Vitality reportedly snags ropz from FaZe Clan

Vitality is on the cusp of announcing the signing of FaZe Clan's Estonian rifler Robin "ropz" Kool.

Vitality and ropz reportedly already reached an agreement and the move should be finalized soon. Ropz will replace Lotan "Spinx" Giladi in the lineup as the Israeli is set to leave the French organization after two and a half years.

This information comes from a joint report between HLTV.org and the French CS2 insider Guillaume "neL" Rathier. It's a hell of a blockbuster move for Vitality during the CS2 off-season.

Ropz has been one of the best players in the world in the past few years, and although he hit a slump in 2024, he displayed some peak form at the Perfect World Shanghai Major in December. If it wasn't for ropz, FaZe would have never made it to the grand finals, knocking out Vitality and G2 in the process.

With the arrival of ropz, Vitality's roster for 2025 will consist of:

According to HLTV.org and neL, ropz is leaving FaZe following the end of his contract. The same happened to Russel "Twistzz" Van Dunkel in 2023, which led the Canadian rifler to join Team Liquid.

Ropz joined FaZe in January 2022 and spent three years there. He helped them win seven LAN tournaments, most notably the PGL Antwerp Major in 2022 and the Intel Grand Slam in 2023.

Besides all the trophies, ropz and FaZe dominated the beginning of CS2's cycle between the end of 2023 and early 2024. They also finished runners-up in the two Majors of 2024.

Ropz's departure to Vitality raises all types of question marks regarding FaZe's project for 2025. The squad didn't play well for the most part in the second semester of 2024, but nobody in the community was expecting ropz to leave.

Since finding a 1:1 replacement to ropz is nearly impossible, FaZe could move David "frozen" Čerňanský to ropz's roles and sign a more aggressive player. This would fix some of the role clashes the team had in 2024 at least.

That's all for now. Stay tuned to esports.gg for more CS2 news.