Es3tag - Substitute player of FaZe Clan shows amazing performance
Patrick “es3tag” Hansen is currently an inactive player of Ninja in Pyjama’s CS: GO roster. However, he played as a stand-in for FaZe Clan, substituting with Håvard “Rain” Nygaard in the Grand Finals of BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2023. Patrick showed an amazing performance in this crucial match-up and ended up scoring over 38 kills for the team, while just having 29 deaths.
Having these many kills made him the player with the second-highest number of kills, and he had a massive impact on the overall score of the match. The final result was that FaZe Clan won their Grand Finals against OG Esports with a score of 2-0, and also made FaZe Clan advance to the BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2023.
This was quite surprising and got many were surprised as FaZe Clan did not have their actual lineup of players, and instead, they had one of the substitutes playing for them However, despite being a substitute, es3tag showed stellar performance and won the hearts of not only FaZe Clan’s members, but also the fan’s. Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken, a player of FaZe Clan even tweeted about all that happened in the Grand Final of BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2023. He even thanked es3tag for helping their team FaZe Clan in this tweet.
Substitutes and their general performance
Normally, it is believed that the substitutes are not as good as the main players of a roster. In fact, throughout the history of the professional CS: GO scene, we have seen multiple players who used to be the top dogs at one time. However, when they later join as main players, they are a mere shadow of what they used to be.
It is very rare for a stand-in to substitute for a main player on the roster, and still perform extremely well. But that is exactly what happened with FaZe Clan in the BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2023 Grand Finals. One of the main players of their CS: GO roster, Håvard “Rain” Nygaard was unable to play in this important match, and thus, Patrick “es3tag” Hansen had to play in his stead. Now, most believed that this would result in a disadvantage for FaZe Clan as they are not playing with their proper and full roster.
However, es3tag surprised everyone with his performance, helped FaZe Clan win the match with a flawless score of 2-0, and also managed to be one of the highest scorers of the match.