refrezh: "I’m going to keep working hard like I’ve done this year, and 2021 will be even better"

The Danish rifler went under the radar for a long period after OpTic, but recovered his form once he found stability and is now playing the best Counter-Strike of his career.

Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali’s professional career changed after an impressive showing as a stand-in for Cloud9 at BLAST Pro Series Lisbon in December 2018, replacing Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim. He became Denmark’s next sensation and was expected to flourish in OpTic, his first big professional team. But the young star had to take roles he never had played before and was benched after only eight months. But after some time away from competition, he got back to the bottom of the Danish scene and slowly adapted to a high-level of competition again. He ends 2020 in the ranks of MAD Lions, one of the best teams in his country and the winner of the first edition of the $1 million Flashpoint league.

“After OpTic I was kind of questioning my career and if I had what it took to follow the path of a professional player," refrezh said, recalling how he felt after OpTic benched him in August 2019. His playstyle didn’t fit with the system designed by Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen, who’s known for adding a solid tactical structure to his teams. Despite the clash of ideas, the 22-year-old doesn’t think that the things MSL were trying to implement were necessarily bad. “It was basically a bad combination,” refrezh said.

After taking some time to consider his future, the rifler decided to keep on grinding and started practicing again. "From that point on, I just kept playing a lot, as much as possible, of FPL, Deathmatch, and also playing with mix teams in some online qualifiers.”

Although refrezh was reaching out to teams and was even willing to go back to a “much lower level” just to compete in a team again, his buyout made it difficult for him to secure a move away from OpTic. He played in mix teams until Copenhagen Flames — perhaps the Danish specialist in farming CS:GO talent — finally signed him in February 2020.

Having spent so many months away from professional CS:GO, it was hard for refrezh to adapt in-game since he had got used to playing loose in mix teams. “It’s the only thing you can do when you’re in a mix team. You basically rely a lot more on your aim,” refrezh explained. It took some time for him to regain confidence and learn how to be a good teammate again. The early days in Copenhagen Flames weren’t easy as he didn’t know his role within the team, how he was supposed to play or react to certain situations. The rifler posted below-average numbers in some of the first events he played in 2020, but he slowly picked up form as he played with the same core of players in Copenhagen Flames and later on in x6tence, who acquired the roster in June.

“In the beginning, I was really scared of making mistakes," he said. "It’s not only confidence, it’s also about knowing the game and its meta. I definitely hated the SG and the AUG meta, because I really like to peek a little and take some fights. I want to win fights, but it’s really hard to do that when there’s just an SG posted waiting for you. They just kill you instantly.”

Not only did refrezh find a stable roster, but he also got to work extensively with Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen, an in-game leader who was unknown outside of the Danish scene. The rifler has nothing but admiration for his captain and is glad that they were able to join MAD Lions together in October. It was a big move for both players, but especially for HooXi, who is having the chance to prove himself against better opposition.

“HooXi is a really hard-working guy, I've never seen anyone put more hours into the game than him, especially as an in-game leader, who tries to understand the game and look at what he could have done better," refrezh said. "Most of the in-game leaders I’ve played with had their own way of thinking and they didn’t try to look at what they could have done better as a captain. In my eyes, HooXi is one of the most underappreciated in-game leaders in Denmark, and I think he’ll improve even more when he gets used to the team.”

Talking about integration, refrezh feels that MAD Lions’ core—Frederik "⁠acoR⁠" Gyldstrand, Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck, and Fredrik "⁠roeJ⁠" Jørgensen — welcomed him and HooXi with open arms and that the team’s atmosphere is enjoyable, both inside and outside of the game. With less than three months of practice with their two new players, MAD Lions managed to finish 5th-6th in Flashpoint 2, in which they defeated fnatic once and put up a good fight against Virtus.pro, who went on to win the tournament. refrezh averaged a solid 1.07 rating, the second-best in the team after sjuush’s 1.16.

“It’s really hard to create a map pool in two-and-a-half months,” refrezh said, before admitting that the team probably had too much workload to handle. “We were practising non-stop, we were watching our own games, and we didn’t have many off-days. I guess we didn’t listen to our bodies enough and we just focused on the goal and the prize, instead of looking at how to get there in a good way, in a way where we didn't get tired or feel fatigued and stressed.”

refrezh hopes that the team can find a good balance in 2021 to prevent burnout as they chase their first title since winning Flashpoint 1, in April. As for personal goals, he will be looking to continue his fragging exploits as he is currently in the form of his life: He averaged a 1.17 rating in the last six months of 2020, up from a 1.02 rating during the first half of the year.

“I’m going to keep working hard like I’ve done this year and next year will be even better,” refrezh said. “Hopefully I can keep progressing because my next milestone is to be part of HLTV’s top 20 list.”

Regardless of whether refrezh will break into the elite in 2021, he’s already an important figure in the Counter-Strike scene as one of the few Black players competing at a top level. He is no stranger to racist abuse, but instead of reacting to it, he prefers to focus on the encouraging comments that he gets from people who may be facing a similar situation as him.

"I'm kind of an easy target, if you know what I mean," he admitted. "There are some easy things that you can use to attack me, some people do that, but not all of them.

“It’s nice to have some different people playing, I guess. I receive a lot of love from fans, people who maybe can see themselves through me. I’m kind of representing a big segment of people in the world.”