11pm most likely, Should be treated like humans first.
— Russel van Dulken (@Twistzz) June 9, 2023
In August 2020, the Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association (CSPPA) reached an agreement with ESL regarding the schedule of tournaments in an effort to reduce the players’ workload. One of the things that were discussed was a change to the start time of matches so that they cannot end past midnight.
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However, Twistzz noted that there is no such agreement between the CSPPA and BLAST. During last year’s Spring and Fall Final, there were also four matches a day during the group stage.
In a subsequent tweet, Twistzz noted that these delayed matches “add to burnout at the end of the day” and that there are more issues he cannot talk about publicly. To prevent long days like this, he suggested that tournament organizers should have two streams running at the same time.
Twistzz is one of the players who have openly addressed the issue of burnout during this final leg of the tournament season (the player break will begin the day after the BLAST event). In late April, shortly after FaZe were eliminated from IEM Rio, he admitted to being “exhausted” after “a stressful few weeks” in which the team had to fight its way through the last-chance qualifier for the BLAST Paris Major. “One too many days on low sleep, no appetite,” he said.
The BLAST Premier Spring Final schedule eases up considerably after the group stage as there will be only two matches on Friday and Saturday before Sunday’s grand final.