Hi Casper. Before you joined mousesports you were quite unfamiliar within the scene, especially in the German one. Could you please introduce yourself?
Ye I don’t think the German scene had a big knowledge about me before joining mouz, and until this interview they might still not. I’m 18 years old and of course from Denmark. I’m studying at highschool, so a lot of my focus outside CS is there at the moment. I’m an outgoing guy and have for a long time been just under the top in Denmark before finally making myself a name at DreamHack Winter.
When did you start playing CS and which version of CS was your first? Did you play CS (1.6/CSS) semi-professionally before CS:GO came out?
I started playing CS: Source when I received it as a gift from my class-mates. I played with 50 fps and a 60 Hz monitor for three years before finally realizing that if you want to become good you need decent equipment. I finally got a good PC and actually performed quite well at the Danish LAN TheBlast in 2011. After that I chose to go to a school where you life to do your school and sports combined (handball in my case) and therefore I had no time nor the opportunity to play CS. I came back from the school around the date that CS:GO came out and Ive played it consistently until then, with only 1 or 2 breaks in between.
How was your transition to the new game? Did you hold on to the older CS versions after the release of GO?
I’ve never been the guy with the sickest aim, and I often rely a lot on my positioning and ability to coordinate pushes with my teammates. Therefore I were not close to be at the level I’m now in CS:GO. My PC which back in the days was good enough, was not capable of playing DM in this game without lagging. That’s also why I purchased a new PC after DreamHack Winter and can now hopefully perform even better under the mouz tag. I still don’t feel totally in shape but it normally comes around the events.
As a member of the danish scene, how accepted are you there? Do people treat you with respect regarding your young age? Was it or is it still hard to get to play with the elite in your country?
It is hard to say. I’m in some ways accepted a lot if you look at e.g. the latest awards on the gaming.dk site (which is the best danish gaming news site). I won 2 awards which was:
– Biggest improvement during the year infront of xyp9x (Highjumper)
– Best new-team with Xapso
And then I were runner up at biggest talent of the year. In that sense I’m considered as a top player, even though there’re a lot of things going on at the moment and me bailing an offer which was considered good, to play with these guys. It has to be said that I don’t regret the decision at all though.
Often there were really good danish topteams who could compete with the very best. Simultaneously those teams didn’t last long. Why has he danish scene always trouble finding consistent lineups?
The Danish scene has a huge amount of individual talents and a wide aspect of acknowledged ingameleaders. We though have a tendency to get too mad at each other for things which looking into a deep perspective is ridiculous. Also the biggest problem might be that every time the best team change a player, the player who gets kicked goes to the 2nd best, then that player will go to the 3rd and that way the whole scene changes when a good team swaps out a player.
Enough with the past, lets talk about your new team mousesports, which was announced almost a month ago. How did the contact with the German organization come off? Was your good performance at DHW a crucial factor for them to get in touch with you?
Without being too self confident I don’t think they were too satisfied with my performance against them at DreamHack Winter. Also that is a topic we talk about a lot during the fun times because I have the advantage against them after winning not only that game but also the last group stage of FragBite Masters. I think it was a crucial factor in someway but even though this may seem like kinda weird. The most crucial thing was that I agreed to hug with LEGIJA no matter who won/lost the game. That started our friendship and one day he contacted me and said that they needed an IGL and if I were ready for the task. We instantly tried it out and they made a fast decision and picked me up and now only future will tell if it was a good decision. (smiles)
You hold the role as an ingameleader. Does talking English affect your way of calling or communicating? Have you done it before?
Yes it has a huge affect for sure, both in positive and in negative ways. I’m having a harder time making people understand what I want them to do when it comes to decisions INSTANT in the game where they have to follow up on less than a handful of seconds. Also I won’t be able to be mad in the same way as I might be in Danish and by that we are able to sneak around some discussions. (laughs) I were also calling in English in Xapso and it didn’t really work out at that time. Therefore we played a lot of executions and strategies which I were not used to because my teams normally play a lot of defaults/standards. We for sure can improve the communication in this lineup also but so far it is positive.
There are a lot of ways how to call a strategy and lead a team. What’s your formula?
It all depends on which players I have to work with. If you have good communication and great teamwork and also the players to open up the key rounds, defaults can be the best. If having some problems coordinating in the middle of the round preset strats can help you out. I have a wide variety of strats and I create new T-strats for each team I play due to the difference in play styles of each player. As CT we play out of my CS-thinking. With a lot of rotations and not overcommitting anything without having an essential reason to.
Also I know that Knochen said that I remind him of Karrigan when it comes to calling, I think I’m different in a lot of ways and I like to try and outsmart the opponents when knowing out their routines and rotations but neither I’m not scared of putting myself or any other key player into a risky position that can win us the round or put us in a bad position.
Currently the whole mousesports team gathered in Berlin for an eight days long bootcamp. What are your goals at this bootcamp?
The bootcamp is done by this time tomorrow and I think the key thing is that we learned each others personalities a lot. We have a better way of knowing how to handle each personalities and we have during the same period of time improved things ingame and get the feeling of how our communication and teamplay is at LAN compared to online
You’re going to face Wild Fire in the quarter final of the EMS One German Regional Finals. What are your thoughts going into this duel?
I know nothing about the team and nearly nothing about the German scene in general. We fear no teams but we are 100% focused going into each game whether it is international or national doesn’t matter. We are not going into a game thinking that we won it before it has begun.
If I had to guess, I would say the final of this qualification will be your team against Alternate. An old classic matchup which brings up a lot of memories. On paper Alternate has an advantage regarding the longer existence of their lineup. Do you think this will be a deciding factor?
I don’t like to guess how the outcome of the bracket will end, but for you this one time I can talk about a hypothetical situation. If we should meet up against Alternate its gonna be with the same approach as any other game. We have the individuals to close any team down but we also have the lack of teamplay due to us being a relatively new team, so our mistakes can be punished if we arent on point.
Valve introduced a secondary grenade fire, buffed the Deagle, AUG and Sg and tweaked the movement a little bit. What do you think about the latest update? Will the underhand-toss increase the skill ceiling?
In some ways it will, because it requires a new mindset and smart thinking to use the mouse2 grenades to your advantage. But also it will in the long run be easier for lower ranked players to throw instant flashes which is not while standing still. Therefore some may lose some advantages and other will gain it. Talking about the AUG it is too strong at the moment, I don’t really know what to add about it. (laughs)
Thank you for your time and good luck in the Qualifier.
No problem, It was a real honor. At last I would like to thank the whole mousesports organization to make this bootcamp possible and giving us a home, as that is what every team is looking for. Special thanks to BenQ, EpicGear & XMG for their great support!!