We sat down with Hampus ‘hampus’ Poser before NIP’s opening match of the BLAST Premier Fall Finals against Heroic.
Hugo “TheSwedishJoker” Nilsson Meier, BLIX.GG: It’s been a little bit of time between the Major and this BLAST tournament, have you had some time to go through what happened? And, to kind of see if you can fix something coming into this event?
Hampus ‘hampus’ Poser: Yeah, we had ten days between these events, I think, so we had some time to fix things. We had some days off. And we had a lot of discussions about what went wrong, and all this. And, I think the main thing for us was just that we didn’t show up. And, yeah, now we are here at BLAST, we have practiced, we’ve added some new things like we tried to fix the things we were bad on at the Major. And I think, if we show up, we will be good here. So I hope we show up.
Q: You’ve been with Aleksi now for a while in the team and you IGL’d before, do you feel that you have gotten the grasp of his IGLing, to see what similarities and differences you have? Like, have you been able to? What would you say are the differences and similarities between your IGLing and playstyles?
hampus: I think that the most different thing is that he’s a lot more structured. Like, he’s super structured in some situations, like, when this happens, we should do this. And this happens, we should go here, like protocols like, so everyone knows before. I was like, if we got into a 4v4, I like to make reads more and like to make a call on the flow. Aleksi also does this, of course, but he’s more structured overall, I would say. But there’s also a lot of similarities, like, just calling us like, on the flow, right? It’s like every IGL does it these days. I mean, this is just, yeah, definitely kind of similar to me.
Q: Do you still get a little bit more input into the rounds? If you see something, that could be improved. Would you say: “Maybe we should do this instead of that”?
hampus: No, I don’t really say that. Like I say, like, if it’s a mid-round, I can say like, let’s do this, this smoke and then we go here. And then he said, yeah, let’s do it. I tried to help him because I know when I was IGL, like, that’s the help I wanted sometimes, like, you can’t call every round everything all the time, right? Like, it’s a team game. And all five players can make a call. So yeah, I just try to help with calls like that, in the situations where I feel like, like, I see a good call that I know we can win a round off of. And everyone wants to win, so you know he’s okay with it, right? So yeah, it’s mainly that.
Q: With REZ AWPing, how’s that been for the team? Must be a little bit of a period to adjust, how’s it been so far?
hampus: It’s been good, I think. Obviously, he didn’t perform as he wanted in the Major. But like, REZ right now. Like I’ve known him for a lot of years. And I have played with him in this team for two years now. And he’s never worked as hard as he’s doing now with AWP, so he’s really trying. And I think in practice, it really shows, so I hope he brings that form from practice to this event.
Q: I want to talk a little bit about dev1ce, I don’t know how much you can say, but there’s been a lot of ifs and buts coming in and out and now the news is that he has gone to Astralis. Do you feel that you’ve been given some breathing room now, that you don’t have to have in the back of your mind what’s going to happen with him and now we can just fully focus on the team that you have now?
hampus: I mean, like I was like even since the Antwerp major and even before that, like even since we got Brollan really. Like, I’ve been focusing on this team, like it was so long so I thought like if he comes back it’s nice, he is a good player but if not, like this is the team I have I’m focused on this team right? So yeah, I have not really much to say about it, like I’m just happy he is back, even though he’s not in my team of course. He should play the game like he should play all these good tournaments like he should be there. He’s a top-three player of all time in my opinion. I’m just happy I got to play with him the time I got and yeah, I’m just happy that he feels better and he is back.
Q: Before the Major, you played in the Swedish Cup against the EYEBALLERS in the final, against flusha and JW. Do you think that the Swedish scene is going in the right direction with the Swedish Cup and everything we haven’t really seen a Swedish team outside of NIP and I guess fnatic when they had a Swedish roster? Do you think that they are going in the right direction and do you feel like there is some more stuff that can be done to be able to bring them back to the top?
hampus: Yeah, it’s going in the right direction for sure. Like with the Swedish and things like this, but I still feel like there’s not a lot of good teams. Back in the day, like when I was in this tier three, tier two scene. Like we had NIP, fnatic, of course, and then we had GODSENT and then it was Epsilon and then it was like my team, Red Reserve and we got into the top thirty and things like this. You don’t really see this today like five new guys make a team and then they are coming into the top thirty, right? Or even qualify for big events like Aura did for this one event. It was IEM Fall, I think, maybe? Or like it was in Stockholm, at least, it was the RMR, I’m pretty sure.
EYEBALLERSSo I mean, they did that but since that happened, nothing has happened again. So I mean, I would say Swedish CS is very low right now. Like even though JW and flusha are trying to develop some talent and make it up. They’re still not even top thirty and they have been playing for a while now. I think it’s like, in my opinion, I think it’s bad. So I don’t know, I just think the Swedish scene is just at this very low point. Like there’s not many talented players either, I would say. I would say the one that stands out for me is nilo, he’s doing super good. He could for sure be a tier-one player but like there’s, there’s not a lot in my opinion.
Q: You’ve got a new mental coach, psychologist, I believe, from Heroic. He came from Heroic, do you feel that he has implemented some things from Heroic to your team that maybe you didn’t have before with your old mental coach?
hampus: I don’t know if it’s from Heroic to our team, but it’s like he has implemented his stuff. And I mean, like his Dad as well I worked with, in the GODSENT a few years back. And it was his dad who won four Majors with Astralis, right? So, he has learned from the best. Yeah, he’s super good, like he knows what he wants. and he tells us what he wants us to do. And all these things. He’s working on this culture like, and it’s also like, it will take time, of course, like it’s, you know, behavior over time. So yeah, time will tell how good he is, but in my opinion, he’s one of the best, if not the best right now.
Q: There was something on Twitter, many players were vocal about the Player Break, and many people complained that they didn’t get to have a say in it. Do you think that they should keep it as nice now? Or would you have not seen it done on another date or another time on the calendar?
hampus: I think this break is awful. Like, I would have time off. And then when I start, then my family gets time off. So I can’t spend my time off with my family or my friends like they still work as well. So like I spend this with my teammates, right. But I spent the whole year with them already. I don’t want to do it. I want to spend time with my family right now. I can’t do that. I think it’s awful. I think it’s very bad that we didn’t get a say in it. We have this group chat with the CSPPA group where people could give some input, as I am not active there. So, I don’t know. I think just this Player Break is shit and it is how it is and we will see.
Read more: BLAST Fall Finals 2022 interview with m0NESY
Q: You don’t have much say in it now afterward, no, not at all?
hampus: I don’t think so, I have no idea like players are mad about it and I hope they change it but I have no idea. I haven’t really looked into it and I mean, of course, I care but I don’t really care. I don’t want to waste energy on it, you know?
Q: New map update has come pretty much this week, Anubis in, Dust2 out, and changes to the AWP and the M4. Have you gotten a chance to take a look at it yet?
hampus: Yeah, I played some matchmaking on it. I think it looks pretty bad in my opinion. But I only played two games. So I don’t know yet. And also like this BLAST is on the old version, right, so I have just focused on this and not really tried to think about that yet. I will do that after this tournament.
Q: Do you think that it was the right call by Valve to remove Dust2 or would you have rather seen another map being removed?
hampus: I think it was a good call. I don’t like Dust2, so I’m happy. (laughs)
Q: Would you have rather seen another map come in, instead of Anubis?
hampus: Yeah, of course, Train or Tuscan or Cobblestone or Cache even. I think Anubis, it looks like a VALORANT map in my opinion. So I would like Cobble or Cache would be nice, but yeah, now we have Anubis.
AnubisQ: Would also like to ask in a perfect world of hampus, what would you say would be the perfect changes to any guns or any maps within the pool? If you were the CEO of Valve, CS, one day for just one day and you can make any changes that you want?
hampus: Removed the AWP, OP gun, f*** that gun. Nah, I am just kidding. (laughs) No, but I would nerf the AWP somehow but the nerf now with the five bullets maybe it’s good, I don’t know, I haven’t played that much yet to really find out, but nerf the AWP in some way. Then I would bring in Cobble and Cache and other than that I don’t know.
Q: So my last question is about the M4 change, it has been going back and forth with a lot of not necessarily issues but you know, they haven’t been able to find the niche thing. Do you think that this is you know, the final destination right now, or what do you think needs to be done to be able to make it perfect?
hampus: No, this is not the final destination. I think now the silencer is too bad, like if you’re ticket on Mirage and he is coming slope, you headshot with the first bullet, you still need two extra bullets to kill him. I think that’s very bad, if he has an AK he has so much time to aim and kill you. He just needs one shot, you need three to kill them even if you shoot them in the head. If you don’t shoot him in the head, you need five and he still needs one in your head, so I think a lot of players will play the M4A4 now, so it is always like this, when they nerf one of them, people switch to the other, it is always like this. I don’t think they can find a good balance between using both. So yeah, I think the silencer is bad now, so everyone will use the A4.
