ropz reveals the real reason he left FaZe for Team Vitality: “We’re going to be the team to beat”

In an exclusive interview with Dexerto, former FaZe star ropz revealed the actual reason behind him joining Team Vitality in arguably the biggest roster move of the off-season.

FaZe teMpeRRR, one of the organization’s founders, claimed that ropz wanted to play with a team that had more “firepower”. ropz denied this, saying that there’s been no drama within the org and that he left of his own accord.

I sat down with ropz to get the real story from the man himself on why he decided to leave. After all, FaZe was one of the most dominant teams in Counter-Strike, and he was a huge part of their success.

The decision to leave FaZe wasn’t an easy one.

ropz waited until the last minute to leave FaZe

Ropz, one of the best Counter-Strike players in the world was about to come on the market, and he was put in a position where both teams wanted him on board.

“The decision came as late as possible, basically,” ropz explained. “After the [Shanghai] major, that’s when the conversation started. I knew throughout the year that I wasn’t sure what I want to do. Even six months ago, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, if I wanted to continue with FaZe, or move to another team. That’s kind of how I saw it. I just wanted to let the year play out, I never had a loss of motivation and always tried my best.

“FaZe was… they would have loved for me to stay. I think it’s all love in FaZe in that sense. It was a tough decision for sure. It took a lot of stressful days that I spent thinking about it, the break has been kind of short for me in that sense even if I was staying at home. It was quite stressful to make that kind of big decision which impacts your life and career.”

ropz has been a professional Counter-Strike player for almost a decade now, with numerous MVP awards, a major title, and an Intel Grand Slam to his name. Though his legacy with FaZe is one that won’t soon be forgotten, he wants to build something new.

“I was just doing some reflection on my career and where I want to be maybe in the next two or three years. It was just more so about me than FaZe, I think. Obviously, with my contract running out with FaZe, it was the perfect culmination where I could pick a team that I really wanted to start a new chapter and kind of move on from FaZe,” he explained.

“There’s nothing that really went on behind the scenes in FaZe in terms of, like – we didn’t have any problems or anything like that. If I wanted to try something new, a new challenge, a new chapter, now was the time. You don’t get many of those chances as a player throughout your career, especially when you want to work on projects for the long term, for many years.”

All that said, there were some very enticing reasons for him to join Vitality too.

Building the best CS2 team in the world

Although I asked ropz who he was most excited to play with on Vitality, it was a question we all realistically know the answer to anyway.

“I mean, the answer is obvious. It goes without saying that it has be zywo0o. Mathieu, he is something different. I’ve never seen a guy like that. I’ve seen players like s1mple, m0nesy nowadays, they just work hard and make it work. But I’ve never seen a talent like zywOo. He has such a unique capability, I’ve seen it in just a few days of being with the guys. It’s actually crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

We spoke with zywOo last year, and almost 12 months on, he’s still the shining star that the French organization has built their team around. Having such a hard time against Vitality in pro matches is part of why ropz decided to join in the first place.

Not only does he no longer have to worry about playing against Vitality, they also have a team that’s ready to take down 2024’s biggest standout: Team Spirit.

“Spirit is maybe the only team that can really challenge for the number 1 spot just because of what they did in 2024,” ropz said.

“That’s why I wanted to do this pick as well, because I had the freedom of choice and I chose this team. When I played against Vitality throughout my time on FaZe, I always had such a tough time. I always admired this team, it’s such a strong lineup. For me, I’m very glad to be a part of it. In terms of international teams – maybe even all teams – we’re gonna be the team to beat. I feel like we can definitely win everything from the first moment.”

Taking down the world’s best in donk and the rest of Team Secret will be no small task, but ropz isn’t intimidated. Especially now that he has Vitality backing him.

“There’s always gonna be pressure. It doesn’t matter if I was gonna be on FaZe or now on Vitality. Pressure will always exist if you’re in a competitive environment. There’s gonna be pressure to win tournaments, that’s for sure.

“For me, I have lots of experience with that, how to deal with that. How to just show up in the biggest moments. That’s what this team needs to do, show up in the biggest moments. And we’ll do it when it matters.”