f0rest: "I'm not satisfied at all; I believe that we can go so much further"

Counter-Strike veteran Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg isn't happy with just making the New Legends Stage, he revealed in our post-match interview.

Ninjas in Pyjamas are the second team to advance from the New Challengers Stage, joining Liquid as a 3-0 team. The Swedes started off by beating Virtus.pro, before taking down TYLOO, and finally edging out Astralis in overtime.

The deciding game, in which Ninjas in Pyjamas defeated the #1 ranked team, took over fifty rounds to finish, with both Jonas "⁠Lekr0⁠" Olofsson and Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen breaking the 50-kill mark. Following the game, we spoke to f0rest about reaching the top-16 of a Major for the first time since ESL One Cologne 2016, playing under their new in-game leader, and more.

You just made it to the New Legends Stage, what was before officially the Major. You are finally back, after two years, how does it feel?

It feels incredible, of course, but I don't consider our job done here. I believe that we can go so much further, and I would actually be disappointed if we didn't perform in the next stage. I'm not satisfied at all, I see this as a four-step process: step one was the Minor, step two was this, next is step three and step four is the final. I'm not going to celebrate yet, I'm very happy that we are in the Major, but we are going to keep on going.

Lets touch on the game you had here, starting with the map pick, it ended up on Mirage, that you played against Astralis in Stockholm, and it was a pretty close map. Just getting that map, were you confident that you were going to get the win this time?

Yeah, I think most of us felt a bit disappointed during DreamHack Stockholm, that we lost Mirage the way we did. We really felt like we could give so much more. Once the Mirage pick was locked in and ready to go, I think everyone was feeling comfortable. Sure, it got to be one hell of a game, right, but it felt like there were a lot of 1-on-1 situations that could've gone either way, we lost a lot of them which we could've ended the match so much earlier with. But I'm happy with the team that we managed to stay focused against such a great team like Astralis, that we managed to keep calm and collected and talk to each other, figure out things to do, but it was a rough game.

Did you get frustrated at all, with the way you lost all of those rounds, that you could've closed the game earlier with?

Frustration... I don't like to be frustrated, I felt more like "shit... we could've taken that one", and there was a lot of those rounds, but once it is done you move on to the next and you focus on that one. I mean, they performed incredibly, I think we played a great game as well, I'm pretty sure it could've gone either way, obviously, they could've won as well even though we were kind of in the driving seat for the most of the overtime. No, no frustration, we had a little bit of talk during the game because... Well, okay, some frustration might've gone through at some point, but that is something we shook off and kept playing.

Tell me a bit about Lekr0, he had an amazing game here and throughout the tournament, he has been one of the best performing players. How has it been playing with him now?

I think he is an incredible person to play with, he always has a smile on his face, he is focused, calm, collected, he is an incredible player overall, I think he is playing great and I would say that he carried us here, it was mad.

What do you think inspired his performance so far at this event?
I don't think there is anything necessarily that motivates him but he is motivated to play again after he got, I don't know, kicked or left fnatic, and came to play with us. I think he wants to prove that he can still play, right. I think it might be one of those reasons.

How do you feel about the style of the team, with him as the in-game leader right now, playing a bit looser and relying more on just getting the entries and rolling from there?

I think that for us, it feels structured, I guess in some sense when we play it might not look like that. Sure, we do some improv calls here and there if someone gets a gut feeling that he can make a play, we try to utilize that because we have such great players in terms of individual skill. But I think he is still adapting to being an in-game leader, this is the second event he is in-game leading in, and I think he is doing a great job. I'm very happy that he actually wanted to in-game lead. I think he is still learning and I think he handled this game incredibly. He always tried to think about what to do next, at some point during the game he thought "well, what the hell do we have left, what can we come up with here?" (laughs) But I think that, overall, he is great.

More interviews from the FACEIT Major New Challengers Stage:

Day 3
TACO: "We knew Vega have a really aggressive style, but it was still hard to play against"

Day 2
cajunb: "I really want to win a Major, that's when I can retire and be happy"
somedieyoung: "We pretty much knew everything North were going to do"
AdreN: "It's me and Hobbit who are trying to make the mid-round calls"
hutji: "During his 1v1, chopper said 'no worries, guys, I'm going to punch him'"

Day 1
tiziaN: "I've actually practiced it 3 or 4 times, but I wasn't planning on doing that shot"
Twistzz: "We knew that bootcamping was the way better option"
BnTeT: "We're confident in our skill, but I'm not sure we're confident in our team play"
Lekr0: "I think I learned the most about [in-game leading] from pronax back in the day"

Media Day:
stanislaw: "We have all the pieces to really do some damage"
B1ad3: "We still haven't found the perfect in-game leader"
crush: "We didn't play much [officially] because we wanted to find our game"
Hiko "American teams are dependent on the momentum they gain"
NEO: "byali wanted changes even before Snax told us [he was leaving]"
DavCost: "The main goal is to show who we are"