It is breaking news to no one that EPIC39 was going to involve some fiery, vocal exchanges throughout matches, but Fraser “Frazehh” Sollom insists he aims to face the brunt of it. Verdant have impressed in EPIC.LAN 39 so far, flawlessly flying through Group D with a 5-0 record, taking down a young 7PM mix team, as well as The Milk Men quintet playing under team name One Last Time. They now look to continue their form through the upper bracket.
After two successful best-of-one victories and a bye putting them at a record of 3-0, Frazehh took a moment to talk to UKCSGO’s Josh “Joshampton” Arnup about the fruitful opportunity he’s been given under the Verdant banner. He also discussed how he’s enjoyed the move away from AWPing duties, as well as his eagerness, in the face of adversity, to verbally clash with some of UK CS’ notorious shit-talkers.
So, right off the bat, how are you finding finally playing under an org?
Yeah, pretty good, obviously we were Dripmen for like the longest time. Yeah, it feels good, being backed finally. We’ve got pretty much everything that we want right now, apart from, like, salary, so, maybe we’ll get there.
And who, sort of, orchestrated this merge between Dripmen and sakana123?
Basically, mrhui was the ex-IGL for them and he quit their team mid playoffs and I wanted to play with Josh [JAUSTERE] and DeXter. So, I messaged Jack [DeXter], the day that mrhui left and Jack was like, yes, please (laughs).
So, we merged and then when we were looking for a fifth, it was always going to be me, Tony [BehinDx], Josh, and Jack and then they were like, we can try and ask moshi if he wants to play and that’s how it merged.
How are you finding your role without AWP responsibility? You’re just IGL right now. Is that right?
So, when I played with Jack before, I was IGLing and rifling, and then I went back to AWPing and then I went back to just IGLing again. I just feel like I can control the map more when I’m rifling because I trust myself more than I would trust someone else to make an aggro play with a rifle. I can’t really do that with an AWP because you’re relied on too much. But if I die in a round, I can still feel like Jack can clean up a round with the AWP whereas if I was the AWPer, it wouldn’t be the same.
How’s the team confidence, how’s the team coming together?
Yeah, we’re feeling really good right now, we’re beating really good teams in prac, tier two teams. We’re getting good prac under the belt when we can. So, we’re feeling really confident going into the LAN.
Have you guys hit the ground running, in terms of chemistry?
Yeah, straight away we fit perfectly. I feel like it’s the old roster’s back together, but with like a piece that we’ve always been missing in Tony. And then moshi just fits in like where Richard [Zulu] used to be, so it’s pretty perfect.
What are your expectations in this tournament?
Well, I always go into a LAN thinking that we can be the best, so I would like to say that I can see us winning or coming top two. I think it heavily depends on how other teams do and how the bracket’s drawn, because I’m not too sure who goes where, but if we could play like a good mixed team on a good day for them, then it could be rough for us. I think it just depends on what team, how the teams play when you play them, I think.
What’s the top four looking like for you, what do you think?
Well again, I think it depends on how brackets are drawn, but I think the top four will be in no particular order; it’ll be us, 7AM, the cryths mix team, AL FATIAQ or whatever they’re called (laughs), and The Neighbours. I don’t know how Next In Line will do, but I think they were up there.
Is there anyone who you want to face, like really want to face?
I would like to play the AL FATIAQ team just because it’s me and cryths like we just have this like banter rivalry. So I think it’s pretty it’s always fun facing them and they’re sat right opposite us. So it’ll be really good.
I feel like you’re the only person who would say they want to face cryths.
I’m not scared of that team, no, no, no, no. They’ll shout a lot, but in-game we’ll just outperform them. But you never know what happens in the game.
You really don’t let the pressure get to you in those situations?
I think I’ve been playing too long at UK LANs to let stuff like that get to me, like, I was playing back when SHEEKEY was shouting at people (laughs), so once you’ve been through SHEEKEY shouting, I think no one else will really match it.
Are there any dark horses which have kind of popped out to you so far in this tournament?
On paper, I would have said that Linx Legacy could be a dark horse just because, we’ve practiced with them a couple of times and they’ve definitely got, like, the skill to compete with other teams if they show up. I think they’ve started off a bit slow. So yeah, if there was a team outside the top five, I would say them.
Is there anything else you want to say about the tournament?
At the event, I just hope everything runs smoothly, like, I know that internet had a bit of problems at the start, so hopefully it stays a bit stable.
Hopefully, there’s not too many upsets, because I always seem to get fucked in the bracket like every LAN I go to I start from round one on the Saturday in lowers and play the whole day through to like top three and just for once I want to stay in the upper bracket, that’s all I care about (laughs).
Even if I don’t win, I just want to stay in the upper bracket, give me my sleep man (laughs).
Now, a bit seperate from the LAN, what are your thoughts on these ESL Premiership format changes, now going through Insomnia?
Yeah, so it’s basically just straight playoffs at Insomnia and I think every team that gets into that goes into the next season of ESL Premiership. I think that if all the qualifiers were done online, it would be really good to play the LAN at Insomnia, but I feel like having to pay over 1.5 grand per team to attend if you don’t make it through the close qualifiers, I think is a bit of a piss-take.
If you don’t qualify through the four spots online, then you’re paying to go to a LAN, which is basically a glorified qualifier, which I think is just a piss-take. I like the idea of LAN finals and everything, but I was back playing in ESL LAN finals when they were hosted in the ESL Studios, so, it’s a complete downgrade to me.
Appreciate your comments on that, is there anything else?
Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Just shout out to Verdant. Shout out to Verdant, man.
