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Every day this week will we be releasing part of our interview with Fantic’s Chief Gaming Officer and Counter-Strike legend Patrik “cArn” Sättermon. Yesterday he spoke about Fnatic’s Overwatch roster and the upcoming Overwatch League while today he jumps into the Fnatic CS:GO team’s difficult 2016.
Go back twelve months and Fnatic was by far the best CS:GO team in the world. They won majors, dominated almost every large tournament and almost looked unbeatable at times. Coming into 2016 they were a little shaky but still pulled out some solid results, but then star player Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer Gustafsson was hit with a wrist injury and it all went downhill from there.
With Olof out of the team results dropped and when he returned things didn’t get any better. This resulted in one of the biggest and most disruptive roster changes in recent history, with Fnatic and Godsent swapping players. But even this didn’t work and again Fnatic changed more players just weeks later.
Right now they have a somewhat settled team, but are still a long way off being as strong as this time last year. It’s been a difficult year, so we caught up with Fantic’s Chief Gaming Officer and Counter-Strike legend Patrik “cArn” Sättermon to find out what the organisation has thought of CS:GO this year.
eSports Pro: Obviously you’ve had massive roster swaps over the last few months in CS:GO. Are you happy with the team as it is now?
Patrik “cArn” Sättermon: “I would say so for sure. Needless to say, we have had a few months now, three months to be precise I think, that have not been successful. Now we are seeing tendencies and indications that we can be among the best. Taking down maps against the best teams in the world, being just on the borderline to get into the semifinals and finals, but we haven’t really reached all the way yet. That’s nothing we should hide or downplay.”
eSports Pro: You mentioned it has been a rough few months, but it’s only been a few weeks since your last roster change, so how has that been for the team?
cArn: “We have done recent player changes with Joakim "disco doplan" Gidetun replacing John "wenton" Eriksson. We do see him as a very potent player, if that’s the right word. He has done phenomenally well in Epsilon which, in all respect to them, is of course a little bit different compared to being a major team and whatnot.”
“He has his future ahead of him, so to be able speak and collaborate and get guidance from someone like Viktor "vuggo" Jendeby, somebody like Jimmy "Jumpy" Berndtsson and myself to a certain degree, as well as the players, I think he’s going to blossom and become one of the best players. He is, according to a lot of people, one of the best players in the world already. He has a little bit of work to do. He needs a bit more experience.”
eSports Pro: What do you think the team has been missing over the last few months that the old Fnatic team had?
cArn: “I think what we lack a little bit now is just really a solid leader with experience. We have been swapping around the leadership role or in-game leadership role quite a lot. So you can say that it would have been better for us if Jumpy could have been the active coach, like he could have been maybe four or five months ago before the rules changed. Yeah, we just need to make the best out of the situation. We have had a little bit of downtime now. We have regained our major eligibility, so we’re going to play that tournament coming up in less than two months.”
eSports Pro: So it sounds like you really believe in this new team. Can they make it to the levels that the old team did?
cArn: “The end of 2016 will never go down as the best season and period for Fnatic Counter Strike or CS:GO. We have a really solid roster and I think if we play our cards right, if we practise really hard and if we stay modest and hungry, I think we’re going to be back within top three and give us just two months to prove that.”
Tomorrow cArn moves into MOBAs and talks about the issues the Fantic Dota team has faced since its great run at The International 6.
