Once the star of ECSTATIC, Dion ‘FASHR’ Derksen didn’t quite set the world alight as many would have hoped for him in his time on fnatic. Now on OG, the roster initially got off to a poor start with four straight defeats spanning BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2023 and their opening game at the IEM Cologne 2023 Play-In.
As one of the stars of the team, it would be easy to blame FASHR, but as he admitted to us himself here in Cologne, he still needs time to relearn the roles in which he once dominated tier two.
Despite him still needing to get up to speed in certain aspects, the team advanced from the Play-In thanks to victories against Complexity and Apeks. After the win against Apeks, we spoke to FASHR about relearning the role, his time in fnatic, and OG’s chances of making it to the Cathedral of Counter-Strike.
Sam ‘AN1MO’ McKenzie, BLIX: You’ve now strung a couple of wins together after a disappointing start to the team at Fall Groups, how are you feeling?
Dion ‘FASHR’ Derksen: I feel great, it’s good to be in the main tournament. I don’t think anyone expected us to make it this far, so for us, it’s a huge win.
BLIX: What about your own performances? Are you happy with those? nexa said to us yesterday that you’re meant to be the second star, do you feel like you’re playing like a second star?
FASHR: No, not yet. I think maybe in the last games against Complexity and Apeks, now I have shown what I can do, but I still need some more time to adjust to my role in the team and perform against the better teams. I think that’s what matters the most.
BLIX: What do you think you need to do personally to adjust to the new role?
FASHR: I think I need to keep doing as I’m doing right now; work with the coaches, get what they expect from me, what I can bring to the players, and watch demos to improve. After fnatic, I switched all of my roles again, so I just need to see the meta right now and get into it slowly. I’m working really hard on it, and I think the last two games showed a real improvement.
BLIX: What went wrong for you on fnatic?
FASHR: I think what I just mentioned, the roles, I mean. When I came from ECSTATIC, I had the roles I have now OG, but in fnatic, I went to the complete opposite roles because if you get the chance to play in fnatic, which is such a huge org, you’re going to take it and you’re going to do everything to make it work. I sacrificed a lot, and in the end, it didn’t really fit me as a player in general. You can see in the games now that this fits me more, I can guide the guys a little bit, and I can do the aggressive plays that I’m known for in the tier-two scene, so as long as I can keep this up now in OG it’s going to be a better time than in fnatic.
BLIX: Now you’ve gotten these roles back in OG, is it a case of relearning how to play in tier one again?
FASHR: Yeah, it is, the meta changed since I played these roles a year and a half ago. Ancient got changed with the spawns and everything, there are always new metas and new smokes, so for me, that’s something to play against now and use myself. I’m watching a lot of demos right now with kakafu, ruggah, and with nexa even, and we’re discussing what I can do, and that’s how I’m trying to find impact right now.
BLIX: So now that you’ve gotten these first two wins, do you think they’ll keep coming, and maybe we’ll even see you in playoffs?
FASHR: Well… [laughs] playoffs is going to be a hard one, I’m going to be honest. I think when we come into the main tournament, we’ll still be one of the worst-valued teams in there, which I think is fair because of our performances before. I’m just happy that we’ve shown improvement in the last two games, and I don’t mind being the underdog. As long as we believe in ourselves, and we keep playing like the last two games, even if it’s against Heroic, Vitality, whatever, if we can just keep up this performance level, we were pretty on point today, and the communication was on point as well. Some rounds were a bit sloppy, but that’s what we need against the top teams, and I think then, the wins will come in.
