freakazoid: "I'm learning a different part of the game now"

We got the chance to talk to freakazoid about their series against Sharks, how his team is faring, and his goals for the future.

freakazoid and the rest of Swole Patrol aim to win MDL and play as many qualifiers as they can

Danish "Nohte" Allana caught up with Ryan "freakazoid" Abadir at ZOTAC Cup Masters following Swole Patrol's loss to Sharks in a grueling best-of-three series that saw 60 rounds of regulation play and an additional 47 overtimes rounds over two maps.

Let's start with the match you just played, it was a pretty long slog with 65 rounds in the second map and double OT in the first. Talk to me about the sort of mentality for the team when it gets that deep into a match, how does the flow of the game change for you guys?

I mean that's the first time I've ever experienced that, so... honestly you get burnt out but you just have to try and find yourself in the round, just focusing hard because you can kind of dose off a little bit cause you've been playing so much. Your eyes get a little heavy, your brain's not functioning at 100%, it just gets tough but you have to just try and stay focused as best you can. Just try and play good CS. Other than that you can't do anything special other than try your best to focus, stay hydrated and stuff like that.

ALSO READ Sharks take a bite out of Swole Patrol

Were you calling throughout the series?

Yeah I was calling the whole time.

Did it get progessively more difficult to counter their reads?

Yeah, it's crazy. We were countering each others counters and it became a counter-battle, constantly. They would throw a fake B, then they would take A early in the game, and later in the game they'd fake B, go A, fake back B then go back A. It became a battle of how many fakes and who bit harder, amd just getting the frags in the end.

After here you're headed off to the Americas Minor. Are you going straight there, bootcamping first, or just sort of taking it as it goes?

Nah we're probably just gonna practice a lot at home and then head out to the LAN in England on Wednesday and play a couple of matches and scrims there. We've practiced a lot already.

ALSO READ Swole Patrol round out Americas Minor team list

What do you think about qualifiers using formats like that Americas Minor Swiss format when it awards six spots and uses round difference at the end to decide the last team?

I mean the Swiss format was fine, but it sucks that only 6 teams got to go through and not eight because three teams went 3-2, and we were the best team for round differential. It's just a bummer for TeamOne and Luminosity because they got three wins, they paid their dues, but they just didn't get to go cause of round differential. It just sucks.

How's it been playing at a professional level and then dropping back and trying to work your way back up?

With me it's more just keeping my hours up and playing the game a lot, and also I'm learning a lot just because I'm calling now too. I'm watching demos, I'm learning a different part of the game now that I've been coming back up. It may not be against the highest competition, but I think we're all improving a lot recently. The biggest difference between playing professional and MDL is just little things, better nades, better utility usage, stuff like that. Some people can hit better shots like NiKo and s1mple, but at the end of the day everybody is going to have sick aim and it just comes down to nades and making the right calls.

ALSO READ freakazoid: "Get back to the Major"

As the current season of MDL is a training season and there's no promotion from it, what're you guys looking to accomplish in this season of MDL?

Honestly win it, then come back next season and win it again. That's my goal for sure, and then just do well at qualifiers, that's like our main goal. Play qualifiers, qualify for events like these, that's how we can keep getting better, just LAN experience like that. Sam's experienced, my brother hasn't had that much experience; he's gonna get better from this. Jordan, or Zellsis, is gonna keep getting better from this. LILMAN is still improving, and we're still trying to figure out our team roles. We're gonna play qualifiers and just win MDL.

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Swole Patrol are next set to compete at the Americas Minor in London from July 7th-11th, where they'll face off against NRG, Dignitas, compLexity and more as they look to claim one of the two coveted slots at the FACEIT Major.