The international star team Kinguin are still standing strong despite of all the recent setbacks.

This weekend they compete at ESL One Cologne, and Mikail ”Maikelele” Bill thinks they have something the other teams are missing, friendship.

– We are incredibly good friends and it feels amazing, everything is going up, Maikelele tells Aftonbladet Esport.

The international CS:GO-team Kinguin, with stars such as Adil ”ScreaM” Benrlitom, Dennis ”dennis” Edman and Mikail ”Maikelele” Bill on the front lines, have had their fair share of setbacks since the creation of the team. Lately, however, they have been looking like a far more successful team with more and more achievements to put on their resumé.

This summer they went on to win the offline qualifiers for the huge major tournament ESL One Cologne, a qualifier they went through in a convincing fashion, winning every single game. However, the victory came with Danniél ”dalito” Morales as their coach and in-game leader, a person who shortly after became a controversial figure. Since one of his steam accounts had been handed a VAC-ban, he was no longer allowed to compete at ESL-tournaments and was soon kicked out from Kinguin. A huge setback, according to Maikelele.

– Dailto became a close friend to everyone and I still believe in Dalito, that he was innocent. He is a close friend of mine, and has been since 2007. It was a big loss, we all felt comfortable and safe with him. We felt like he was doing his job and really wanted to improve the team and himself, Maikelele says to Aftonbladet Esport.

After the VAC-incident, Kinguin chose to continue on the same path with a coach as in-game leader. In their search for a new shot caller, one of Maikeleles old colleges, Nikola ”LEGIJA” Ninic came up.

– I played with him as a stand in in Mousesports for about 15 matches, and back then he was also the in-game leader. I knew a little bit about how he works as an IGL and if you watch our matches, it can be good to have an IGL that is both somewhat defensive and aggressive. LEGIJA is a bit all round. Dalito was more aggressive, which works, but it’s nice to have something to lean back on when it’s not working, and that’s where LEGIJA is good.

How is the spirit in the team now?

– It’s amazing. This is probably the first team that are very good friends both in and outside the game. Of course you have the minor fusses and team disputes when someone does something wrong, or does the same thing wrong multiple times. But that’s completely normal. We are incredibly good friends and it feels amazing, everything is going up.

”Everyone wants to play on the huge arena”

For the upcoming major tournament, ESL One Cologne, Kinguin were placed in group C, the group that at least on paper seems to be one of the easier ones. There they will be challenged by Brazilian Luminosity Gaming, Ukrainian FlipSid3 Tactics – that lost one of their biggest stars, Alexandr ”s1mple” Kostyliev – and EnvyUs, that recently recruited superstar Kenny ”KennyS” Schrub and Dan ”apex” Madesclaire. Maikelele feels confident going into the group stage.

– We’ve kept an eye on the Brazilians, how they’ve been playing. Since they have moved to North America it’s somewhat easier to keep track of them, Maikelele says and continues.

– We have been practicing against Envy also and it feels good. I easily think we can move through on the first day.

What do you think about the new EnvyUs?

– There’s raw skill in that team, I tell you. But that’s kind of a thing with the French players, they are incredibly good when practicing. They really go in for it, and play to win the practice matches. We have lost against them a couple of times because of that, because we want to practice and train different things. But they shoot incredibly hard, they do.

”LEGIJAs first event with us”

In order to go deep into the tournament, Kinguin has developed a new mental strategy where they create milestones ahead of the tournament. Getting to play in front of the crown in Lanxess arena, is one of the more attractive milestones.

– Everyone wants to play in the big arena in Germany, so that would be especially cool if we could get through and play there. But we just do it goal for goal and step by step.

Are there any challenges within the team?

– The one thing I can think of is that this is the first event for LEGIJA with us. We’ve been lucky enough that he’s been able to sit with us on Teamspeak during official matches and he’s been with us during practice matches, but it’s one thing to do it on official matches and a whole other thing to do it on LAN.

Even though they’ve not had much time to practice with the new coach and in-game leader, Maikelele still have good hopes going into the big tournament, and most of all, he wants to play against a certain Swedish team in the finals.

– I have a strong, strong, feeling that things are going to go well for us this tournament. Not counting our own team, say that we loose the first match and get eliminated, I believe we will see NiP – Fnatic in the grand final. It’s becuase NiP are very strong right now individually, they’ve been practicing very much recently. And Fnatic are Fnatic.

If you get to count in Kinguin, who will Kinguin face in the final?

– I have to say NiP, that would be the dream final.

”I don’t know who is creating all these rumors”

Last week, changes within the Kinguin company were brought to the public eye, where they have withdrawn the sponsorship of all organisations except their own. At the same time, sources to the Dailydot claimed that the organisation were also selling their off CS:GO-squad to the highest bidder.

Is this true?

– No. I don’t know who it is that are creating all these rumors. I don’t know, and I just can’t answer it.

– It’s hard to say if Kinguin are about to go into other organisations or wants us to switch. We in the team have nothing to do with that. If this were to happened, we would get a say in it, but currently it’s just rumors.

So you don’t know anything about this?

– I know that right now it’s not true. The news are only rumors. We don’t know might happened in the future, we don’t know, actually.