twist: "I will be calling at next events"

fnatic are coming into EPICENTER: Moscow with two-week break from LAN events, as their first and latest showing was at ESL One New York, where the team finished in 5th-6th place.

We've caught up with Simon "⁠twist⁠" Eliasson to find out whether more in-game leading changes have been made in the last few weeks, how he feels about Group B and whether he considers fnatic a title contender:

dennis was calling instead of wenton at ESL One New York, what led you to that decision? What is the difference between wenton's and dennis' style of leading?

First of all, wenton has never been the in-game leader, it was Jumpy at first, and two weeks before New York dennis took over because of the coaching rule. With Jumpy it was more slow play, while with dennis everything went a lot faster. We are a relatively new team and we are still trying things out - dennis recently stepped down from in-game leading and I will be calling at the upcoming events.

Have you ever led before?

No, not in a professional team.

What do you think your style will look like? dennis saying fnatic is made of five stars sounds like the team has quite a free style…

I think our style won't change that much, I really liked how dennis approached the game and I will continue to do that.

Why did he step down in the first place? Did he feel like it was affecting him individually?

I don't think it affected his individual play, he just didn't like being the IGL.

Up to now you've only played with friends and this is your first truly professional team, like you said in one of your interviews in New York. How are you adapting to the schedule, seeing as there are so many events nowadays?

I wouldn't say that this is my first professional team, but this is the first time I want to compete with the best teams out there. So far we have only been to one event, ESL New York, but I will be away for three weeks going to EPICENTER, Sao Paulo (Pro League Finals) and the Minor. Then we have a one week break, then it's ELEAGUE and then ECS if we qualify. Travelling a lot is tough, but this is what I want to do, I love competing at events.

You had about two weeks between New York and Moscow, what did you focus on in practice? Has anything changed in terms of roles in general, outside of the leading?

No we have only changed the IGL, other than that we're just trying to fix our mistakes from ESL One New York.

You'll be facing SK, Virtus.pro and HellRaisers in your group. Can you give us your thoughts on each match-up?

I like our group, I have never played against SK and have wanted to play against them for a long time and since they are ranked the number #1 team, I really want to win against them. Virtus pro, we played them in new york and lost kinda hard, so im happy we get the chance to play them again. HellRaisers are the underdogs in this tournament, but they are a strong team, so I'm sure they can upset, but if we play our A game I'm sure we can beat any team at the event.

After the debut in New York, where do you see your team? Do you consider yourselves a title contender now or is it still work in progress?

I see ourselves as a contender. ESL New York was our debut, so we didn't have any expectations, but still it felt like we could have won the event and we should have made it to the semifinals. We still have work to do of course, but I think we are contenders for the title.

Make sure to keep your eye on HLTV.org, as we'll bring more coverage prior to the $500,000 event kicking off on Monday, October 17th.