Liazz: "It's hard for us to be 100% confident going into a match"
A legend of the Swedish scene, KRIMZ is the lone survivor of fnatic’s Major winning roots. One of the remaining members of their previous team, he is now getting used to life with new IGL dexter and AWPer, afro.
With mezii starring so far in the new fnatic squad’s debut games, we sat down with KRIMZ to discuss the Englishman’s performances, the other changes to the roster, and what qualifying to Fall Final would mean for the team.
You've had a couple of changes in the team recently, how is it all coming together?
Quite nice, I would say. It's a bit too early to have my final conclusion on it. It's a change for sure, new personalities to get to know, but, it's too early to tell. I'm looking forward to it.
How does afro compare to nicoodoz?
In the beginning, nicoodoz was very similar, aggressive as well, but afro does it all the time. It fits well with how dexter wants to play and use them in different ways. They're both aggressive, and I like playing with them both, I'm looking forward to him performing more.
You've played with a few IGLs, how does dexter compare to those you've previously played with?
Compared to pronax, there's more freedom, pronax was more, I don't want to say more of a mastermind and take it away from dexter but, there was more mid-round calling. Now we're all putting our brains together and helping out, but obviously dexter is doing his best and that's super nice.
mezii is now freed up to be a star, how much of an impact does that have on the roster?
A lot. He is so good individually. As everyone can see, he is popping off left and right, and he was good as an IGL, he's super smart and super versatile, but now he doesn't have to think that much. He helps out with the secondary calling, but I think he's just going to get better and better. He is a top five player in my eyes.
What about yourself? You're the most experienced player on the team, is that the main thing you look to bring to the table?
For sure, the calmness. I've not been playing that good recently, but now it's back on the grind and mentally reset, it's not hurting my confidence and bad games can happen to everyone.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenWhat's the most important thing for the team in the early stages? Is it getting more reps in more tournaments? Maybe some online tournaments too?
Yeah, I would say more reps in tournaments, but I would say we should try to avoid those online tournaments. From my perspective, they're quite lose-lose, you're always going to play underdogs and if you win against them, sure, it's a win, but you didn't really gain much because some online teams play in a very different way to top tier. I think just practice, bootcamp, and just tier one tournaments on LAN and get to know each other better.
What about tournaments like BLAST then? You can qualify for Fall Final through the Fall Showdown, what would it mean to you to get to play at Fall Final?
Obviously we want to be there and qualify. It's going to be hard, there's a lot of good teams online, and there'll be stacked teams. It would mean a lot.
The previous roster struggled in the Spring Showdown, you lost to 9INE, how do you avoid losing to these underdog teams in online games?
[laughs] tricky question. Honestly, I think the key is just to not overthink, play your game, and have confidence. Normally, when tier one teams struggle against tier two or three teams is when they do whatever they want and strafe and peak, and you just need to be ready for that from the beginning.
We saw the last fnatic roster could have a really high peak, what do you hope the peak of this roster can be? Even further?
Yeah, I hope so. It's tough nowadays, everybody is so good and it's just a matter of timing as to when you hit that peak compared to others, like with Outsiders winning Rio. Obviously they were really good, but I think a lot of other teams were stepping down as well. It's all about timing when you hit the peak and then you can go really far.