FaZe have survived the second day of IEM Katowice and we sat down for a quick chat with Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants to find out more about his adaptation to the AWP role.

The Latvian has been AWPing on the Terrorist side since the beginning of the year, showing great results so far as he averaged an impressive 1.38 rating at BLAST Premier and led FaZe to their first victory at IEM Katowice over Renegades on the second day.

broky feels better as part of the group rather than lurking

In our interview from Poland, broky spoke about why the big green fits him better than lurking, the role he has now passed on to Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer, and explained how the AWPing duties work on the CT sides in FaZe.

He also discussed the team's issues against Na`Vi in the opening loss of the tournament, in which they gave up a 13-9 lead on Dust2, for which the youngster took some of the blame on himself.

I first wanted to touch on the adaptation to the AWP that you've had over the past couple of months, tell me about how that process has gone from your perspective.

I started playing with the AWP only after the Katowice qualifier, so it's only been about a month or a month and a half so far. I hadn't really played mainly with the AWP in teams before, I only played it in FACEIT, in FPL or something, but I think I'm doing well so far.

I hadn't really played mainly with the AWP in teams before, I only played it in FACEIT, in FPL or something, but I think I'm doing well so far. Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants

Well, the stats show you've been doing really well, actually, where does that comfort come from?

I think I'm better when I'm going with the group, so that's what's showing. When I have the AWP and I'm going with the group, we are doing better. For example, when I was lurking, it wasn't a role for me, so I guess that's the reason I'm showing better stats.

You haven't really been the primary AWPer on the CT side of some of the maps, can you explain what the hierarchy looks like, or how it changes map to map?

I'm only AWPing on two maps on the CT side so far, it's Nuke and Mirage, the rest is olof and sometimes cold on Inferno. We just changed it as T only for me.

Why is that? Would you like to be more of a primary AWPer on the CT side, too, or is this how you're comfortable, switching between roles like that?

I'm comfortable, but I think if I was the main AWPer on the CT side I would be more comfortable.

People have been expecting bigger things from FaZe after that convincing BLAST showing, do you have that kind of confidence in the team, as well, that you've reached a new level this year?

I think the confidence is still there, we just had some unlucky rounds against Na`Vi. We had good communication, we had good reads, but we made some unlucky mistakes and we lost the game.

You had a 13-9 lead there on Dust2 and ended up dropping that, what happened?

NiKo made a call and I didn't know what I should do, and then we just canceled it, but it was supposed to be a good call. I think that was the main reason it went from 13-9 to what happened.

Was there a misunderstanding?

I just forgot what I was supposed to do.

We didn't show a good game against Renegades, I think we should have closed it much more easily. Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants

The team had a couple of times where you dropped some big leads during this tournament, even in this series against Renegades on Mirage, where you went from 8-0 up to an 8-7 half. What's happening on the maps that causes you to throw these away?

I think mainly it was just that we were feeling good when it was 8-0 and then we were just getting caught off, that was the main reason. Everyone was still feeling good.

Your upcoming match against Vitality should be a big test, what do you expect from that?