Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson has been putting up great performances in the fnatic jersey for some time now, and was looking good to claim the MVP award in Katowice before Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist put up a monstrous grand final performance to snatch it away.

KRIMZ was happy about getting the MVP after flusha "stole" the last one away

In China, KRIMZ was consistently great which made him the driving force behind fnatic's $800,000 victory. We interviewed the 23-year-old and found out about playing underdogs, turning it around after StarSeries and more.

You won this tournament, obviously, and added that to winning Katowice recently, so that's a million dollars in two weeks. Can you tell me a bit about how that feels?

It is a really amazing experience for us, it was going so bad for us in the last two years. And now, from winning Katowice, I can't even find words for that one, and WESG as well. This wasn't the same as Katowice, don't get me wrong, it was still a really good thing for us and me personally, but it wasn't on the same level as Katowice. I'm just happy for every achievement.

As you said, you had a tough period, even at StarSeries, which was not that long ago, you bombed out of the group stage. Has anything changed in the team and the way you approach the game, maybe calling style, have you changed anything up that allowed you to go on a 14-game undefeated streak on LAN now?

I just think we trust in each other more than before, and we react better. When someone wants to do something on the map, we will react either by playing with that guy or doing something on the other side of the map which makes sense. I think we just became better playing with each other and off each other, it's simple as that. I don't think it's anything really special except that.

There were a few big teams here beside you like Cloud9, SK, and obviously, you play a lot of underdogs at this tournament. What was key for you guys to make it through all of those challenges while they stumbled?

We didn't think about it, we just focused on every game, no matter if we should beat them on paper. Just focus on the match, play our game. As you see, Inferno now in the final we kind of threw away, that was just us getting cocky from leading 7-0. Throughout the whole tournament, we just focused on every game, it doesn't matter which names are on the other side.

You touched on the final, on the last map you were down 14-7, what was the key to that comeback?

I think everyone was just pretty upset and mad from the Inferno game and we started feeling, maybe not the same "throw" feelings on Mirage, but similar. I think we just gathered our remaining energy and played some damn good CS.

On Cobblestone, Lekr0 had a very good game, had some great clutches, multifrags. How has his development in fnatic been so far, from your perspective?

I mean, he is a madfragger, he is good with pistols, he is good rifles, he is good with the sniper. He is just an all-around good player, I'm really impressed how he has come up in our team. He is getting more experienced at every tournament we go to. I mean, he's still got a lot to learn, but he is already really good at this stage, so he could end up being scary good. He impressed me a lot.

Obviously, team achievements come first, but you got the MVP, does it feel nice to get some acknowledgment after the performances you've been putting up recently?

It feels really amazing, because flusha stole my last one at Katowice. (laughs) No, he played good in the final, so he deserved it a lot. It feels really good for me, it's my first MVP since 2014 I think. So yeah, a very good thing.

What's next for fnatic?

DreamHack Marseille and a lot of online matches to play from home. We have no off days except some weekend maybe, we will just go home and practice.