Coming into this event, Finest were heavy underdogs, who were not predicted to get out of groups but they surpassed all expectations by defeating EG and then took revenge on Imperial to make it to the stage. Before the madness started, Freddie “GrimyRannar” Pritchard was able to take the time to catch up with Rasmus “kreaz” Johansson on day one after their opening loss against Imperial.
Firstly how are you feeling after coming off a close loss against Imperial in your opening game?Â
I think we had a really slow start and we could have definitely won the game but we had some individual mistakes. In General, we played pretty good, and if we didn’t make those small mistakes we would have made that comeback happen.
Even though you did lose, are you finding silver linings considering some of your players have either never played on LAN or have very little experience?Â
I wouldn’t say happy because we still could have won, but I think it was fine but definitely we can do better. We have been showing it online, even though it is our first LAN, it was just small mistakes that we overpeeked on some rounds that made us lose the game.
Do you think those small mistakes you would of not made online?
Not sure really, we still do it online so I do not know, it might be that people are a little bit more nervous, but in general some of these mistakes we have to work on, we are a pretty new team still, we have only been together since middle of march so still finding our feet properly.
Finest had a slow start to the year, but recently you have been playing super well, are there any key features for the recent success?
We didn’t have a solid line up for like three months coming into the new year, playing with different players all the time. In general, we had to find a solid line up especially with our coach Bogdan is helping us so much. I think that there is nothing specific that clicked, we just have five really good and motivated players who want to work hard.
Do you find that you have a lot of momentum coming into this LAN because of your online successes?
Both yes and no. When you come on LAN those matches do not really matter as much even though it is a big thing that we won Pinnacle, it doesn’t really matter that much on LAN. But I feel like yes a little bit it does help, the feeling from coming off a win.
Last night you played Sprout online and did not win, does that affect your mentality coming into this event?
I don’t think so, not really. With Sprout we had super good first halves but the thing was we made some mistakes as people were quite stressed even though we were in the practice room and it was a pretty calm environment. Today we are way more calm than yesterday, but still some individual mistakes made us lose both of these games. Yesterday was much worse for us against Sprout.
Coming into this tournament, do you have any objectives?
Yea definitely getting out of the groups and winning 2 games. That is our main goal, and we will definitely think that we can do it.
Someone like Kristjan “shokz” Jakobson, this is his first LAN, do you find some people with less experience are at a disadvantage?
At the beginning it wasn’t that big of a difference. But the Heroic and Imperial guys have all been on LANs for almost 7 months so they have the upper hand.  However, I do think the way CS is played now is less different when played online and offline. CS now is way more mind-game heavy, it is not as strat heavy, you are not relying as much on sound it is more mind-game heavy. The way you approach the game with the prep is the most important. All the tier two and three teams have analysts and coaches. In that sense it is easier in some ways to come into LAN because you still have that prep in mind and people still have their skills. It is not that different to play on LAN, just mentally.
You are one of the more experienced players in the roster, over time has the approach of the game changed much?
Yeah definitely, actually I have never been someone who has been nervous on LAN, but now when you have all this prep and all the things around the team, it is actually such a big relief when the games starts because you don’t have to think about anything else. I get a paper from my coach, this is it and I focus on the game. Â
Would you say the prep is better now than before?
It depends on the team, when I stood in with FNATIC they had very good prep. Especially within the tier two and three scene, I feel like a lot of teams either don’t anti-strat or do it very lightly so it’s not even worth it. But now the analysts coaches are way better at finding specific things you can use against opponents
Especially coming into the event like this are you guys worried you will not be able to replicate you online success offline?
No, even though we got invited less than seven days ago we have the mentality of even though it’s a LAN, we can still beat them regardless.
Wait so when did you guy find out you were coming here?
We found out last Wednesday or so and just said yes and here we are. Copenhagen Flames had no line up, we got asked, of course we want to come.
anarkez normally plays on quite high ping, how does being on LAN affect him with the lower ping?
There is a huge difference on lower ping, the flick shots hit everything hits. Sometimes he does have problems online when shots just don’t hit but now he feels more confident and it shows.
Looking at anarkez, some team-mates in the past, people have described him as being quite selfish, would you still say that is the same?
anarkez is a very aggressive player, but we have a really good structure around it. I think even though he is sometimes too aggressive for what AWPers may be, we have a structure around it, so it is our game plan.
Looking into the future now, away from this event, what are your objectives?
Definitely qualify for the major, we are hungry and want to attend more LANs, high tier 2 and 1 tournaments which is the main goal for the whole team. Especially with the more events we play, we will get more and more experience so someone like Shokz this is newer for him but everyone has to have a first LAN.
