Fnatic roeJ: “If we just get some small things to click…we’re gonna be feeling way better in general”

In the leadup to ESL Pro League Season 18, Fragster sat down with Fnatic’s Fredrik “roeJ” Jørgensen for an interview about how the team has been preparing for the event, what he views as their biggest obstacles and much more.

roeJ covering Fnatic’s preparation for Pro League

Pedro Romero, Fragster: Thank you for the interview. I first want to grab your thoughts as to how you view the current state of your team at this moment in time in the leadup to Pro League.

Fredrik “roeJ” Jørgensen: It’s a little bit of a weird spot. Obviously, the results hasn’t been anything that we’re happy about and we haven’t performed how we felt like we could have done lately. It doesn’t feel too good now but after all the games we’ve lost and all the tournaments we’ve been playing lately, it’s not like we sit there with a feeling that we’re just completely sh*t and we don’t know what is going wrong and we don’t know what we’re doing. We have a pretty clear view of what’s going wrong and what we need to work on and I think we have been doing exactly that.

I think we just honestly need to play some more officials and get used to playing in the environment as a team. I honestly think that’s gonna be a really big fix for us in general and I think it was really nice for us to play. Even though we did lose the two maps before this event, I think it definitely helped us get a little bit of gameplay in official matches before this tournament in order to get a bit used to it and get used to each other in the official games, so I definitely think that it’s going to be looking way better for us at this event than it has been.

Fragster: In light of the team bringing in afro [Aurélien Drapier] and dexter [Christopher Nong], what do you feel has been the biggest obstacles that this team has undergone at the start of the season in the lead up to to this competition in particular?

roeJ: I’m not really sure exactly. We had a little bit of issues with map pool in the beginning, of course. When your new team and you change new IGLs and stuff like that, it’s not like it’s going to be working and clicking suddenly after just a few weeks because we have so much stuff to work on in different maps so it was definitely a lot of work to get just a little bit of a decent map pool and get comfortable on the maps. In general, our T side has been looking really good in all the events we’ve been playing and I think the main issue we have right now is the CT side, which we’ve been working a lot on for the last couple of weeks. I’m pretty confident that as soon as we fix the CT side, it’s gonna be a whole different story in general for our team.

Usually, the T side is the hardest one so we kind of got that out of the way by playing really good T sides in general and we just need to fix the CT side and we have been working on a lot of stuff lately so I hope it’s gonna pay off for this event. I’m pretty sure that as soon as we get the CT side rolling, it’s going to be looking way better for us in general.

Fragster: Without revealing too much, if it’s possible to ask, which maps do you feel the team is at its strongest right now?

roeJ: I’m not really sure. I think it depends from time to time, but, definitely, I think some of the best maps we have right now is Vertigo and Overpass but the map pool kind of looks a bit the same as the last team. The map pool is almost the same but the only difference is probably some of the maps that we didn’t perform well on with the last team is looking way better now. Obviously, for us, we put a lot more work into it and now we have a new caller and it makes the whole thing a bit different. In general, those two maps are probably the best ones for us right now.

New faces in Fnatic

Fragster: Going a little bit more into the leadership, with dexter coming in and being the new IGL in place of mezii [William Merriman]. How has that difference been like in terms of calling, leadership and stuff of that structure relative to what it was in the prior team?

roeJ: In the prior team, it was more like me and mezii calling and helping each other in mid-rounds and it was kind of like a mix between us. Of course, he could take over sometimes, but with dexter, it’s way more of him being the IGL and taking over way more and the rest of us filling in with small ideas. Definitely, you can feel a big difference in him taking the role a bit more under himself compared to mezii.

Of course, he was the IGL, but he wasn’t like a very strong leader who had an idea every single round and had a clear way of how he wants to call. He was, of course, working on that and I think it was kind of fine because that’s how I also like to play, but I think the new team with dexter helps loosen us up way more and gives us more time to just focus on ourselves. It definitely feels way nicer for our T sides in general and I think our T sides, especially, has been really good so far as well. It helped us a lot in loosening up both me and mezii in some way to focus on ourselves and play our own game and let him do the hard part of the calling, and then of course, if we have some good ideas, we can still chime in and we can have plays to do that. I think the biggest difference is he’s more like filling the role out a bit more.

Fragster: What about afro? How has that change been like with him in particular?

roeJ: I think he’s been doing really good. Especially in the beginning, he was hitting insane shots and playing insane so he’s obviously very talented and has a really high skill ceiling, but I think he’s just a little bit new and inexperienced. I think with time he’s gonna be come a really good player. Obviously, his English isn’t the best either but it’s slowly getting better as well such as having him talk every single day. We’re slowly getting to a point where it’s becoming very comfortable for him in talking the language and communicating in English. So far, he has a lot of confidence. He’s a guy who knows what to do so it’s been pretty good.

I think he’s really good at being honest and opening up. Whenever he feels he’s being useless on a certain map or something, he will open up and he will try to become useful. I think he has one of those things, a very important thing, that they know they have the most expensive gun in the game and they know they should be impactful and he really wants to be that so as soon as he’s not that, he will try to find a way to be more impactful and I think that’s super nice. He’s definitely a star player who’s going to become really good in the future and so far, the skill ceiling he has is already showing some insane rounds already so yeah.

Fnatic’s biggest adjustments for Pro League?

Fragster: Taking the focus on to Pro League, Fnatic is placed in Group C which features FaZe, NAVI and also Apeks. How do you view your team in relation to the other contenders within this group? Where do you think Fnatic stands at and in its current form?

roeJ: Right now, we don’t look too good because of the latest results, which is kind of fine. I think the group in itself is very good for us. We have a very big chance of going through and I think everyone on this team is pretty confident that we are better than most of these teams in this group. We just need to get the games under the skin and play more officials together and get comfortable. I think that’s gonna make the whole difference for us because the bad part for us right now is the CT side and if you’re not comfortable in the game in general, it’s super hard to play CT side because it’s more individually based so that’s gonna make a big difference for us. It’s just getting games under our skin and just start playing so I definitely think we have a good chance of going through to the playoffs.

Fragster: There’s been a lot of emphasis in trying to correct your team’s performance on CT side. Is that the aspect that has received the most emphasis in preparing for this event?

roeJ: Yeah obviously. For ourselves at least, when we were looking at games, the thing always comes down to the CT side side in general so that’s been the main thing we’ve been working for the last couple of weeks to get ready for this event. That’s because everyone on the team, as well as me, feels really confident that as soon as we fix the CT side, it’s going to be a whole different story and I think the whole team in general is gonna look completely different in terms of how good we are playing. That’s been the main focus throughout the last couple of weeks just for this event. It’s just to fix the CT side in general and it’s gonna make a big difference, I think.

Fragster: Given your thoughts on the team’s current state, what are your expectations for this team performance-wise in Pro League? What are you going to view as the major goals to accomplish with an eye both for this tournament and also for the future?

roeJ: I think it’s the small things that we’re missing to make us become really really good and I have no doubt in my mind that if we just fix those small things and we get on a good track, I definitely think we can get really far and I’m very confident we’re gonna make it through to the playoffs in the first place. Of course, that’s the main goal for us right now. We’re just taking it one step at a time, but I’m pretty confident if we just get some small things to click, then it’s gonna make a big difference for us and we’re gonna be feeling way better in general.

Feature Image Credit: Fnatic