Few names describe a player as succinctly as 'frozen' does. An uber-cool player inside the server and an equally composed one outside of it, frozen breezes through the Abu Dhabi heat with a smile on his face, completely belying the pressure that comes with playing for one of the biggest teams in the world.

In fact, he's not just ignoring the pressure, he's relishing it.

"That's one of the reasons I went for this, right? You want this pressure, you want to be that team that is always expected to perform, I wanted to be in this position. I think it's more of a healthy pressure. Obviously we have to perform, they had a good year you know, they won a couple of tournaments! I think my goal in this is just to achieve more probably."

This level of composure can only be achieved through complete confidence in what you can do, and it's fair to say that frozen isn't worried about his own level.

Credit: Michal Konkol

"They kind of know why they picked me, they know what to expect from me. I think I'm just here to do my thing. There is pressure obviously, but I think it's more of a healthy pressure than you know, being scared of something. I'm actually enjoying it."

frozen's move to FaZe seemed to materialise out of nowhere to the public - and indeed, that's largely because it just did.

"I think when I re-signed the contract with MOUZ two years ago, it wasn't really on my mind because I knew what I was signing up for and I knew why I was signing the deal. At that time I was fully signed in, looking forward to what we can achieve in MOUZ. Things happen over time, the contract was running out, people talk, they write me, you could say on a good timing. Things have started moving up.

"I don't think both parties had time to think about such a thing. It only came down to the end of the year when contracts were expiring, then people start to talk. When we were hot on MOUZ, the only thing I had on my mind was how good we can be."

frozen's time on MOUZ was ultimately quite successful, and he admits that it's "a little odd to have a new jersey on" after four years under the German organisation, but that he is excited for the "new beginning" that he's embarked on.

In joining FaZe, he links up with old teammates karrigan and ropz, two people he referred to as "long-time friends", not just teammates.

Credit: Michal Konkol

"I think it feels great to just have them around. I look left again, I look right again, I see these two guys that I used to play with, so it kind of makes it easy for me to just fill in. They all make it easy for me. I think they are all great personalities, so it wasn't really hard to fit in with the character, and on the server as well. I think it just feels great to have them around me again."

It's one of the teammates he hasn't played with before that frozen was particularly excited about, though. MOUZ are an exceptionally young team, while FaZe are far more experienced - and it's that experience that seems to entice frozen.

"I can say that I've been playing with rain for some time and I don't think age is a thing when I see this guy play. You could maybe look at this in a long-term thing, but then the long-term thing in my opinion would have to be five to ten years from now. I don't think it's a factor to be honest. At the moment, especially in CS2, where the meta is just to strafe out and take the duels, I think the experience, the older ones should be the ones who benefit from this in my opinion. It's their environment, basically.

"I think rain is a living example of how far you can actually go even if you have a higher age. The guy is still a beast, it doesn't matter."

Credit: Stephanie Lindgren

The Slovakian isn't 100% sure quite where FaZe are at at this moment in time, but knows that if they can traverse the early stages, his teammates are bound to level up.

"We didn't have that much practice. It looked good from the practices we had, but that's obviously practice. I think we're going to see from the first match what level we can bring. As I know FaZe, the level grows the more you go deep into the tournament, so that's what I'm expecting."

When pressed about his expectations, frozen insists that he's just aiming to "enjoy it" in Abu Dhabi, and offered a chuckle when asked if they could repeat Vitality's feat of winning in Copenhagen just after making a change.

"We'll see about that!"

Indeed we will, frozen.

frozen's debut with FaZe is tomorrow at 16:00 local time, or 13:00 CEST, as they take on Heroic in their opening game.