kreaz on Heroic: "We can match them for individual skill"

Fresh off the back of an upset of Imperial, Rasmus "⁠kreaz⁠" Johansson took some time out with HLTV.

Finest have had a whirlwind few weeks, winning Pinnacle Cup IV over the likes of Spirit and Movistar Riders and receiving a last minute invite to play here in Lund.

They have taken the opportunity with both hands, recovering from an early defeat by Imperial to sweep both EG White and the aforementioned Brazilians 2-0 to storm into the playoffs in impressive fashion.

In the aftermath of defeating a core of two-time Major winning players, young Swede kreaz sat down with HLTV to give some insight into how they managed to defeat Imperial, the formation of Finest's new five-man lineup, and how they might matchup against HEROIC in the playoffs.

Congratulations on such a massive win, how does it feel to make it to the the arena?

It feels great, that was our main goal when we came here so it’s a great feeling.

Does the victory mean a little bit more coming against such a storied and successful set of players like Imperial?

Yeah of course, they are legends of the game, they’ve been playing for a super long time winning titles and we’re a new team coming in as a last-minute invite. It’s super nice, and it makes victory a little bit sweeter.

Did you expect to be in control of the series as much as you were, from the outside it seemed relatively comfortable?

When we saw the veto we were super confident that we could 2-0 them. We know that our Overpass stats are pretty skewed on HLTV, we had a 30% win rate before the game or something, but we know we have a lot of structure and a lot of good things there.

I feel like we were comfortable the whole game, we lost some ecos but it never really changed anything, we were in the lead the whole time and we were the ones deciding the tempo of the game.

I was going to ask about the force-buys and full eco you lost –

(starts laughing)

- what happened in those rounds?

So actually the full glock round that we lost it was miscomms, we didn’t understand it was eco even, it was a full misunderstanding. We somehow thought it was a buy, so anarkez peeked super aggressive mid and got glocked down, and he’s like “WTF IT’S ECO GUYS!” (laughs), so we all panicked I think instead of staying calm, everyone tried to get the frag back.

I feel like last time we played them we also lost a lot of ecos, maybe three in that game, and this time on Overpass it was at least three ecos. So it’s definitely something we have to work on, and be aware when it is low buy (laughs). Otherwise, I think it was pretty comfortable for us.

So up next you will have Heroic, how do you feel about that game?

I think it’s going to be a good game. I feel like we still have super high expectations of ourselves, we know that we are five skilled guys individually.

Obviously it will be a bit different now when we actually play on the stage, because I think no one in our team has played on a stage for at least two years, and they have been to a few tournaments. I think it will be a bit more difficult on the mental side, but I do think we can match them for individual skill at least.

Could the crowd maybe end up being a buff for you? The excitement of playing in front of a crowd for the first time in a while might actually be a blessing.

I can’t speak for everyone, I just know for me personally when I have played with crowds usually I am not getting that nervous, I am more getting hyped off it, feeding off the energy. Now it has been at least two and a half years since a LAN with a crowd (laughs) so I am not sure how I am going to respond to it now, it was a while ago. At least before I felt like I could stay calm, but we are going to see.

To talk a bit more generally about the team, you have only had this five together for a few months. Were you expecting to be able to compete at this level so quickly, winning the online Pinnacle Cup and coming here and beating Imperial?

Both yes and no. We were actually on the way up with the previous lineup, and I feel like we were pretty good, but we had some clashes with personalities, people couldn’t really get along. So when we got a chance to pick up twist and PlesseN and we started playing with them, we felt like it was a really good match, people are not tilting on each other and stuff like that. We try to be productive and solve mistakes when they come up. We are practicing really good, we are really focused when we are practicing on making the important things work.

We were expecting to be around top 30, maybe not going to events and beating teams this fast (laughs) but obviously it was the long term goal.

So where do you yourselves progressing to now? Will you maybe reassess your goals after this event?

So we already set the main goal with this team to at least get inside the top 20, that’s the main goal for now. We don’t have a specific ranking, but get at least that rank so we can get some invites for these bigger LANs, and get to show ourselves a bit more.

I asked twist this but I want your view as his teammate: has having a player of his experience, a guy who has been to multiple Majors, benefitted you as a team?

Yeah of course, he is the in-game leader as well, he brings a lot of good ideas and Bogdan as well chimes in with a lot of ideas, helping with the structure and the prep. He has a lot of experience, he has been in these situations before, and in general I just think he is a really good in-game leader.

One last question: do you think you can go all the way?

Yeah, I think so. Hopefully (laughs).