HooXi on coming back to form: "We wanna go in that f**king arena so bad"

After Copenhagen Flames became the first team to advance from the Play-in stage, we sat down with Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen to discuss the Danes' resurgence in Katowice.

HooXi and company have gone through a few tough months after their PGL Major Stockholm fairytale-like run that saw them narrowly miss out on the playoffs in Sweden as one of the event's biggest underdogs.

The Danes were unable to replicate their impressive Major form upon returning to the tier-two scene, and despite reports of a potential deal with Complexity and offers from other organizations, the lineup ended up staying under the flaming banner for 2022.

As Copenhagen Flames entered IEM Katowice, expectations of the team were low after they've been hit or miss in smaller tournaments in recent times. However, an impressive resurgence saw them pick up statement victories over fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas to qualify for the main event, where they will be hoping to continue their onslaught.

To find out more about the Danes' return to form, we got a hold of the in-game leader, HooXi. The 26-year-old went back in time to share how the team was dealing with the difficult period following PGL Major Stockholm, and he explained what he thought has been behind their convincing run so far at IEM Katowice.

I realize you're probably fed up of talking about this, but after the Major you were looking shaky and at the same time the rumors were swirling around the potential switch to a different organization. How stressful of a period was this for you?

It was very stressful, and at the same time there were other factors as well, it was not only negotations, it was a mixture of having such a high at a huge event and then coming back to playing basically random HLTV cups, you know? Even though we tried to talk about it and we did everything in our power to stay mentally focused, it's just so hard, and with all the other factors as well... It was just hard to perform, but now we're back at a big event and I feel like it shows, both in the way we play and the way we act.

Everyone expected more from you after the Major. Was it the same from your side, and was it difficult to manage expectations after that?

Yeah, it was a little bit weird, because at the same time that we did well we were still kind of a new team, we have young players, still, and in the end we actually said to ourselves that we're probably not a top 10 team yet. Obviously, we can't say we're a consistent top 10 team because we hit it once. We had a goal of just staying in the top 20-15, around that — which we did, but not in the way we wanted to, so it's actually okay, but obviously we wanted to beat some of the teams we lost to.

You've come here and grabbed a couple of statement victories, and you've made it to the next stage. This last half against NIP was the only shaky point that we've seen from you so far, so what has been the difference? How have you been able to step up to this level?

I definitely think that the things we have talked about in practice have paid off. I don't think it's only because we went back to LAN, but obviously that's a huge difference, being at an event that is huge and there's a lot on the line. I think everybody is just 10% more focused and gives their all, and that's maybe hard for us to do right now on a day-to-day basis with all the other things that have been happening. I think it just shows in the way we speak to each other in TeamSpeak, the communication, the way we react faster to stuff. A lot of things coming together.

It took you a while to close out the NIP match. What was the problem on the T side of Mirage?

I think we just had Major flashbacks (laughs). It was actually exactly the same when we played against NIP at the Major. We won Nuke pretty convincingly, and then we had a good half, and then we had to close it out. On Inferno last time, we weren't too comfortable, and I think we need to go back from this game as well and talk about the T side because I felt like we ran out of speed. When we do that and at the same time we're a bit shaky because we have to close the game, then we need something to fall back on.

I was standing in front of you guys while NIP were coming back and it looked like the energy was lacking a bit after there was a tech pause. Was that also something that took the wind out of your sails?

I don't think the technical pause was the issue. I think it's a mix of us having a really rough travel day, we had some issues and we haven't really fully recovered yet. Obviously, it's been a pretty long day as well, and when things start to go downhill in general, we have a tendency to stop talking as much and with less energy in our voice, so I think that was it, basically. Obviously, we'll try to focus on that not happening again.

A lot of big teams are coming in in the main stage, it's a higher level of competition again. What's the expectation? Do these couple of wins give you a lot of confidence?

It for sure does. We feel like we're back to the Major, it's the same thing all over again, pretty much. I feel like Katowice is like the next biggest thing, so it just feels like we're doing the same thing all over again, and I hope so, that we'll do that and even better.

Is that the goal, to exceed what you did at the Major?

Yeah, we wanna go in that fucking arena so bad.