I den forgangende weekend blev Counter-Strike: Global Offensive-turneringen ved Dreamhack Winter 2013 afviklet, og præmiepuljen var på over en million danske kroner. På deltagerlisten fandt man hold som Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team VeryGames, Astana Dragons og Copenhagen Wolves, men det viste sig, at det var fnatic, der var mest klar fra start.
Det svenske mandskab startede deres vej mod guldpokalen torsdag i gruppe A, hvor de endte på førstepladsen foran blandt andre Clan-Mystik og Natus Vincere. I kvartfinalen fik de fornøjelsen af Recursive, som noget sikkert blevet slået 2 - 1. I semifinalen ventede de amerikanske spillere fra compLexity. Det var dog ikke en semifinale, der rigtig blev spændende. Kun to maps skulle tages i brug, før fnatic var finaleklar.
(JW i midten og resten af hans holdkameratter ved Dreamhack Winter 2013 - Foto: Dreamhack)
I finalen mødte de landsmændende fra Ninjas in Pyjamas, så der var lagt op til et brag af en kamp. Det var også forhåndsfavoritterne fra Ninjas in Pyjamas, der kom bedst fra start på første map, men mirakuløst spil fra fnatic gjorde, at de endte med at vinde 16 - 14. Næste map vandt Ninjas in Pyjamas så, mens fnatic nappede det sidste og afgørende og dermed en Dreamhack Winter 2013 sejr.
Lineup:
Jesper "jw" Wecksell- Jonatan "Dewilwalk" Lundberg
- Andreas "Schneider" Lindberg
- Robin "flusha" Rönnquist
- Markus "pronax" Wallsten
I kølvandet af den flotte præstation har Gaming.dk haft fingrene i den alt dominerende Jesper "jw" Wecksell, som virkelig fik vist, at han er blandt verdens bedste AWP-spillere.
Three days ago you won the biggest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive-tournament ever, Dreamhack Winter 2013. How are you feeling?
I am extremly happy and it is still quite unbelievable but for every day that passes i'm starting to realize it and it is pretty damn amazing to be honest.
You earlier decided to swap Andreas "MODDII" Fridh with Markus "pronax" Wallsten, who took over as in-game leader. How did that change affect fnatic and the playstyle?
It affected us in many ways. First of all we got a real leader for the first time ever in this fnatic lineup. But we also lost some firepower as moddii is one of the best riflers out there. But we knew that individual skill have never been a problem in our team, the only problem we really have had is the leader issue. Getting pronax in was a huge boost for whole the team as we have been asking pronax to join us ever since Berg left the team before Dreamhack Summer but he always rejected our offers to stay loyal with his current team, which is something we all respect a lot. Now when we finally got him it is really easy to see that this was what we were missing. A true leader. We are playing a whole different type of playstyle now and we can acctually win rounds even when people are not "very hot individually" which was pretty much everything we could rely on earlier with MODDII.
Many of the people, who followed and checked in during Dreamhack Winter 2013, were really impressed seeing your performance. How would you describe your own performance?
Well, I'm happy with my own performance but I know that i can do better, but i did what was needed from me in order to make us win, which is what its all about. I wouldn't be able to put up as good a performance without my teammates though. Everyone played their role perfectly, and that enabled me to play well. And i will keep playing alot and improve to show the people and my teammates that this is not my top level.
You mentioned earlier, that bringing in a real in-game leader boosted your performance a lot. You won against the best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive-team, Ninjas in Pyjamas, in the final wtih a scoreline of 2 - 1. What do you think made it possible for you to win other than pronax?
I think cArn played a huge role in our win as well, he kept boosting our confidence before the match and betwen all the maps and kept telling us that we acctually can take this win if we keep playing like we did in the other matches in the tournament. After hearing that 100 times there actually was nothing else then a win for you in your head. Also we all played very good individually and kept hitting our shots so that it became alot easier for pronax to make the right calls aswell. So I would say it was all a mixture of everything.
Now that you won the biggest and most prestigious Counter-Strike: Global Offensive-tournament with the biggest prizepool ever seen, what does the future of the fnatic team now looks like?
Our future is bright, I hope. We will keep praccing hard now for the Svecup finals 14th December and then take a small break over Christmas etc. After the small break we will practice alot and keep improving our gameplay for the future events so that we can show the world that this was not a "one-hit-wonder", that is our main goal at the moment pretty much.
Som det kan ses ovenover, så har fnatic ikke i sinde at tage en pause, selvom de lige har vundet verdens største Counter-Strike: Global Offensive-turnering. Den står nemlig allerede på turneringen igen i om godt to uger, når de deltager i Svecup.
