Before Fnatic prepares to jump back into the EU Summer Split, I was given some time to talk with jungler Mads "Broxah" Brock-Pedersen. We touched on Rift Rivals, playoffs, and I also found out who he'd want to be stranded on an island with.

Fnatic is currently at the top of the standings, what is the team doing differently this split to warrant these results?





"At the end of the last split we were one of the top teams for sure, so I don't think that much has changed. We've just gotten more used to each other and refined our playstyle to make it less abusable than it was before. Obviously, there's still a lot of things to work on to be able to compete internationally, but at least in Europe it has been working very well so far."





How has playing for Fnatic made you grow as a jungler and as a player?





"When I joined Fnatic I was just a solo queue player with limited experience playing in a team, as school always was my first priority. When I finished high school I finally decided to take the step to go pro, and I grinded solo queue like never before and improved a lot individually. Therefore, I still had a lot of team-based things to learn like proper jungle pathing and communication especially. Nico and Kubz both helped me a lot transition into a team environment and made it somewhat easy for me to grow."





What would you say is the biggest thing standing in Fnatic’s way of becoming the Kings of Europe again?





"We have to be better at adapting to the meta rather than always sticking to the same style and champions. We've known for a while that it would become a problem eventually, since it is getting more predictable how we want to play the game, and after Rift Rivals, we agreed that it's time to change things up a bit. So we're looking to slowly but surely make some changes in the way we're drafting and playing the game, which we hope will help us win the split in the end."





Are you the best jungler in Europe?





"I can't take it seriously when people rank themselves since you'll always be very biased towards yourself. If you're not confident and don't believe in yourself, then it's almost impossible to play well. Therefore the chances of making proper rankings where you're including yourself are very low. With that being said, I do think I am one of the better junglers in the region. I don't want to judge if I am better than junglers like Jankos, Trick, Xerxe and Maxlore, but I believe that I am up there somewhere."





Are there any demons you personally have to overcome to become the best jungler in the league if you aren’t already?





"Things have been going really fast for me, and in just a few months I've gone from solo queue to playing with and against players that I've looked up to a lot before going pro myself. That has lead to a bunch of issues regarding my confidence, which for the most part has been improved, but it can still get better. It's the main thing I've been working on recently aside from gameplay-related stuff."





What was it like playing against your old Academy teammate?





"It felt a bit weird going up against Kikis. I was quite close to him while being on the Academy team, we talked a lot and started duoing all the time towards the end. I always hope that my previous teammates do well and win when they're playing matches, but this one time it was obviously different. Luckily for the team and I, we got the win and seeing Kikis be sad losing afterward surely felt bad. That's how it works though, there has to be a loser, and I'm sure that Kikis was happy for me."

Excited to face off against @MonkeysGER today with @Kikis1205 and @FnaticAmazing, who both have had a big impact on my growth as a player  — Broxah (@BroxahLoL) June 24, 2017

Do you think they can pull Mysterious Monkeys from the bottom of the standings?





"Mysterious Monkeys are not in the greatest spot currently, but I think they are gonna put a lot of pressure on Vitality and maybe they can even contest the third place."





During Rift Rivals, was there anything that surprised you from the North American teams?





"The NA teams seemed very structured and coordinated when we played against them. Their team play was really good and they knew how to play the game properly with low risks. It was also much harder to have an impact on them as a jungler than I expected since they would always position the waves smart and be careful when I wasn't showing on the map, so I could rarely gank."





Is there a jungler that you look up to, either as a mentor or as someone to beat?





"I guess it has to be Amazing. When I joined the Academy team in the beginning, he gave me a really hard time since he was so much better than me, and I learned a lot from that. He was also super helpful and open to answering my questions. Later I ended up replacing him, so when I face him I want to do well and show that they made the right decision back then."





Is there a jungler champion that you wish was in the meta again?





"In Season 4 I played tons of Jarvan, so it would be pretty fun if he became a meta jungler again at some point. I've barely played him since then, but it's always fun to pick up champions that you used to enjoy playing in the past."

Busy week for us, a lot of work to do after Rift Rivals. It's a bit of a learning process, but we're trying for our lives to speed it up  pic.twitter.com/lIbap8eFJ8 — Broxah (@BroxahLoL) July 12, 2017

We're now half way through the split, what teams do you think will make it to playoffs?





"From our group, both ourselves and Misfits have gotten a great start, and I think we'll both make it to playoffs. Roccat and G2 are pretty close in the standings, but I'm convinced that G2 will only get better and get closer to their former form, so that will be my three choices from our own group. In the other group H2K, UOL and Splyce seem extremely strong and I doubt that Vitality and MM can catch them."





Lastly, if you were stranded on an island and could only have one person with you, which one of your teammates would you choose?





"I would choose Caps, the troll of the team. Being on the island would probably suck and be really boring, but at least I'd have someone to come with funny comments and keep it somewhat entertaining."

I like to thank Broxah for taking the time to answer my questions. We wish him and Fnatic the best of luck in the Summer Split.

Cover Photo Courtesy of Riot Flickr