draken: "I think parting ways was good for both NiP and myself"

We spoke to William "⁠draken⁠" Sundin after his debut match for fnatic and learned about departing Ninjas in Pyjamas, other offers and his AWPing style.

fnatic secured a 16-14 victory on Inferno over North to start of ESL One Cologne, barely closing out the game after an impressive 12-3 Terrorist half. The newest addition had a decent match, but was locked out of the action for the majority of the second half, as the Danes focused on the B bombsite.

Immediately after the fnatic - North game, we sat down with draken and learned what he thought about leaving the Ninjas, reuniting with Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström and his tag of a streaky AWPer.

Back at StarSeries S5 I interviewed REZ and he mentioned that NiP wanted to use you in a more supportive-AWP way. Was that something that was discussed with the team and what did you think of it at the time?

We wanted to change something in the team, we ended up putting me in certain positions Let's say Cache, for example, if in a tactic you go short, you just go short. It was a bit more structured and I'm used to playing a bit on the fly, that's how I got good at least. Of course, you always have to adapt, but things just didn't click, and that's it.

What you are trying to say is that that kind of a playstyle didn't suit you personally?

It didn't suit me well, I adapted to it but it wasn't really the thing that was the best for me. As I said, the way I play is that I go almost everywhere, but of course, you have to have standards, that's what a good AWPer gets, you have a hybrid of passive and aggressive play. But they just wanted me to be very static. I was fine with it, but when it didn't work... there were some problems in the team, otherwise, I wouldn't be here.

In the end, do you think it made sense for you to part ways with NiP? Do you think it was something... I don't want to say you were happy with, but at least OK with?

Yeah, it felt like it wasn't even fun to play. In Dallas and at StarLadder I didn't really enjoy playing quite as much as I had before. I was having a bit of a feeling that maybe I need a new home or something. I think parting ways was good for both NiP and myself.

Now that you are in fnatic, how did that happen? Were there any other offers on the table, international teams or NA teams that you considered?

There was ex-GODSENT, Red Reserve now, and then I know Cloud9 was interested, I don't know the offer but I heard from my CEO in NiP that they were interested and stuff. And there was fnatic, and they were a bit more on and it was a Swedish team, so it was quite easy to choose that when you didn't have really anything [substantial] from Cloud9. But I think they reached out at least, the organization.

What are your first impressions of coming into fnatic?

Playing with the fnatic boys there is a different vibe when we play, it's quite different. I don't want to criticize the NiP players now that I joined fnatic, but I think the fnatic guys have more skills. I really enjoy playing with fnatic, I think it's a better vibe for me as a young guy, they are young as well, there are jokes all around, there is a fun feeling.

Playing with Xizt again, is his style different to what it used to be in NiP?

No, it's quite the same actually, he calls something in the start of the round and then he has these mid-round calls and it's quite the same. Really, from all of the players I've played with, Xizt is probably the easiest to play with. He makes room for everyone else and it's really easy to get along with him inside the game.

You got the tag of an AWPer that hits the crazy shots and misses the easy shots, that's what people like to say about you. Do you think that is warranted, what do you think about it?

Everyone misses shots, I don't know what to think about it. It's a fun meme but I don't really think it's true. Everyone misses and everyone hits shots. That's it.

You've joined fnatic pretty recently, playing in Cologne already, what is the level of the team, how ready are you to play this tournament?

We are kind of ready, I wouldn't say we are super ready, we've only been practicing for eight or nine days. I think Atlanta, ELEAGUE, is going to be where we can show maybe not our full potential, but real potential.

Lastly, you played this game against North. Watching from your individual standpoint, especially on the CT side, you were just kind of locked out of the action. It was one of those games where everything happens on the B site and you are rotating in and then you have to save and stuff like that. How do you generally approach matches like that, when you have to wait for your chances for so long? How does it feel?

Of course, it feels bad, but every player in this team can hit shots and close the round out. I just think it happens sometimes, some games, and then you just have to wait because eventually they will hit your site and you will probably kill them. But now, I started playing B the last three rounds or something. That's also what you can do, change the site obviously and stay there for a while.