May 14, 2018

We took some time to interview the one and only Lekr0 - AWPer from Fnatic!

In your previous teams as well as this one, it seems as though you always perform better when you are given some space and a looser structure to perform. Do you think this is the case or do you actually prefer a more tightened calling style? I like what we are usually doing. We didn’t do it as much this event but we are usually playing loose. Like if we play a standard for example, if I know I’m going to take control of a place then it’s easier to play myself into a position rather than just playing like ‘you have to do this or that’. Because then you might use your nades in a bad way and you can’t save them if you want to - it gets more difficult. So I think playing loose is better. Going to GODSENT, what was the fragging dynamic like between you, disco doplan and twist? Did anything from that time directly translate into your current form today? The problem we had in GODSENT was we had good roles. Well, we had good players but we never had someone dedicated to the role. Like, some days we had Twist AWPing, some days we had Znjader, sometimes me entrying, sometimes other. We were always switching around. So I think that was the worst thing for us. We would’ve had more stability and stuff like that if we held roles. Would’ve been good. Knowing now what we should’ve done, like if we had dedicated people to certain roles then you would improve your role more and more and get better with time. So I think that was the worst thing. But it’s a good thing now because now I know and learn from it [in Fnatic].

'I think I have pretty good flicks and stuff - pretty fast reactions. I think that’s my best point.' - Lekr0

So is that something you value really highly? Set roles but freedom within them? Yeah, because then you can improve yourself or watch other players take ideas and stuff like that. So, it’s easier to get better at a role than to get better at everything at the same time. It actually takes too much time I think. Outside of your deagle antics, how do you identify your strengths as a player? I think I have pretty good flicks and stuff - pretty fast reactions. I think that’s my best point. But, I think something I need to practice on is keeping my cool sometimes. I know I usually win the duels, but sometimes I just come into a bad positions and it’s harder to win from poor situations. If you’re in a good position though, you win it everytime. Was it harder in GODSENT then, given the role instability, to maintain a good mindset in duels? Not really actually. I had really good individual form in GODSENT because I got to do anything I wanted. If I wanted to get an entry somewhere it’s really easy to do. Even now, I’m more fixed on a special part of the map. So, it’s not like I can go from around bombsites and get picks and stuff like that.

More of an anchor now right? Yeah, exactly. So now we have different people to get picks and stuff like that. I’m usually more controlling the map, chilling until we decide to do something. But before I was poking around and getting kills. Speaking of anchoring, I was watching you hold B on Dust II and against G2 and it seemed you had a tougher time. It’s like you can just crouch-peek every angle dry and the CT player has to take a lot of straight duels - how is it anchoring on the new addition to the pool? I think it’s hard to do it when you’re by yourself, but when you have a teammate playing in-site - KrimZ is my rotation - it’s easier. On that game, he was playing a lot in mid, and we’ve practiced that more now, but as long as he’s ready to flash through the door for me it’s easy to buy time for the flash and with a flash it’s easy to find frags. If you play all in positions on B, it’s really difficult to hold. Looking from the outside in but with experience with their roster, how do you look at the GODSENT roster right now? They added Brollan, hampus, freddieb. They have more people in dedicated roles, they have more structure than before. And they have really talented players still. They’ve been doing better and better now, and I think they won that invitational in Belgrade? I’m excited with how they’re going to play in the future but they’ve shown a lot of promise lately. So you think players like Twist and Disco can operate at a top level internationally? Yeah for sure, I think anyone in any team can operate at a high level. Semi professionals and professionals even… It’s like, it’s not that big of a difference aim wise. As long as you find the teamplay and don’t swap around team members, and mess with good teams, it’s easier for teams to get established and make impact.

As one of the looser sides in the world, how do you perceive the creeping dominance of more structured styles of play like in Na`Vi and Astralis amongst the top five? I’m not really sure, I think it’s going to be tough in the beginning. These new teams, they get the new structure, the new style but as with everything playstyle it gets old kinda fast. And with structured play you get probably some set strategies, hard tactics and defaults you play and sooner or later people aren’t going to be surprised by what you’re doing. But right now, it’s a surprise factor. You aren’t used to this slow playing and they just do a full execute at one minute, you aren’t used to this. So I think everyone will be used to at one point, but it comes down to how everyone prepares for the other time. But at the end of the day it comes down to how much you prepare for the other team and I think gla1ve and Zonic prepare so much right now. Astralis prepares for each map really well - and I think that’s why they’re doing so well.