Markus ”pronax” Wallsten. Foto: Adela Sznajder, Dreamhack.

Markus ”pronax” Wallsten led Fnatic’s CS:GO division to stardom. However, as Jonatan ”Devilwalk” Lundberg announced his departure from the squad, pronax lost his spark.

The Swedish star remained with the team, but something was missing and the decision to leave Fnatic had already been made.

– I tried every day, but when you don’t love what you’re doing it’s so hard to force yourself into giving it all, Pronax says in the Swedish podcast Esport-podden.

The Swedish in-game leader, Markus ”pronax” Wallsten, joined forces with his country men in Fnatic only two weeks ahead of Dreamhack Winter 2013. Thanks to miraculous plays in a nerve wracking series against NiP, the Swedish up and comers secured the first ever CS:GO major title. Six months later, the results had been going down in a slippery slope – and roster changes were inevitable.

– I thought I was getting kicked, that’s the feeling I had back then, Pronax says in the latest episode of Esport-podden.

But that’s not how it went. Instead Andreas ”znajder” Lindberg was let go and Jonatan ”Devilwalk” Lundholm took on a coaching role. To fill the slots Olof ”olofmeister” Kajbjer and Freddy ”Krimz” Johansson stepped in.

– Olof suggested Krimz, but personally I would’ve picked Simon ”twist” Eliasson. Robin ”flusha” Rönnquist and Jesper ”JW” Wecksell wanted to play with another person who I won’t reveal here – it wasn’t someone from LGB. Olof really wanted Krimz instead of that person. I voted for Krimz and the others gave him a chance too, and I think they’re really damn happy that they did.

”I believe KQLY cheated against us”

As the now world famous Fnatic squad gathered, it would still be some quite time before their strong results came about. In September 2014 they played at Dreamhack Stockholm and were defeated by Titan, a team that since then have been showered in mistrust due to their AWP star, Hovik ”KQLY” Tovmassian.

– When I look back at the match, now that we know he cheated – even though we can’t be sure at which tourneys – I believe he cheated against us. It didn’t feel like that during the game, because you never think anyone cheats, but then again, we don’t know.

– People think both him and Gordon ”Sf” Giry managed to get around it and cheat on LAN. We don’t know, I have no idea.

– But I guess that’s why so many people think Flusha is cheating, if two persons have already succeed then maybe others are doing it. Back in those days, people on HLTV and such honestly believed 80 percent of all pros were cheating. That’s just not realistic.

Following the downfall at Dreamhack Stockholm, Fnatic would end up winning countless of tournaments and raking in the big bucks. According to Esport-podden’s host, Fabian ”blomstar” Åkermark, Fnatic earned over 620 000 dollars in that year alone.

– Our personalities made us the best team in the world. Each and every one of us had the will to put in the hours, and we never thought ”crap, we’re playing that guy” in matches against players like Patrik ”f0rest” Lindberg, Filip ”Neo” Kubski or other pro’s. We all believed we were better, that we could and would win. We backed that mentality up with hard practice and went in to every match with the belief that we could win. I think that’s the biggest reason we became the best, we had confidence.

”Decided to play out the contract and then leave”

Eventually even Fnatic started to fall. Pronax describes it as if the team lost a common goal to play towards. Exactly two years after the Swedish star had first joined the team, it was time for a new project. Pronax left Fnatic.

– Already back when Devilwalk left I felt I wanted to leave. That was six months before I actually left – I was stuck in the contract and couldn’t just pack up and leave.

– I decided to play out the contract and then leave. We had some bad results, we didn’t do too well in the last months – which was probably partly because I didn’t go all in. I tried every day, but when you don’t love what you’re doing it’s so hard to force yourself into giving it all.

– I didn’t perform in my role as well as I could have.

After exactly two years with Fnatic – the team that very well could be the best ever in CS history – pronax left. However, the star had not given up and a few months later a new team saw the light of day, GODSENT. Since then the new squad, featuring several well known Swedish players, have delivered strong results on the world stage.

With many lessons learned from his former teams, Pronax intends to lead his new squad with the unique leading style he posses – a style which the host describes as ground breaking.

– I always have an idea of where I want the rounds to end up, but I tell my team mates as little as possible in the start. I get the feeling that when you call tactics early in the round, people tend to tunnel vision and stop playing the game.

What the future holds for the up and coming stars remains to be seen. For now, even though their potential looks bright, they’re yet to truly break in among the world’s top teams.