And so rain’s time on FaZe has come to an end at 3541 days. For context, that’s just shy of ten years and also shorter than the length of time since any of us last spoke to a female.

We’re old now. We don’t get out much. Don’t worry about us. We’re okay. We promise

(This is a cry for help)

An incredible run given how short spells on teams can be in esports, he won everything there is to win with FaZe and his role in those victories will see him forever written into Counter-Strike history.

It’s that length of time, though, that is probably the most impressive thing about it. It’s hard to remember a year in which someone wasn’t calling for his head. Whether it was just down to a dip in form or because a younger and potentially more exciting player had come along, rain has always had his detractors, but the giant Norwegian always remained strong. And, impressively, always proved those people wrong.

Even this year, after struggling thanks to the painful EliGE era, rain bounced back as FaZe bid farewell to their bald fraud. So much so that his benching almost felt unfair.

Almost.

Unfortunately for rain, he is now 30. That might be a tender 14 years of age in Serie A terms, but this isn’t Italy (or football for that matter) and given that FaZe had already signed his replacement in jcobbb, it was time to close the door on the rain chapter.

A brutal reminder that there’s no room for sentimentality in competitive disciplines - even if a certain Frenchman says otherwise - removing rain now allows FaZe to push on as a team and get ready to try and make a third CS2 Major final. And ultimately, they need to move on quickly and efficiently if they ever want to win again before karrigan turns 100.

It’s sad. But it’s also life. And, hey, at least the big man isn’t retiring. He said he’ll be sticking around for a while still and even be open to IGLing, so maybe one day in the future we’ll get another tear-jerker of a benching video to sob into our keyboards over.

Seriously, FaZe, f-ck you guys for that one. Even us cold-hearted b-stards found that hard to watch.

For real though, it’s hard to imagine a FaZe without rain. Like KRIMZ with fnatic, rain on FaZe was one of the last bastions of a time we long for. When life was simpler, bills didn’t have to be paid, and we weren’t concerned with things like ‘VRS’ and ‘sub-tick’.

Better times.

And speaking of better, in a world where FalleN moves for $750k and kyousuke costs apparently$2 million, rain is one of the better usages of $20k from an esports organisation.

It’s certainly better than we’d do with $20k... David Beckham surgery, anyone?