UNLEASHED were relatively unknown in the CS:GO scene until they were picked up by Torpedo Gaming this past August, and since then they've made some big strides. They will soon find themselves on the main stage with some of the top teams in the scene at the Counter Pit League Season 2 LAN finals.

Torpedo's in-game leader Joachim "darti" Fornstedt took the time to talk with theScore esports about his team's preparations for the event, how they deal with losses and what he thinks of their upcoming match against Astralis.

Hi Joachim, thanks for taking the time. In case people aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a bit about yourself?

Hello! I come from a 1.6 background and played that game for lots of years, mostly for fun but at a somewhat decent level. In 2013 the game was almost completely dead, and I and a mix of friends (Embrace Gaming) decided to hesitantly make the switch to CS:GO. I started to like the game and never looked back after that. Currently I am playing as the in-game leader for Torpedo.

Torpedo Gaming's in-game leader Joachim "darti" Fornstedt at Pantamera 2.0

When did you and the rest of the UNLEASHED lineup start competing in CS:GO? You guys seemed to come out of nowhere.

The core of the current lineup in Torpedo [darti, Samuel "Decent" Oldenburg and Simon "atter" Atterstam] mostly played the game for fun until we played a qualifier last May and somehow beat the new superteam Kinguin 16-1 on Cache, which got a lot of attention. That whetted our appetite as it was so fun playing competitive, and we realized we were able to compete with really good teams, so we started to take the game more seriously.

Team Kinguin during ESL One: Cologne 2015. Joachim "darti" Fornstedt's previous team, Embrace Gaming, defeated them during the DreamHack Summer 2015 Online Pre-Qualifier #2.

Since being picked up by Torpedo Gaming, the team has gone through a few roster changes, the most recent being the loss of William "tease" Sid to Publiclir.se. How and why did this change happen?

tease is a great guy and has a lot of potential, but we didn't really agree on how to play the game and decided to part ways because of that.

What’s it like playing under an organization like Torpedo Gaming? What’s changed for the team and yourself?

First and foremost it's really fun! The Torpedo management are great guys and we have a lot of fun attending events and communicating with them on a daily basis. Playing for a serious organisation also requires more responsibility and actively trying to improve. This was a bit unusual at first, as we haven't played for such a serious organisation before, but we are starting to settle in.

Mattias "Malle" Lindberg has been acting as a stand-in for a number of months now and is your designated AWPer. How has this latest roster been performing? How’s team chemistry?

I feel that every time we have made a roster swap it has made the team better, and that's been the case with Malle's arrival as well. We had a really good "honeymoon period" and managed to qualify for Counter Pit Finals. Recently we have been in a bit of a slump both online and offline, however I feel we are on the rise and getting out of it — in time for the Counter Pit LAN Finals.

Your most recent LAN outing at Pantamera 2.0 didn’t go so well. What did you learn there? How do you guys deal with losses?

We learned that we need to work a lot on our communication and not take any game for granted. We try not to think too much about it right after and just go out for dinner and a few drinks to get our mind on something else. Some days later we discuss what went wrong and what we can improve.

You guys have been bootcamping for a few days now. What have you learned in that time? What other preparations has the team made ahead of Counter Pit?

I don't think we have learned many completely new things (other than some new strats). We have mainly been focusing on team play and communication. But a big thanks to QPAD and inet.se for making the bootcamp happen!

It’s also the tournament with the largest prize pool you guys have competed in so far. How much of a milestone is that for you?

This is a huge deal for us and an amazing opportunity, just to play at a venue of that magnitude blows my mind. We will go there and do our best and it will be a great experience for sure no matter how it ends.

Your first matchup in Croatia is against Astralis. What was the team’s reaction when you guys found out? What’s the plan going into that matchup?

Honestly we were a bit disappointed as we felt Astralis was probably the team we wanted to face the least. After some practice and thought however, I feel better about the matchup. The plan going into it is just play our game, enjoy it and try to keep our heads up even if we get a bad start.

Finn "karrigan" Andersen and the rest of Astralis on the stage of the Spodek for IEM Season X World Championship Katowice. They are Torpedo Gaming's first opponents in Counter Pit.

Do you guys plan to have any downtime in Croatia? What will you guys do in-between games?

We arrive on the 15th and the event starts the 17th. Hopefully there will be some time to experience the city a bit the first days, as I've heard it's a great one!

What are your plans for 2016 and the future? Any final thoughts?

Just to keep at it and keep evolving as a team and individuals. Our biggest goal this year is to qualify for a Major.

As final thoughts I just want to say thank you for this interview and also a big shoutout to QPAD, inet.se and csgobig.com for making our bootcamp possible.