After many years of roster instability, legendary organization Fnatic finally landed themselves a consistent team when they formed their current roster in August of last year. Now a top-ten team and with a Major quarter-finals appearance under their belts, Fnatic looks to be a consistent threat at the highest level of CS:GO.
An invite team to the BLAST Spring Showdown EU, we sat down with their coach Jamie "keita" Hall to discuss roles on the team, as well as their hopes for the Showdown and beyond.
BLAST.tv: There are a lot of talented players in the squad, yet there doesn't seem to be a clear star. Do you view that as a problem to address, or is it one of the reasons the team should view you a threat, that you have five good players instead of one star?
keita: "I think we have a really capable team of five players that can all pop off each map at any given time. I think roeJ has a lot of the star positions, quote unquote, with a lot of responsibility on CT side, but he is also a bit different from the natural star where he likes to run in first and that can downplay him a little bit."
I think in general, we sort of view it as a good thing where we feel that everyone could sort of pop off on any given moment. However, we have sort of been looking at given nicoodoz a bit more freedom to allow us to have a bit more X factor."
BLAST.tv: Mezii is still an inexperienced in-game leader. How has he grown in role since the team's new formation?
keita: I think Will has always been a versatile player, so he's had to change quite a lot of positions, CT and T side, to adapt to the team and adapt to the players. I think that's something that he's always been fine with and never really struggled.
He'll always find a way to make an impact. I think with the leadership, early on, me and him had the same vision for the game. So I don't think there's been too much adaptation for understanding the game. I think he's always had a pretty good mind for the game.
It's more just he's having to get more used to him being the guy that everyone looks to, and to have to speak up on his vision sometimes when he has a strong feeling and gain the trust of the guys. So I think those small leadership things are just things that have started tp evolve with him and he's starting to learn, but the in-game stuff has been pretty natural for him.
BLAST.tv: How important is the experience of KRIMZ to the team?
keita: "One of Freddie's biggest positive attributes that he sort of applies to his team that's not very specific in game, but he's a very calm player.
I'm not sure if that's experience or if that's just his personality, but I think it's something that serves us well because we are a team that can get quite pumped up and quite loud and, in a way, sometimes get a bit panicked.
He's quite good at calming the team down. I think his experience also shows not just for the team, but it helps the team in another way in that he's a very good clutch player. He's very calming in clutches, and makes really good decisions in clutches, which of course, helps us when he's put in those positions. He's winning clutches. So I think they're the two main factors that his experience helps the team perfect."
BLAST.tv: What are your expectations for the Blast showdown?
keita: "Funnily enough, we didn't really have any expectations for this event. We actually just wanted to qualify because we've had a tough time qualifying and thank God we got invited this time.
I think when you enter these sort of events where it's one or two teams qualify and apart from that, you don't gain much from it, you do go into wanting to qualify and we are a team that's capable of qualifying, but we also understand there's a lot of good teams in this qualifier."
"So I think we're just going to really take it one game at a time and go in with that mindset, really try our best to win every game. Because we aren't entering this tournament for experience. We are entering because we want to qualify. But at the same time, we know it's tough, so we don't want to get too ahead of ourselves."
BLAST.tv: nicoodoz has shown star performances in the past. What's the key to unlocking his potential?
keita: "I think with Nico it's a lot about confidence and a lot of it is on himself. We do give him quite a lot of freedom, but what we're trying to do better now is have the other players sort of help him and facilitate him better.
So if we're noticing positions that maybe they're searching a certain position a lot, instead of naturally going to the fix, which could be using riflers or shutting that area down or taking that area, sort of enabling Nico and saying, 'hey, can we bring you over?' I think that's what we're trying to do now to help him.
But I think for himself, it's just about finding some confidence and feeling confident in what he likes to do and not being too hard himself, because he is naturally a very aggressive player.
And we're just slowly trying to find ways to bring him into games, find out how to use him best as a natural player, but also how we can use his supportive element because he's also very good at remembering nades and understanding situations."
BLAST.tv: Who will be your toughest opponent?
keita: "I think the strong contenders in the bracket are NIP, OG, BIG, and Cloud9. I think BIG we match up well with them, I think we've beaten them the past three or four times we've played them, so I wouldn't say we're too worried about them. NIP, I actually think we quite enjoy playing and we know them pretty well. Brollan used to play with us and I've coached k0nfig in the past. I think we feel pretty good playing them.
I'd say the toughest team would probably be Cloud9. I think we actually did beat last time we played them, but I think they're really hard team to play. They really make you grind out rounds. They play really slow and I don't think they played a similar style to us.
It's always easier to play a style that you're familiar with. So I think they would probably be the toughest team. Then I think OG is a team that we also feel that we match up pretty well with, despite losing to them at Katowice. So, I think Cloud Nine is the hardest team there for us."
BLAST.tv: Looking ahead to the RMR, what are your expectations for the event?
keita: "We're not thinking too far ahead. We're not thinking about the Major. We're just focused. Our sights are just on the RMR and doing well in our group stage. To be honest, I think the RMR is probably the most stressful tournament where there's the most pressure on the players. I think some of the biggest upsets happen there, some of the biggest organizations can fall and some of the biggest underdog stories can happen."
So I think it's a tournament which you shouldn't take lightly and honestly, you just want to make it through. I think obviously, making it as a legend is a lottery and very nice, but at the end of the day, we just want to make it through. So I think it's a tournament, whereas expectations are we want to qualify, but how we do it, we don't care. We could lose the first two games and qualify by the skin of our teeth from 3-2 and we'll be happy with that. So I think our expectations are just that we just want to make it through by any means possible."
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