Linus "Limmp" Blomdin's return to Sweden has not been easy.

The former compLexity Gaming player joined Alliance in September as their new mid, replacing Gustav "s4" Magnusson on the fan-favorite team. Since he joined, however, Alliance have failed to qualify for several tournaments, including the Boston Major, and placed 5th-6th at the Northern Arena BEAT Invitational.

In an interview with theScore esports, Limmp spoke about how he came to join Alliance, and how his experience of being on an EU team has differed from being with compLexity Gaming in North America.

Editor's note: This interview was conducted before Alliance lost to Team NP on Day 2 of the Northern Arena BEAT Invitational in Montreal.

Before joining Alliance you were a member of compLexity. You played in the TI6 Wild Card, but coL finished last. How did you feel?

We were all pretty devastated, you know there were tears, like right after we were all pretty emotional. Just shocked that I'm out. I didn't really know how to feel myself until later — but you know, really, really disappointed, that's all I can say about it.

When did you make the decision to leave compLexity?

It was honestly ... not before TI, but I felt like if we didn't do quite well, I'd probably not stay. And then ... when we lost the Wild Card, then I knew I had to leave. To, I don't know, to get a better team.

Did you leave jointly with Handsken [Simon "Handsken" Haag]?

Yeah, we did. We talked to each other before, and then we sat down with Swindlezz and the rest of the team in the house and just, you know... we had talked to each other before so we were united in this, so that's how it was. We pretty much did it together.

We weren't 100 percent looking to make a team together again, but then this opportunity came up, and we were obviously talking to each other as we were looking for teams. We were trying to get the best for each of us.

How did the opportunity come up for you?

Both me and Simon were talking to Loda individually, and he was looking for new players. He wanted to play with EGM, I think, but he wasn't for sure who [else] he wanted to play with, so he tried out different players, and I tried out some other team as well.

Which team?

It wasn't a team actually, I tried out something with Pajkatt and GH. Either way, I didn't honestly have too much opportunities myself, but me ... Handsken and Jonas [Jonas "jonassomfan" Lindholm] were trying to make something together and then we talked to Loda and started playing with him and EGM.

That's when you came back to Sweden?

We actually went [back to the coL team house in Florida], and it was kinda strange because we knew we were gonna leave, but we were still in the house with Swindlezz [Kyle "melonzz" Freedman] and Zfreek [Zakari "Zfreek" Freedman], and we didn't actually have the talk. We kinda just had vacation, because we lost and we were just doing our own thing, just doing stuff.

After a couple of days we sat down at the table and we were just like, 'This is how it is.' Originally [Swindlezz] wanted me and Simon to stay, but we were like, 'We had made up our minds, we wanna go back to Sweden.' Me and Simon didn't want to live in America either, or in a team house — that's how Kyle or Swindlezz wanted to do it with his team, he wanted to have a team house, and he wants everyone to be there, so...

You don't like team houses?

I just don't like team houses all the time. I like it for bootcamping for a major tournament, or just going there every once in a while, but just being in a team house all the time is not for me at least.

And I don't think it's good for teams at all. I don't think anyone is doing it. It's like, you kind of get irritated, you live with each other, you do everything with each other, you travel, you come back from travelling from tournaments, you go back to the house with each other. I don't think it's good for you to be with each other all the time when what you do, you're doing it with each other as well, like your hobby or your work.

Do you need distance?

Yeah. I kind of need some alone time, honestly. That's how it is for me at least.

What's it like not playing with your brother [Rasmus "Chessie" Blomdin] for the first time in a while?

I think it's good for me. I'm not sure if our styles matched too well with each other. I don't know, I think I needed something completely different from what I've been doing. Not just from how Kyle was captaining our team, but from all the core players. I just had to see if I can improve myself, if I can play better if I get more loose in some way.

I wouldn't say I miss playing with him, but it was fun to play with him.

Have you felt a big difference between playing on a European team and an American team?

Yeah. First of all we all talk the same language, so you get a special kind of bond in some way. How we handle things is different, like in compLexity there was a lot of just getting mad at each other, stuff didn't go well, or one guy is believing he was right and someone else was feeling he was right, and we couldn't just talk normally instead of getting hostile or getting loud and stuff.

But in this team it's more that people are not talking. Like, if we lose or something, we're sitting quiet for some time, and then we're bringing up stuff. I think it's easier to do it that way than just getting mad immediately after a loss.

Since you've joined Alliance, what do you think of the team's results?

Obviously we have not done well. You can't really say anything else than that... but I think we have potential. I don't know, we have been playing better in scrims than official, obviously we can say that. I haven't given up by far. I believe we can do good stuff.

How do you keep motivated?

Just watching the plays that we have done and then seeing how we gave games to teams instead of... Like, we play really well early game, and then we just throw it away, and you can just watch. If you stay calm, and we keep playing like that the whole game, then we're going to win a lot of the games.

So if you just watch that, and you're just like, 'We'll get good eventually,' you don't get demotivated. Of course sometimes you're not happy, you're not always happy, like after the Major [qualifiers] loss we were not so happy, but you just try to keep going.

This interview has been edited and condensed

Preston Dosza is a news editor for theScore esports. You can follow him on Twitter.