Oskar ”G0DFRED” Lundström. Foto: Riot Games

Oskar ”G0DFRED” Lundström stepped onto the European LCS scene and almost instantly made an impact with GIANTS! Gaming.

As the split progressed, the Swede alongside his squad kept taking huge wins and eventually ended up in the playoffs.

With a new season on the horizon, G0DFRED speaks about the team’s ambitions and why he thinks it is that esports in general have come to be crowded with people from a small country in the Nordics.

– I believe that many of us have a background in different team sports like football and handball and more or less know how to behave if you want to succeed both as individuals and as a team, he explains for Aftonbladet Esport.

We are only hours away from the start of a new season of professional League of Legends in Europe. Several already famous names return while we as usual have to learn a couple of new potential future stars. One who has already made a name for himself on the scene is the Swedish support star, Oskar ”G0DFRED” Lundström who joined GIANTS! Gaming a few days after the start of the summer split. With the team’s last spring split in mind, noone anticipated much from the Spanish/Swedish team, but they managed to turn quite a few heads and make it all the way to playoffs.

Last split, Fnatic dominated in Europe during 2015. Everything the orange team touched seemed to turn to gold with the help of the new players Heo ”Huni” Seung-hoon, Kim ”Reignover” Ui-jin and Fabian ”Febiven” Diepstraten. As Martin ”Rekkles” Larsson rejoined the team they not only won the spring split – but went through the summer split regular season without dropping a single game.

Since then Fnatic have lost three of their stars who have moved to new hunting grounds on the other side of the pond. Something G0DFRED believes might open things up in the European LCS.

– I have a hard time seeing them dominating this split but still consider them having a good chance to end up with the number 3 or 4 spot, he says and continues:

– Other teams that look strong are H2K, Vitality and Origen.

”Really tough”

As usual Riot have dropped several updates, patches and new champions since the end of Worlds. And in the wake of the changes a new meta have formed – as it should have. According to G0DFRED the new meta can make for a split where missteps will be punished severely.

– The meta right now is really tough because if you make a mistake in the game the fight could be over almost immediately if your opponents know how to handle the advantage. The margins are so slim now and you are not allowed to make any misstakes, especially in the early game.

You guys made huge strides last season, most notably during the summer split. How are you feeling ahead of the new season and have your goals changed during the off season?

– The team is in shape, of course we can always become better but it feels like we beomce stronger and learn more and more for every scrim. The goals for the split is that we as a team should establish ourself as a team that ends up higher up in the table as well as continuing to develop as players with the same attitude we have had all preseason.

”We have to much time”

There’s an abundance of Swedish players in the European LCS. Alongside G0DFRED and Rekkles we also have Petter ”Hjärnan” Freyschuss in Vitality, Hampus ”Fox” Myhre in Unicorns of Love, Felix ”Betsy” Edling in Team ROCCAT and Hampus ”sprattel” Abrahamsson in Elements. Besides the guys in the LCS Sweden also boasts two of the greatest CS:GO squads in Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas and the former world champions of Dota, Alliance.

On the question how a small country in the Nordics can create so many esport professionals and profiles, G0DFRED jokes that it could have to do with grim climate on our latitudes, but at the same time he points out that it could have something to do with it.

– We have to much time, it is to dark and to cold. Honestly it could contribute to you spending more time infront of your computer when the weather is as rough as at can be in Sweden. But I believe that many of us have a background in different team sports like football and handball and more or less know how to behave if you want to succeed both as individuals and as a team.

The list over what G0DFRED has been working on during the darkest months of the year in the off-season seems to be long.

– Personally I’ve been working hard to become a better player overall and practicing the stuff I’ve been weaker with, for example implementing the strategy I believe we should use depending on the champions or opponents have chosen. And of course I’ve been practicing the new ”meta” champions for my role.