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FaZe Clan now has a second Counter-Strike 2 team. On Wednesday, June 3, 2026, the organization unveiled FaZe Up Next, an academy roster of five players coached by the former professional Nicklas "gade" Gade, HLTV reported that evening. An academy team is a development side: an organization signs young or little-known players, trains them under its own staff and its own name, and keeps a pool of talent close to its main roster.
The announcement also brings back a familiar name. Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström, who coached the FaZe main team until the summer of 2023, takes the title of Head of CS for the academy division, according to the same report. The news lands the day after the start of the IEM Cologne Major, which FaZe did not qualify for.
HLTV's report of June 3, 2026, and its world ranking of June 1, 2026.
Two names on the staff
The coach of the new team knows the level the academy is meant to lead to. gade, a 31-year-old Dane, played for OpTic, North and BIG, HLTV wrote, and took part in three Majors as a player. A Major is one of the tournaments Valve, the publisher of Counter-Strike, puts its name to, the most prestigious events of the calendar. Among his titles, the report singles out DreamHack Open Sevilla 2019. FaZe Up Next is now his team to build.
Above him sits RobbaN, 41, from Sweden. His title is not a coaching one: he is Head of CS for the academy division, a role that covers Counter-Strike across the development side. In March, HLTV's player box still listed him with no team.
Related readNAVI Reportedly Preparing a Valorant Academy Roster for 2026He is no stranger to the organization. RobbaN was the head coach of the FaZe main team until he stepped down from the role in July 2023, HLTV recalled in March. The man who replaced him then was Filip "NEO" Kubski, in his first post as a coach. The new title gives RobbaN a role in the organization again, this time with the academy division rather than the main team.
A roster built for development
HLTV's report describes the experience of the three players who have a profile on its site as mostly regional; the other two have none yet. That is the point of an academy. A main roster is built to win now; an academy is built to give players matches, coaching and a structure, so that the best of them can step up later, to the main team or elsewhere.
HLTV's report sets out the five, their staff and the division's chain of command. What it does not set out is a competitive program: the announcement, as reported, names no tournament, no league and no first match for FaZe Up Next.
The European second tier gives an idea of the road such a team faces. CCT, one of the organizers of the level below the elite, announced its 2026 European structure in February, HLTV reported on February 13. It runs 34 events across three circuits, linked so that a team can climb from the bottom to the top in a single season.
- Contenders EuropeSixteen teams per event, all from two open qualifiers for the first four events, for a US$2,500 prize pool. Two places go to the next Challengers event.
- Challengers EuropeUS$5,000 per event. Teams arrive by invitation through Valve's rankings or through Contenders, and two places go to CCT Europe.
- CCT EuropeSixteen editions across the year, each with a US$25,000 prize pool. HLTV counts 36 invitations across the play-in, group stage and playoffs.
An open qualifier is a tournament any team may enter, with no invitation needed: it is the door open to a new roster with no ranking points yet. From the fifth to the tenth Contenders event, the field changes to two open qualifier teams and 14 teams invited through the Valve Regional Standings, Valve's ranking system, often shortened to VRS. Points in that system are what decide invitations further up, including to the Majors.
Related readNIP put the Young Ninjas academy on hold and release its playersFaZe's spring, step by step
The academy arrives after a spring in which nearly everything around the main team changed: the coach, the in-game leader, the line-up and the calendar.
| Date | What happened | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| March 16 | FaZe part ways with head coach NEO | Analyst GruBy becomes interim coach |
| April 6 | Valve's April ranking update fixes the Major invitations | FaZe miss the Cologne Major |
| April 16 | enkay J named head coach | A permanent coach again |
| April 20 | karrigan leaves for Team Falcons | The in-game leader's seat is empty |
| April 23 | Neityu named stand-in for three events | A full five for BLAST Rivals, IEM Atlanta and Stake Ranked |
| June 3 | FaZe Up Next unveiled | A second roster under the FaZe name |
HLTV reports published between March 16 and June 3, 2026.
The run of results came first. When FaZe parted ways with NEO in March, HLTV counted a series record of three wins and nine losses for 2026, with an exit in the group stage of every tournament of the year. Twice, at PGL Cluj-Napoca and in the second stage of ESL Pro League Season 23, the team left a Swiss stage with one win and three losses. A Swiss stage is a format in which teams with the same record play each other until each one reaches a set number of wins or losses.
NEO's own record was much stronger. Under him FaZe won IEM Sydney 2023, the CS Asia Championships 2023 and IEM Chengdu, and finished runner-up at three of the four Counter-Strike 2 Majors played until then, in Copenhagen, Shanghai and Budapest, HLTV wrote. He also took the team to the finals of IEM Katowice 2024 and of the BLAST Fall and World Finals in 2023, without winning them. The line-up had already changed in 2025, when EliGE and rain made way for Twistzz and jcobbb, a swap that did not improve results, according to HLTV. The team stood 11th in HLTV's ranking on the day NEO left.
Then came the Major. Valve's ranking update of April 6 decided the 32 invitations to the IEM Cologne Major, held from June 2 to 21 with a prize pool of US$1.25 million, and FaZe were not among them. Ten days later the organization named Niclas "enkay J" Krumhorn, previously ENCE's coach, as its new head coach. On April 20 Finn "karrigan" Andersen, the in-game leader, left for Team Falcons. The in-game leader is the player who calls the team's strategy during a match.
Related readThe NLC will split into UK and Ireland and Nordic leagues from 2027Where the main team stands
The five FaZe named on April 23 for its next three events were frozen, broky, jcobbb, Twistzz and the stand-in Neityu, with enkay J as coach. A stand-in is a temporary player brought in for a set period or set events. FaZe announced him for BLAST Rivals Season 1, IEM Atlanta and Stake Ranked Episode 2, and his first match in the team's colors was scheduled against Natus Vincere at BLAST Rivals in Fort Worth on April 29.
The ranking traces the slide and a small recovery. FaZe stood 11th on March 16, 17th on April 20, three days before Neityu's arrival was confirmed, and 15th on June 1, two days before the academy was unveiled.
Neityu's own path shows what a development structure can produce. The 20-year-old rifler, a player whose role is to take duels with assault rifles, moved up from MOUZ NXT, the academy of MOUZ, to ENCE's main roster, where he spent almost 18 months, HLTV wrote in April. He had been without a team since March 11, the day ENCE benched its entire roster and turned to the Finnish scene. A player trained in one organization's academy is now standing in for another's main team.
The academy wave of 2026
FaZe is not the first top organization this spring to open a Counter-Strike academy. On April 22, Team Vitality announced Vitality Academy, built on a five that had played as Project H, HLTV reported. At the time Vitality were first in HLTV's world ranking.
The comparison is useful because the two projects were presented differently. Vitality's new team came with competitive results already in hand: it had qualified for the Season 56 Finals of ESEA, a long-running online league, and beaten Metizport in the CCT Contenders qualifiers. Its coach, Pablo "VdaK1NG" Escobar, had joined the organization as a data analyst in September 2025 and was already coaching the Project H team before it took the Vitality name. The organization's co-founder described the academy as an investment in the Counter-Strike ecosystem, meant to identify and develop future talent while the main team keeps competing at the top level.
FaZe's launch, as HLTV reported it, puts the staff first: a coach with three Majors behind him as a player, and a former head coach of the main team in charge of the division. The two organizations reached the same decision from opposite positions in the ranking. Vitality opened its academy as the best team in the world. FaZe opened its own while its main team was outside the top ten and absent from the Major.
What comes next
The first test for FaZe Up Next is simply to play. Its staff is in place and its five are signed; its schedule is the part the organization has not yet made public.
For the main team, the calendar is clearer. Neityu's stand-in role was announced for three named events and no more, and the Major in Cologne runs until June 21 without the organization. The questions that remain open for the main roster, a permanent fifth player and a permanent in-game leader, are the ones its next announcement will have to answer.
An academy is built for the next roster. FaZe have started theirs while the current one is still being rebuilt.
The name this team could hold, in the standings and everywhere else.
An example of the format. It does not mean the name is registered, used or endorsed by anyone named in this article.
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