freddieb: "People are more hungry, more motivated"

GODSENT were able to overcome Space Soldiers in the semi-final of the WESG EU & CIS Regional Finals, after which match we talked to Fredrik "freddieb" Buö about player changes, mentality and more.

The Swedes had a slow start to the tournament, having to come back against Endpoint in the first game to secure up a 16-14 victory, but picked up pace as the tournament went on, finally beating Belgium and Space Soldiers in the playoffs to move on to the grand final.

freddieb believes that the old Epsilon crew splitting up was a good decision

In a chat with Fredrik "⁠freddieb⁠" Buö, we learned about the issues GODSENT had, Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser taking over the in-game leadership, and the old Epsilon lineup.

I'll jump right into you having two changes recently, dennis and znajder leaving the team. I think dennis had a short comment on it, he said that the team lacked discipline and team play. Can you comment on that, is that a fair assessment of GODSENT before?

Yeah I think it's a fair assessment, I was coming in as the in-game leader and that was new for me, so it was really hard, and usually, in-game leaders are very experienced. We were lacking a bit of structure, everyone wanted to do so much in the game, everyone was going for solo plays, trying to win the games by themselves. And if we were losing to lesser teams, like when we played online qualifiers, people got tilted very easily.

I think the team chemistry was wrong, because, well, dennis and znajder are not bad players, they are both very talented, we saw that with dennis at BLAST, he was playing really good.

Touching on znajder especially, he was in GODSENT since the team was made practically. Did going through all the changes, fnatic coming in every three or six months, did that kind of demotivate him about playing here? Was that a part of his departure as well?

I think so, I've not been in the team for so long but I think he swapped his role a lot. He was never comfortable with the way he was playing. When the new guys came in, he was trying to support them, trying to be the good guy, and he stopped caring about his own performance. I still think he is a very talented guy, he just needs to find his role again.

You decided to use pyth and hampus here, why did you decide on these two players?

We can start with hampus, that was because we wanted to try out a new in-game leader, someone who is very hungry, because he is in-game leading right now, not me. He's been doing very well.

pyth we chose because we have to play with in ECS in EPL, the guys have also played with him before, so it's a pretty natural choice. Both of the guys have been doing great so I'm very happy with them.

What were the goals here, coming with a new lineup practically?

Our minimal goal was to qualify for China, in my head at least. Then we just kept on rolling, seeing how far we can go, and now we want to win the whole tournament.

Starting in the group stage, it was pretty shaky in the first game, you made the comeback in the end against Endpoint and then it started looking much better, I would say. How did that go for your team, what was the atmosphere like moving through the matches?

At the start, we didn't feel very comfortable, we were a bit shaky. Personally, I was playing pretty poorly at the start. But we just tried to keep the communication up and be motivated, keep the spirit up and grind it back. And we knew that we were better than them, so we could beat them.

The last match you played here, against Space Soldiers, you played Cache against them, a map they had a lot of success on. As  somewhat of a mix, you probably have a smaller map pool, but why have you decided to let it in?

Cache is just pretty easy for a mix to play as well. We practiced it one time, we knew that it's their best map, but I think we played pretty good. They won both pistol rounds, if we won at least one pistol round, I think it would've been a whole different story. I think the reason we let it through was that we feel comfortable on it, it's easier to play that than Cobble or Train or whatever.

In the end, you closed it out on the second two maps, what do you think were the key parts in closing out the series?

We never stopped believing, we kept talking, we were playing with the mentality that we are going to beat them. We just kept on grinding. I'm really proud of the guys, we played really well.

What do you think was the cause of the big change in mentality, comparing the one you have now to the one before? What was the spark?

I think that people, in general, are more hungry, more motivated. For dennis, who was on the top, I understand that coming here is not as motivating. Me, I'm a bit up and coming, I'm much more hungry I guess, to grind the way to the top.

Now you and disco doplan are in GODSENT, and you have REZ and draken in NiP, that was the core of the old Epsilon lineup. Do you ever think back to that team, if it had stuck together could it have been a good team?

Yeah, me and draken talk about it sometimes, we are still good friends. We probably could've been good, but I think it's good that we split ways and gained experience in other ways. We had so many close games that could've broken us through when we were playing in Epsilon. But I'm really happy that they are doing good, and that I and disco are doing good.

Out of the four, you had the longest road, building up to this level. Why do you think that was?

I don't know really, I was playing in more of a supportive role, I didn't shine so much in Epsilon. I had a rough period when I didn't play so good, and the other guys are talented as well, I don't know.

I won't say anyone is better than the other, but I think I was just the support guy. I'm not mad about being the last one picked up or whatever, it's been a good journey.

You are on to the finals, but moving past this event, your roster still isn't defined as far as I know. What is the thinking, is hampus going to stay, is there any talk about that?

I have no clue at the moment, we will see how it goes there. It's already going well, but we will talk about that when we get home.

GODSENT #45 Fredrik 'freddieb' BuöSimon 'twist' EliassonJoakim 'disco doplan' Gidetun Endpoint #76 Brandon 'weber' WeberIan 'Immi' HardingMax 'MiGHTYMAX' HeathDion 'FASHR' DerksenTramaine 'stan1ey' Stanley Hampus 'hampus' Poser Age: 19 Team: passions Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 285 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.69 Fredrik 'freddieb' Buö Age: 23 Team: GODSENT Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 507 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.68 Space Soldiers #19 Engin 'MAJ3R' KüpeliIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşBuğra 'Calyx' ArkınAhmet 'paz' KarahocaEngin 'ngiN' Kor Belgium