

MeetYourMakers at Extreme Masters Dubai 2009.

"I could say that I haven't played as actively since I became the coach for Fnatic, but I've had a couple of weeks to gain some hours and a relatively good form. Skill-wise I'm a bit under the top tier, but I hope I can outweigh that with my experience as an in game leader", Jumpy tells Fragbite.

"I'm pretty flexible and I'll take whatever role the team feels most comfortable with", he says.

"I think that the less preparation you have, the more skill you need, and of course dennis is a really good player, which makes it a little harder. But we have four really talented players, so even if dennis is a tough loss, I think we can manage to get a good game going."

"I think it's worked out good, we have started by winning four straight maps and I feel like the team has a calm in a way we didn't have before."

"If dennis was playing, I would see us as favorites to win the group together with dignitas, and even with dennis gone I think we'll advance to the playoffs. We're still practicing with dennis as the team is new and we have online games and other tournaments, so playing with me is still a somewhat untested territory."

The past couple of weeks have been hectic for the Fnatic CS:GO team. Not only did they re-recruit Freddy "krimz" Johansson, but also replaced John "wenton" Eriksson with Joakim "disco doplan" Gidetun. A strong lineup indeed, but when it was announced that the star player Dennis "dennis" Edman will be stepping down for the time being, it's all up in the air again.In to fill Edman's spot in the team is coach Jimmy "Jumpy" Berndtsson. No stranger to the CS 1.6 follower, as he conquered DreamHack Winter 2009 and got a silver medal at Extreme Masters Dubai the very same year together with some known players in MeetYourMakers; Andreas "MODDII" Fridh, Faruk "pita" Pita, Marcus "zet" Sundström and Marcus "Delpan" Larsson.He has also been able to bring some firepower in the top tier of CS:GO, as he has played for Property and Orbit, as well as managed to upset Natus Vincere with FlipSid3 Tactics at DreamHack Summer 2014. One would think a player-turned-coach would be a bit rusty with the rifles, but that doesn't seem to bother Berndtsson.Although we all know Jumpy will be acting as in game leader, as he does while he's coaching, it's not set in stone what kind of fire power role he will fill in game. Once again, he seems pretty relaxed and comfortable whatever happens, as it's all about the team.As previously mentioned, Jumpy stepping in is far from the only change this team has seen lately. The fact is that they have only played a couple of official maps online with the newly recruited players, meaning the team hasn't had that much time to practice with dennis in the team anyway. Knowing this, I asked Jumpy if the temporary loss of dennis is somewhat cushioned by the other changes in the team, or if it makes matters worse.The coach is always watching the team play, whether it's in practice or in official matches. Therefore I thought a question about the new lineup, dennis included, was in order. How does the new team feel, and what has really changed in the team with the new additions?The target in sight is Eleague's group D, where Fnatic will be participating with the Epicenter champions Team Dignitas as well as the French team EnVyUs and North American OpTic Gaming. That's where Berndtsson will play his offline debut as a player for Fnatic in dennis' place.Fnatic's first game in Eleague's second season will be against OpTic Gaming on the 18th of November. The Swedish team placed well in the first season of the Turner league, as they reached the grand finals but fell to Virtus.pro in the end. We'll see if they can repeat the deed in a week, but before that we get the chance to see them play in the ECS league, where they will be facing their new-found rivals Godsent on Monday.