With the recent departure of Mikail "Maikelele" Bill and Faruk "Pita" Pita from Team Dignitas, the team searched and replaced the two with Jesper "tenzki" Mikalski and Jørgen "cromen" Robertsen. Cromen has been the rising star of the Norwegian scene and many players say that he may be the next big thing coming out of Norway and Team Dignitas are delighted to have him on the team. He has shown great ability since him and Tenzki became stand-ins for the team and has consistently had a rating of above 1.00. We had a moment with him to discuss his journey into CS and into Team Dignitas, the Norwegian and Northern European scene, and the game itself.

Let's start with your past, how did you get into CS?

Cromen: I got into CS because of my brother. I was 10 years old and never had a computer of my own. I watched my brother play and when he was away I started playing and was instantly hooked on the game. I remember I always thought to myself "I’m going to master this game" no matter how long it would take. I always think about learning more, how to be a better player and teammate. I’m always trying to be competitive, no matter if it’s eSports or something else, and I hate losing. That's why I stuck to Counter-Strike because it was so much to learn and master. I started playing CS:GO as soon as the beta came out in 2012.





When did you know you could make a career out of playing CS:GO?

Cromen: I don’t know actually but it has always been my dream to become a top player in the professional scene. I knew I had talent from early Counter-Strike: Source when everyone was calling me a cheater and I just knew I could make my dream a reality. It continued with all the accusations in the CS:GO beta and I felt like I had great potential, but it also made it really hard to play on a good team. I didn’t want to travel with a half-decent team to my first ever LAN because I was afraid we would lose really hard and the accusations would become stronger and even make it harder to find a good team. I was pretty young so that was how I thought about it back then.



It made me have a slow start into my career and hard to get the right contacts. I started going to LAN events in 2014 with some mix-teams and such and didn't play as good as I did online but good enough. I just played a lot of "gathers" on mIRC after that and got noticed by zEVES in late 2015-early 2016. When he was making a new team called "deadweight", I tried out for them and immediately became a part of the team. This was the moment I thought I could make a career out of CS:GO.





How did you get invited to play for Team Dignitas? What did your try-out consist of?

Cromen: zEVES asked me if I wanted to join Team Dignitas and I said yes of course. I saw the potential and this team has people with a lot of experience at the top level, something that my other teams were lacking. My try-out was basically to practice with the team and show them why they should continue to play with me.





Realistically, what do you want to achieve with the team in the next 3 months?

Cromen: Realistically it would be to make a top 3 finish at the Minor in Bucharest so we can qualify for the Major. It requires a lot of practice for us, but I believe we can make it. There are a lot of great teams in the top 30 and CS:GO becomes more and more competitive each year. It will be a hard task, but from our results so far with the practice we had, I can see us making the top 3.





How does the team communicate while having 3 Norwegians, 1 Estonian/Dane and a Portuguese player? What language does the team communicate in and who does the shot calling in game?

Cromen: The team communicates in English. Of course, it has its challenges but we are making great progress. In the beginning, it was hard to transition into new spot names etc. as I had been calling these spots something else for my entire career, but it’s a lot better now. Rubino is the shot caller in game.





How is the team going on about preparing for the upcoming PGL Minor? Walk us through the daily routine of the team.

Cromen: We are practicing for 8-9 hours a day, first 1-2 hour of going through tactics/setups then perfecting them against other team’s rest of the practice and also working on the communication etc. After matches we talk about what’s going wrong, why certain things didn’t work, so we can improve on the things we are lacking.



Recently your new teammate Rubino sat down with Thorin and talked about the Norwegian CS:GO scene amongst other things. As a Norwegian player yourself, why do you think we haven't seen a big and successful all-Norwegian team yet?

Cromen: I think the reason is that Norway isn’t quite into eSports yet. There are no big companies that want to support/take their chances in the scene. If you look at LGB who had rain, Rubino, jkaem, zEVES & polly, they had potential to be a top contender. They qualified for ESL Katowice 2014 but then rain got bought up by Team Kinguin and they lost the best player in the team. I think it was a major setback and it didn’t work out in the end. If they had backing from a strong Norwegian organisation, I don’t think rain would have left the team and they could continue the success they had.





If you had to make a Norwegian dream team, which players would you choose?

Cromen: The obvious trio is rain, Jkaem, Rubino. Not sure about the last one, but I have seen that Radifaction is looking to be a great talent with the way he is playing lately.





What are the main differences between Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden when it comes to CS? Why is it that Denmark and Sweden have produced so many Top 10 players and teams in comparison to Finland and Norway?

Cromen: How I see it is that Denmark and Sweden has had some legendary players/teams which have made the game more popular and noticed in their countries and the top players have passed on the right mindset and knowledge about the game to the players in their country. They have a lot more coaches/IGLs who have helped the talented players get better at the game. That’s how I see it at least.





Looking at the game now, what is your opinion on the current state of the game? What do you think needs to be fixed?

Cromen: I think the game is in a good place, although the movement speed with pistols could be lowered or made less accurate while running. Also, the Famas spray/burst is really weird so I would like them to make Famas more "viable" in buy rounds again. The UMP being overpowered has already been covered by the community and they are working on it. But I think the pistols are the main issue and would make the games more exciting if they were not as good as they are now.





What is the one thing that you enjoy the most about CS?

Cromen: The feeling you get when you win important games, the adrenaline rush you get out of the game. I don’t get as much adrenaline now as I have played for a long time and stay calmer, but winning clutch situations in important games always feels good. When we go to big tournaments I think I would get the adrenaline back and it’s just an amazing feeling. So I think the kick you get out of the game is what makes me enjoy it the most.





Do you have any final words or shout-outs you would like to make?

Cromen: Shout-out to all the fans and all the players that have cheered for me through the years and made me feel like I have what it takes to become a professional player. It has helped me tremendously to reach my goal and my dream. Thanks to Team Dignitas and Philadelphia 76ers for the opportunity and support to reach our goal.

Thanks to Cromen for the interview!

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