Author: TheSwedishJoker

In this 2 part interview Hugo “TheSwedishJoker” Nilsson Meier, sat down with Emil “Magisk” Reif about their time in Vitality and playing against his former team Astralis.Hugo “TheSwedishJoker” Nilsson Meier, BLIX.GG: You’ve been a Vitality for about a year now. How would you say that the first year has been for you?Emil “Magisk” Reif: I think the first year has been good and bad in some way. I mean, there’s been good and bad about it. Obviously, winning has been, that’s a good thing, but we also struggle a bit finding consistency the last year but also the first half…

During the media day for the group stages of Blast Premier Spring, TheSwedishJoker had the opportunity to talk to Vorborg about transitioning to the team, his thoughts about players and the changes to the map pool.Hugo “TheSwedishJoker” Nilsson Meier, BLIX.GG: You are six months into your tenure as a coach for EG. How do you feel that the transition has been so far from being with a fully Danish team to an English-speaking team?Daniel “Vorborg” Vorborg: Yeah, I think the full transition is still happening. I don’t think it’s settled. There’s been a lot of learning for me because in…

Hugo “TheSwedishJoker” Nilsson Meier, BLIX.GG: What do you think went wrong overall last year for you guys?Ricky “floppy” Kemery: I think the qualifier for the second Major in Rio was definitely the worst part. We were all pretty much dead after that. We didn’t really want to touch the game after playing that because it was obviously the first Major in Brazil and we wanted to qualify for it. So, that was probably the worst part of last year for sure.BLIX: What made you pick hallzerk to come into the team? I assumed you were looking at quite a few…

Hugo “TheSwedishJoker” Nilsson Meier, BLIX.GG: What do you think is needed for us to see more top-tier teams that are fully North American within the scene?Ricky “floppy” Kemery: I just think if the North American scene wants to grow, we just need way more people to be playing the game. Because I think there are not nearly as many people, even in FACEIT, in North America, it’s like a million compared to Europe is like 9 million or something. Some statistic I’ve seen like that, but I think we just need more people to play the game. And obviously, it’s…

TheSwedishJoker met up with Christian “Buzz” Andersen after his 2-1 win against OG.Hugo “TheSwedishJoker” Nilsson Meier, BLIX.GG: How would you summarize this first tier-one event with the main roster?Christian “Buzz” Andersen: I think I’ve learned a lot. Obviously, we lost some matches in the beginning, and we really needed to play some officials to test everything we had in practice and find out if we could take what we have in practice into the officials. We just learned from that and came back stronger in the other matches. But it’s been a really nice experience; a lot of adrenaline in…

We caught up with Vitality’s Lotan “Spinx” Giladi both before and after their win against Evil Geniuses at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups to talk about the team’s preparations going into the event and the pressure leading up to qualifying for the Spring Finals.Hugo “TheSwedishJoker” Nilsson Meier, BLIX.GG: Congratulations on the win! How was it to finally get back into it after the winter break?Lotan “Spinx” Giladi: It’s good. It’s nice to start the year with a win and I think it means more to my Danish teammates to win against their ex-teammates. It’s always that you have some feelings…

Hugo “TheSwedishJoker” Nilsson Meier, BLIX.GG: Last year was a bit rough for you guys. You had quite a few events without a full roster and still managed to come second at ELISA and got to the Legends Stage at the Major. How was it for you guys and how did you manage through this period where you didn’t have a full roster?Fatih “gob b” Dayik: Yeah, it was not easy, for sure. It was hard to stay motivated as well because you’re practicing very well and then one player is out again to illness or whatever, but we tried our…

Hugo “TheSwedishJoker” Nilsson Meier, BLIX.GG: Anubis came out not too long ago in November and was played at the BLAST for the World Finals. What have your thoughts been on that map so far in practice?Fatih “gob b” Dayik: I was thinking after playing Anubis for two or three practices, I said I felt like they need to bring in more maps like this because it’s a good map. I don’t think anyone would say it’s not a good map. I don’t think in practice everyone loved it and everyone who I talked to was also very happy with the map…

Hugo “TheSwedishJoker” Nilsson Meier, BLIX.GG: YEKINDAR, you’ve been with Liquid for about half a season now. How would you summarize these first six months with the team?Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis: I think overall the first six months were great. We definitely had a honeymoon phase where we were playing well until EPL, I would say… that was when people didn’t know how we played because there was a lot of work done and there was fast growth and it was easier to play than after you show your things already, you show what you have. So, the second period of the…

Hugo “TheSwedishJoker” Nilsson Meier, BLIX.GG: Congratulations on the win over your North American brothers in Complexity. I want to start by talking about Anubis. Were you guys a little bit disappointed that you weren’t able to get that 16-0 and let them have two rounds?Keith “NAF” Markovic: I mean, I got some friends on Complexity there, you know, with grim and all that. So, I don’t wanna 16-0. I wouldn’t want to do it to them like that. I’m happy they got some rounds, but we’re confident and I don’t want to 16-0 my friends.BLIX: Do you feel like the gap…