Kristian “KriLLe” Ekroth is an up-and-coming player from Sweden and is part of the recently formed Academy CS:GO squad for Rogue.

KriLLe took the time to answer questions from theScore esports about Rogue Academy's formation and the players and teams he takes inspiration from.

First off, since you’re an up-and-coming player on an up-and-coming team, could you give us some quick background on yourself? How did you get into competitive CS:GO and why should fans cheer for you guys?

My name is Kristian “KriLLe” Ekroth, I’ve been playing competitive CS since the beginning of 2016. After a few rough months I took a break from CS and went back to school, but after that I decided to come back to CS and dedicate my time to become pro.

I tried to build a team but it didn’t work out as intended and then later on I got in contact with some players from the GODSENT Acadamy team who later on got dropped. Three of the players formed “HOMESENT,” which they then tried me on and it seemed to be a good fit.

Around the beginning of this year, Hampus [Hampus “Shaabi” Johansson] approached me about an opportunity of him potentially creating an academy team and he told me he wanted me to be on it.

At that time it was only me and Shadow [Tobias “Shadow” Flodström] on the roster, but as we started trying out players we realized that Barken [Jakob “Barken” Bark], perzon [Kalle “perzon” Persson] and Kevve [Kevin “Kevve” Bohlin] were a good fit for the team and that’s sort of where we’re at right now.

After playing for smaller orgs like Playing Ducks, now you’re part of Rogue, a quickly growing organization. What are your thoughts on this rapid transition in your competitive career? How has your quality of life been affected by the Rogue acquisition?



I think it’s great, this will help us to fully focus on CS as Rogue is helping us with the infrastructure within our team, especially with things such as practice regimen and how to work as a professional team.

All of us within the team are still relatively young when it comes to competitive CS and how to behave as athletes, this is something Rogue will help us with. That and a lot of other things, one of them being invites and exposure.

In terms for how my life has changed after the Rogue acquisition, there’s a lot of stuff in the works which can’t really be revealed yet, but I can promise the future looks great!

Prior to joining Rogue, you played on a few stacks with Linus "Limpone" Wecksell, who is Jesper "JW" Wecksell's brother. Why was he not included in the lineup? Why did you guys decide to finalize the roster with Shadow?



As a team, together with the Rogue management, we decided to not include him on the roster due to Kevve being a more experienced IGL. And with the addition of Shadow we now had a dedicated AWPer, which could help us set up a better structure around our CT and T sides.

Without Shadow it was hard seeing the worth of, for example, Kevve when we also had Limpone as we basically forced Kevve into a role he was not suited for.

I'm happy to see a team I was apart of building doing so well, ofcourse in one way it's a bit sad, but I'm glad to see my friends succeed! 😄 https://t.co/24y7DhvV0a — Linus Wecksell (@LimponeCSGO) March 26, 2017

Who are some of teams and players that you look to for inspiration when you’re looking for strats for the team, or when you want to improve your own game? How would you describe the team’s style?

When it comes to my own playstyle specifically, I don’t necessarily watch one specific player, more the roles I play. For example, lately we’ve been practicing a lot of Cobblestone and within the roles I play I’ve taken a lot from, Magisk [Emil "Magisk" Reif] and TACO [Epitácio "TACO" de Melo], two very incredible players who I look up to.



In our overall style as a team, I’d say we’re pretty explosive. We like doing fast rounds but we can also play the slow style, which I think will benefit us a lot. If I would say a team which we’ve found a lot of inspiration from, I’d probably say Astralis, SK and North.

What are your goals for the near future? What do you hope to achieve now that you’re part of Rogue?

Our goals for the future are higher than what you would expect from an academy team. We hope to, within the first 6 months of our team, potentially qualify for a bigger scale LAN, like DreamHack. And of course, we also hope we can become more than an academy team!