fnatic announced a substantial change to their composition at the start of August, departing from an all-Swedish lineup — which they have housed since 2013 — and transitioning to an international roster with the addition of former Cloud9 duo Alex “ALEX” McMeekin and William “mezii” Merriman.
The team is set to make their first official appearance on Friday at 16:45 , and will have a trial by fire as they will face Natus Vincere in their opening match-up.
ALEX sung his praise for mezii
Ahead of their debut, HLTV.org briefly spoke to fnatic‘s new in-game leader ALEX for some insight on his time on Cloud9, as well as his transition to fnatic after a brief break. The British captain spoke of an adjustment period as the Swedish core of the team try to find a balance between the freedom they had previously and the tactical structure that is being brought in, and had high praise to offer of mezii‘s versatility.
ALEX also spoke to the dynamic between the team’s new coach, Jamie “keita” Hall, and their team director, Andreas “Samuelsson” Samuelsson, and outlined what the team’s focus is on heading into their first event together.
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You’ve had a couple of months to recuperate after the end of Cloud9. It was your second stint between teams with a break like this — what is it like for you, getting back to practice after that time off?
It’s nice to have some time off honestly, when you’re fully invested in a team it takes a lot out of you, especially when you put so much into it in a short period of time because we didn’t have long to get up and running.
Coming back is actually easier than it sounds, I watched all the games during my time off so I kept up to date with the meta, and then it’s just a case of playing to get back to my individual form.
trying to mesh so many different cultures and visions together was a challenge
Touching on that time with Cloud9 — what were you able to take away from that period, given all of the circumstances around being unable to bootcamp, the roster and role changes, community pressure, and so on? Did your experience there change your approach to anything coming into fnatic?
It was a unique experience for sure, trying to mesh so many different cultures and visions together was a challenge, but it was good overall as it opened my eyes to different ways of approaching the game and situations.
When I was in the interviews with fnatic, I said that I believe starting an international roster with the fewest of different nationalities and similar cultures would make it easier, although that didn’t influence the decision to bring in mezii since they were already in talks with him.
This fnatic lineup has actually been back at practice for a good chunk of time now, earlier than most other teams — I think you mentioned two to three weeks in an interview with Richard Lewis. What has the development been like on the server so far? How are the Swedish players adapting to your style?
We started practice early as we have a lot of work to do, most of us hadn’t been competing for a couple of months already, and Will [mezii] had a break before joining Endpoint so he felt fresh enough to start early.
I think it’s been good so far, we’re trying to find a balance between the freedom that made them good for so long and a more tactical side that I like. I think the Swedes are doing well, it’s a change of style for them and it’ll take some time to get used to it.
On Cloud9, you and es3tag traded AWPing duties after woxic’s departure. What was that period like for you, simultaneously needing to be the main AWP and IGL?
AWPing and IGLing was different for sure, it was more out of necessity than me actually wanting to become a full time AWP. I think it was ok, it was such a short period and we played a limited amount of officials so I don’t know if I would have been good with it long term, but i’m happy being back to rifling now.
Jackinho has shown to be pretty capable on the server, but there are still questions around him and his overall potential as an AWPer compared to some of the other talents around. What has your experience been like with him, so far?
Jack has been really good to work with so far, he’s very eager to learn and has a huge amount of skill. We’re working closely with him to help him develop, and I believe with time that he can be the right style of AWP to balance out the team.
It’s honestly hard to work out what mezii will be best at, because he’s good at everything
You’ve also mentioned that it was actually fnatic’s idea to bring mezii on board. Can you explain the value that he adds to a team, and if you’re utilizing him any differently compared to on Cloud9?
mezii is an IGL’s dream to be honest, he can play any role, any position and if he’s not already good at it he’ll work really hard to get good at it. He brings a lot of skill, calmness and hunger to win.
It’s honestly hard to work out what he’ll be best at, because he’s good at everything, so I think he has a mixture of positions now where he’ll have different roles, and we’ll see in the future if he really stands out in one of them, but I think he’s an overall amazing player to glue a team.
It seems you’re working both with keita and Samuelsson, can you expand on what that dynamic is like?
So Samuelsson is the team director and keita is the coach, but Samuelsson will do whatever we need from him so with his experience of coaching in the past. We also use him as assistant coach.
It’s nice to have an extra pair of eyes, that aren’t necessarily with us all day every day as he spends time with the academy roster too, but when he does watch us he sees things that could be obvious from the outside but that we may have missed because we’re in our bubble.
practice could be going really well or really bad, it doesn’t matter until you play officials
You’re up against some heavy contention in your group with the likes of NAVI, FaZe, and mousesports. What’s the focus for the team been on, coming into this event?
For us this will be a test to see where we are, practice could be going really well or really bad, it doesn’t matter until you play officials. I don’t even think the first event is a real test, as we’re coming in with them not knowing what to expect, which is an advantage for us, so if we do well we won’t be overconfident or take it as our level going forward.
We’ll be taking it game by game, we would like to make the playoffs because it would be a good confidence booster from the start, but we’re aware that we have tough opponents to face so it’ll be hard.
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