Xizt: "Right now we don't have any [roster change] plans, but we need to start delivering results"

In an interview with fnatic's IGL Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström, we heard about the issues that plagued the team at the last three events, the mental aspect, and their style.

Group stage exits at DreamHack Masters Dallas, ESL Pro League S9 Finals, and ESL One Cologne are a sign of issues for fnatic, prompting us to sit down with Xizt and hear his thoughts on the matter.

The 28-year-old in-game leader revealed that the team's mentality and confidence has been eroded due to recent failures, but that they have some ideas how to fix their issues moving forward.

Looking at this lineup from IEM Chicago to IEM Sydney, the Major perhaps didn't go so well, but other than that everything looked pretty good, convincing, things were improving. What happened in the last couple of months with you guys not having the greatest events, three in a row now?

Obviously we have messed up three times in a row in the group stages, which is unacceptable. This event we lost to two really good teams, #2 and #3 in the world I think, but the way we lost wasn't pretty. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what our problem is because I think we have a few of them right now. There is still a lot of tilt there, obviously losing three tournaments in a row you are not going to be happy, you are going to be tilted, your patience is not going to be there, you know? It is just really weird, when we played the group stage matches we played like we are afraid to lose, when we get to the playoff games I think we play a lot better as a team. I think it has a lot to do with our communication and not hitting our shots again, confidence, stuff like that.

What is the plan to get out of that mindset? You have been working with a mental coach and even back in the NiP days that became a problem at one point, going into a slump and being unable to find a way out of it. So what is your thinking, what is the way out of here?

Yeah, we hired a mental coach a couple of months ago and we started to improve when we got him, things were looking good, but now we lost a lot. The plan is to play to more CS outside of the team, play FPLs, with friends, but also watch demos, deathmatch to get the feel for CS back, which I feel like we have lost, all of us, basically. Also the normal stuff, reviewing our games, talking about what works and what doesn't, making new strats for the next tournaments. We also have a lot of thoughts after this event about what we have to improve, but that is a team talk so I'd rather not say.

One of the things some people were critical about your team is the style you employ, which maybe relies too much on individual skill. Then when the individual form drops off the whole team drops off, in a way. Do you think there is some truth to that, is that something you are looking into changing going forward?

You want to be good at both things, tactics and having good individuals to be a really consistent team. Of course, we are looking at ways to change our playstyle and find new tactics, stuff like this. It is something that I and Jumpy are working on really hard.

The Swedish scene and what is going on is always a hot topic, we see NiP picking up a young player and are also looking into the whole GeT_RiGhT situation, potentially he is also going to be moving out and someone else joining. Every team makes changes sooner or later, there are a couple of young Swedish players that are potential prospects - is there a feeling that maybe you need to do a move before someone else does?

Right now we don't have any plans, but we need to start delivering results if we want to continue, it is the way it is. There is going to come a time when younger talent comes into legendary teams, it is just a matter of time.