By Taras Bortnik

Special to VPEsports

We spoke with Håvard “rain” Nygaard following FaZe’s elimination from ESL One Cologne. The Norwegian player discussed the teams current state, roster moves, karrigan, a much needed vacation and more.

***

VPEsports: What’s the team atmosphere like right now?



rain: Generally speaking, good. We didn’t really show up here in Cologne, but I think we are missing some understanding in the game, between the players. I don’t think that we are on the same page. Of course we don’t have too much time to work on it, we have BLAST in LA in a couple of days and vacation after. Hope we will get the vacation and then people will calm down a little bit.





VPEsports: Are emotions high in the team at the moment?



rain: We don’t have arguments. We are trying to figure out how we are going to play. People just want to play differently.





VPEsports: Can you tell me about the changes that NEO brought to your team?



rain: At the start he just wanted to see how we are playing and everything and try to make up a playstyle for us, but right now I think we are trying to play the same way as we did with AdreN. Like our normal style. I don’t think that this is working out right now, people are in positions that they shouldn’t be in. NEO brought a calmness as in-game leader. karrigan is a very hype person, he is loud and this “go, go, go!” stuff. Filip is very calm.





VPEsports: Do you think that this energy from karrigan is something you are missing now?



rain: I don’t think that this is necessarily needed. If you’ll look at NiP you’ll see that when they were the best team in the world they were the calmest team in the world. Cause when you are calm, your communication is calm and then your team play will be at it’s best. But when you are screaming, information is constantly repeating and teamplay usually goes down bringing problems in your mid-rounds and stuff.





VPEsports: You’ve just mentioned that you are playing the same style you used to play with AdreN. So why did you change AdreN?



rain: Well, we needed a caller, that’s it. NiKo simply didn’t want to do it anymore. He wanted to play his own game and this is understandable. He needs his space in the game. The main part from the beginning was to find an in-game leader. That was something we were lacking after cutting Karrigan from the roster.





VPEsports: Did you regret that?



rain: I regret it right now, we should never have kicked him.





VPEsports: But there were people who thought differently…



rain: Yeah. But now everyone regrets it. Of course we do. Maybe not right now, but the month after when we got AdreN everybody started to regret it, cause we didn’t have an IGL for five months. Everybody was like “Fuck, we kicked our in-game leader without having an in-game leader to take over”. Not the best idea by far.





VPEsports: During the group stage you were knocked out by karrigan’s mousesports. Can you tell me what the mood was going into the match?



rain: It was really good, we were ready to rekt Karrigan. I am still very good friends with karrigan, even though we are not in the same team and I have nothing against him as a person or as a player. I think eventually I will play with him one time in a team so for now our rivalry just brings extra fire in the match, cause you want to beat your friend.



After we lost emotions were pretty low. This is the only event of the year I really care about. Just playing here in front of the crowd is something special. It feels even more like the Major.





VPEsports: Probably the most important question to you is how much time do you guys still need to make a comeback?



rain: For now, we need a vacation. There has been a lot of travel for us and we are really tired. We need to relax, to have time with friends and families. Cause right now people are looking at this more like a job – you have to go there, you have to do this. People need to find a passion for the game again.





VPEsports: What’s you plan for this vacation?



rain: Bali. Two weeks with my girlfriend. We met here in Cologne four years ago.

For more of our esports content, check out our Twitter.

Related articles: