refrezh: "It’s insane to reach the Major in such a small amount of time"

With a spot at the IEM Rio Major secured, Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali provided HLTV with some insight on Sprout's run.

Sprout have been one of the surprise packages of the European RMR, being a roster that has only been together a matter of weeks. They opened their run by battling to a narrow 19-17 victory over FORZE before dispatching Spirit 16-12, two teams above them in the world rankings.

They went on to run FaZe dangerously close on two maps, taking one of them, before falling to a 1-2 defeat. Despite this the young squad, with an average age of less than 21, recovered to put away B8 2-1 to seal their berth for Rio.

Fresh from the high of qualification refrezh sat down for a chat with HLTV about Sprout's impressive performance, how he's been adapting to his new in-game leader role, and what it was like for him leaving HEROIC.

Congratulations, how does it feel to qualify for the Major?

It feels unbelievable. We are a new team so it’s not something we could expect, we came here without expectations. We only had one goal, to show that we can actually compete and that our style actually can work. Of course reaching the Major is a dream for everyone, but it’s insane doing it in such a small amount of time.

Speaking about the series you just played, you were making a strong comeback on Nuke T side and seemed to have the game under control, but flubbed a 4v3 post-plant against a bad buy and lost out from there. What happened from your perspective?

I don’t exactly remember that scenario because I tend to try to forget the bad rounds (laughs) and just focus on the next one.

In general we made some pretty big mistakes on the T side, and also CT side we have some problems on Nuke. We missed some smokes, and if you are doing that on Nuke… you cannot afford to do that, we did it too many times, and that I think made the T side really hard for us. We rotated badly on the CT side as well, and that’s the two most important things on that map, rotating well and utility. We missed both parts and were still really close.

We still have a lot of work to do on Nuke, and it’s no secret that there was some frustration because we lost some weird rounds. We did our best but we were frustrated with ourselves, it was silly mistakes.

We did a reset in the break in between maps and we managed to refocus on Vertigo, even though we had a bad start we knew it was a strong map for us so we were really confident.

Were you expecting the first two maps to be so close? B8 have been turning plenty of heads in this event.

A couple weeks before the RMR we had a practice against them and this cptkurtka028 guy was really insane, he dropped like 45 against us and made sick highlights. We have been talking about this guy for a while, he’s really strong and also his name is just super funny (laughs) so we have been making jokes about it all the time. When we finally had to meet them, we were still making jokes, but we didn’t underestimate them, there’s a reason why they were 2-1.

We knew that if we stayed true to our playstyle and trusted the preparation, we would grind it out in the end, as long as we gave our full effort. We were frustrated on Nuke, and I think that cost some rounds, maybe if we could reset in the middle of the match better we had a chance, but they were punishing our mistakes and played well so you can’t take anything away from them.

Generally about B8, they play really well, they have strong individuals, and are confident in the way that they play. There might be some gaps, or maybe it’s not the best playstyle overall, but what can you say about an inexperienced team that are making it so deep into the RMR, they can be super proud of their results.

You mentioned being true to your playstyle, tell me what it’s been like developing that style as an in-game leader?

It’s my first time in-game leading and calling all the time, but I’ve gotten a lot of help from BERRY. I’ve played with him before and I’ve always known that he’s a really smart guy, and for me he’s been an idol in terms of being an in-game leader. He has done it for so long and I think honestly he has been unlucky in his career because he has never gotten the opportunity to keep players because he did not have an organisation...

It feels like every good Danish player has played under BERRY at some point.

Exactly! You can see all the talents that he has played with. Even my teammate now, Staehr, he found him from nothing and you can see where he is now. I have a lot of respect for BERRY, and we trust each other.

We are working a lot on the in-game leader role. I’m learning from him and also coming with my own ideas, so we are trying to make it a partnership instead of one person having control, and I’ve learned a lot so far.

The way we want to lead the team is to give everyone space to do their stuff in the default rounds, and they can have moves and plays to make on the map, but it all has to be in sync and make sense in some way. We cannot do plays on B and A at the same time, there has to be some balance, and we have to use each other and talk to each other a lot, this is our general style. We are really default-heavy, but we have shown that we can surprise people in terms of preparation.

I guess every team is thinking that they have the perfect style, but this is the perfect style for us, it might be different for other teams because maybe they have stronger aimers or more supportive players, so maybe they are more execute heavy. This is perfect for us, where we can use our individuals and use our young riflers to go and make a lot of space.

How is it shaping up, and where do you see the ceiling being? As you say you have a lot of talent, but also young talent, players who are 17 and 18 years old.

I think the future looks really bright, because we can still improve a lot.

This might sound not as good, but we are not being professional enough when we practice, and that’s hurting us because we are wasting time and not improving. I think if we should use that time more efficiently to actually take it 100% serious, and not just to think “ah it’s just a practice.”

We can see how far we could go, so if we worked even harder the sky is the limit, we could actually take down some really good teams. We were really close doing it yesterday against FaZe, so I think we really can do a lot. Of course it will be harder when people start looking into us, we are still a new team and I think the better we perform there will be more pressure and it will get more difficult.

As my last question I wanted to ask what leaving Heroic was like for you, I think for plenty of the community it came as a surprise.

The Heroic boys know that we have a really good friendship and I still love the guys a lot, but in-game it didn’t fit me perfectly.

Over time it became really hard, it was just hard for me to be myself in-game and I think role-wise I wasn’t the perfect fit. I see a difference in roles and then positions, the positions were fine but I want a role that is more controlling of the whole team, but there was not space for me in Heroic. I think the team wouldn’t have functioned better with me as a second calling, I think it was better that for example stavn was doing it. It’s just unfortunate, we did have good results and it was a good run.

Many people have been saying they are sorry that I got benched and so on, but honestly it was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders to actually start a new project where I can be myself in-game. This is the part I have been needing for a long time, so I was kinda happy in a way to get benched so I could start a new journey and find myself.

It has been a good journey so far because I have been learning a lot about myself and learning how I want to be as a player and a person. Some of the things I had to do in Heroic I convinced myself “this is the best way to do it,” but I just did it because when you are in a top team you have to accept their conditions and do your best. It didn’t fit me perfectly, so that’s why it was a great feeling to actually start a new project, even though I still kinda miss the boys a bit (smiles). It always brings a smile to my face when I see them, and we always greet each other, there are no hard feelings at all.