RobbaN: "G2 are our biggest threat"

FaZe kicked off their journey at the ESL One Cologne 2016 offline qualifier with a decisive win over Dignitas, who recently swapped Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye for René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg. 

We got a hold of the team's coach, Robert "⁠RobbaN⁠" Dahlström, who shed some light on his team's preparation, some of the teams present at the qualifier and the format overall:

Let's start off with the classic - how have you prepared before this event?

Yeah, we started out with practising online quite a lot and the last three days before this we had a bootcamp in Warsaw, here in Poland. Felt good, you know, we had to work on some small stuff, some details, so mainly that.

What about any special preparation, obviously this format makes it tough to prepare for specific teams, how did you approach that?

We really didn't prepare for any specific teams, we prepared mainly our play, our tactics and how we want to play. We always try to focus on playing our game rather than how the opponent is playing.

Have you at least investigated into dignitas, whom you knew you were going to face prior to the event? They also have a new player and are likely to play differently...

Yeah, of course, we had a pretty good read on how they liked to play before. You never know now when they have a new player, they haven't played so many matches with the new player, so I did what I could to prepare and the players did as well. 

You've obviously been around for a long time and seen almost all formats possible. Have you ever seen it in use before?

No, this is  the first time I've seen this format, but I actually like it, you know. If we didn't qualify, it would be our own fault, we have three chances, so I think it's good, I like it.

Looking at the other teams present, who do you think are going to be your toughest opponents?

I think right now it's going to be G2, they're playing good Counter-Strike right now, and been performing pretty well, so I think that's gonna be our biggest threat.

What about for example TyLoo, who you don't have any experience with? What do you make of the Chinese?

It's nice to see an Asian team, when I used to play I played a lot against Asian teams. Well, they have impressed a few times now, they've won a few important matches. We'll see how they do here, it's gonna be interesting.

We have already conducted interviews with two other winners on day one, make sure to check out the list in case you missed any:

Aleksandar "⁠kassad⁠" Trifunović: "Nobody will gift us the win"

Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk: "Have a lot up our sleeves"