Slingshot’s Jarek “DeKay” Lewis caught up with FaZe Clan in-game leader Finn “karrigan” Andersen after the quarterfinals of the ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier. They talked about adjusting to the new lineup and having so much firepower on one team.
Jarek “DeKay” Lewis: What preparation did you do before playing EnVyUs today?
Finn “karrigan” Andersen: The preparation we had for EnVyUs was to mostly play our own game. We weren’t sure where the veto would go, but we did look at how they play Overpass and how their rotations work. Other than that, we played our own game. Right now, we are not the team that has to counter; the other teams have to counter us. Until that changes, we will continue to play our own game and adapt mid-round.
JL: Is that the same approach you’ll take in the semifinals or finals? Or will you spend a bit more time looking at each team.
FA: I personally watch a lot of games at night before I go to bed, so I have a general feeling on how most teams like to play. Since teams have to counter us, I know they will change their approach toward our game style. We’ll keep the same approach until we have to play a map we are really scared of playing. Let’s say we play against North, I’ll focus on a specific map if I need to. We feel very confident with our veto, so we’ll keep going like we have been for the past two events.
JL: Everyone keeps talking about all the star players you guys have, but the team is much more complicated than just running around head-shotting people, right? I noticed some nice CT setups, particularly on Overpass.
FA: I have been looking at how people talk about us and people just say we play a very loose style. I’m getting pretty mad when people say that. Right now we play simple CS. Today we showed simple CS on Nuke is possible. We played pretty fast. I call it the “bully” style where you keep pressuring the enemy’s economy. Once they were low on economy, I told the team we would do an inside hit, and we won the round. We have set strategies ready for when we need to use them, but right now people are playing scared against us. I think we should abuse that before we have to play a slow and structured style.
JL: Has it been an easy transition for Olofmeister and GuardiaN to communicate in English rather than their native languages?
FA: People play so much FPL that communication in English is not an issue. The bigger issue has been finding spots for all the players on seven different maps. We still are getting used to each other, the way we call, and the way we play. That comes with time. Our CT side has been better than it usually is, and that’s because CT side takes the most time to figure out. Adding those guys has been very smooth I would say, other than DreamHack Malmo. We played the wrong maps at that point, which we fixed in New York and here at ELEAGUE.
JL: What are your thoughts on the new Dust2? Considering how much you loved to play it on TSM, do you think this lineup would enjoy playing it?
FA: We play all seven maps now to make sure we don’t get wrecked in the veto. If a map gets replaced, I think it will happen after the Major in January. Right now we are focused on improving all the maps currently in the pool. I don’t really care which map is out for Dust2, though. I think with a seven map pool, it’s important to have different map styles. Nuke is very tactical, Dust2 is very open, and Overpass is very slow. I think having different maps with different approaches is very good for the CS:GO scene. I love Dust2 and I know GuardiaN was a god on it, along with Olof and NiKo. I think we are more than ready to play it, simply because it hasn’t changed that much.
JL: How would you compare this lineup to the last one? What has changed the most?
FA: Our biggest change has been the CT side, it’s finally a championship CT side. Our biggest issue with the old lineup was not being able to have lockdown CT halves, like Astralis and SK do. When you play them, they can get 13-2 or 12-3 halves on CT. We weren’t able to stay on the same page when it came to how we wanted to play. Now, GuardiaN has a ton of freedom to go for whatever he wants. Any time someone dies and we fall 4-v-5, everyone just knows someone will kill two guys. We have more firepower and everyone is really really motivated to become the best team in the world. They are willing to work on themselves to become that.
JL: If you make it to the finals at ELEAGUE, which team would you rather play: Cloud9 or Astralis?
FA: Since we played Cloud9 in the semifinal at ESL One New York, I feel like we should play Astralis. We haven’t played Astralis in a best-of three on LAN yet. We only beat them in the New York group stage best-of one. I always want to play the best teams in the world so people can’t look to our win in New York and say we only played NA teams. In the semifinal I want to play North because they are the better team. If we win this event, we have shown the world that we can beat all teams.