Adam "Friberg" Friberg has a long storied history within Counter-Strike. His tenure with Ninjas in Pyjamas has been well documented, with championships secured over the years. For some, the belief was that his best years were behind him.





Enter OpTic Gaming, a team looking to rebuild themselves with an international mindset. They successfully secured some of the top players at their positions and the team will look to Friberg as the veteran voice. For Friberg, the opportunity is a chance to grow his own legacy.

​Q: IEM Oakland was a mixed result for you and the team, how do you feel about that event and what is the plan going into the ESL Pro League Finals?





A: IEM Oakland was our first big event as a team, we managed to place 2nd place in group, which is of course a good result, but with a few matches that we didn't show up at all. We need to get more consistent because I feel our A-game is on a very high level but we can also play very poorly some games.





Q: OpTic finished atop of the standings in NA, being 5 points clear of SK Gaming. Does that fill the team with confidence moving into the Finals?





A: I feel that we played very good in the online season of NA Pro League. We played the majority of the games from our previous team house in Chicago and we played tons of CS during the weeks we were there. It's a big confidence boost knowing that you can beat any team, even if it's online or LAN.





Q: Following ESL’s new group pairing format for the Finals, you’ve ended up in Group Red and will face SK Gaming, North and NiP to name a few. How do you view your chances of advancing?





A: I feel that we have good chances to advance from group stages here in Pro League Finals. I feel that we are well prepared and that people doesn't really know how we changed our way of playing after mixwell got back in the AWP role.





Q: How has ImaPet's coaching and tactical mindset helped the team, especially going into the ESL Pro League Finals?





A: ImAPet has helped out a lot with new tactics and setups both as T and CT and we try to be able to play both tactical and a bit looser, right now I feel that me and Chet are trying to find the right balance in the way we are playing.





Q: You never really played the IGL role during your tenure with NiP, how are you handling the leadership role and responsibility in OpTic?

A: It's a new role to me but I'm gaining a lot as a player to do it. I still have a lot to learn and will need more time to get 100% used to the role but as long as my team mates helps out with information and mid round calling it's going well. I need also to find balance when to let my players do what they want and when to tell them to play more structured, but it's a bit hard in our team as we are 5 players from 5 different teams and we have different perspective on how to approach situations, but we are making progress.





Q: During the initial formation of this OpTic lineup, was there ever a consideration to bring allu’s former teammate kioShiMa into the team, and could that still be a possibility?





A: Rather not answer





Q: You and the team have been dominating on online games as seen with ECS and the EPL, but results have been mixed offline. How can the team translate that success to offline games and events?





A: I feel like the main reason why we played well online was that we all lived in the team house and played many hours of CS every day, we got into a good phase with the team. I felt that we needed to prepare better before the offline tournaments, but we also needed to have a break from CS after we came back from Chicago, we really overplayed while we were there. Hopefully we can bring some better CS now at both Pro League finals and ECS finals since we've been preparing and playing a lot more from home.





Q: After IEM Oakland, ImaPet announced that mixwell would be returning as the full-time AWPer going into the EPL Finals. What was the decision behind that?





A: Mixwell did not want to AWP when he was playing for the previous OpTic team, he was more put into the role, so when this new lineup was created he wanted to be the 2nd-ary AWPer and focus more on rifling. But because of mixed results I think he wanted to try the main AWP role again and allu did not mind going back to lurking because HS wanted to play entry as well. I think everyone in the team feel comfortable with our roles now and I'm excited to see how well we will play.





Q: HenryG said in an interview with us after your exit at IEM Oakland that he believed the team could do damage but it'd never be top 5 or win an event. What are your thoughts on that?





A: I feel that we have the components to be a tier 1 team, we need to improve our team play and communication if we ever want to win a tournament but I really feel that we are making a lot of progress and I believe that we could definitely become a team to challenge top4 at the biggest events and eventually win as well.





Q: The EPL Finals and ECS Finals are the last two big tournaments of the year you’ll be a part of. Will you be going into these events with a point to prove?





A: Our goals are to place at least top four at both events and we feel that we should do so as well, anything less would be a huge disappointment for us.

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Photo Credit to IEM