Swani: “I just wrote history”

As Counter-Strike: Global Offensive winds down, G2 has left a legacy for the ages. The international roster joins an elite group of only two other teams who have won IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne in the same year. Those teams are Fnatic and FaZe— not bad company.

Whilst the Cathedral of Counter-Strike celebrated G2’s victory, one man specifically had a party going, that man being G2’s coach: Jan “Swani” Müller. Swani became the first German to win IEM Cologne, so we asked him about it. As well as NiKo’s Nuke performance and the roster’s future in CS2.

Sebastian “Horizzon” Lalic, BLIX: How does it feel to be the first German to win IEM Cologne?

Jan “Swani” Müller: It feels surreal, I would say. It’s my first year of coaching, and I’ve won IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne, no German’s ever done this. It’s insane, I just wrote history.

BLIX: About the game specifically: How do you come into a game like this, do you prepare for the opponent or focus on playing your own game?

Swani: Obviously, we prepare, But we tried to beat them with what we are good at, so we don’t care too much about what they do. We approach it like it’s just another day in the office, it’s just another game, and don’t focus too much on the fact that it’s a Grand Final. We just play our own game.

BLIX: When you see NiKo start a game as he did on Nuke, do you change your approach to accommodate that, or do you let him do his thing?

Swani: No, let him do his thing. Listen to his gut feeling, and he’s calling insane on CT-side anyway; he’s reading them like a book. He does his stuff really well.

BLIX: On a lower note, Anubis didn’t go as well; what went wrong there?

Swani: It’s obviously our weakest map, and they still struggled to close it out against us and it’s their best map. So we just went into the next map saying, “Guys, they struggled against us on our worst map by far; they can’t do anything against us on Ancient,” and it showed.

BLIX: To finish off, do you guys think you can carry this form into CS2?

Swani: Of course, we can. We are a really good team; we’re on the same page, and we’re not changing the roster.