afro: "Most of the time, dexter just wants me to do whatever I want"

Aurélien "⁠afro⁠" Drapier has finally got his chance in tier one, and he is bringing his trademark aggression with him.

afro is an AWPer that had gone under the radar. He performed admirably in French teams such as DBL PONEY, HEET, and LDLC but chances to battle the very best teams in the world were few and far between.

That chance has now come in fnatic, where he has averaged a 1.12 rating in his first eight maps. We spoke with the man himself about finally making it to tier one, as well as what it's like to AWP under Christopher "⁠dexter⁠" Nong.

Give me your initial thoughts on that loss to ENCE.

I think we lacked a little bit of something today. Communication was not good enough, and some missed rounds. We made a lot of mistakes, that is all it is. It's just the very start of our team so let's see how it will go in the next few matches. But for sure we will learn from this loss.

It's one of your first proper Big Events, in your first team outside of France. How are you finding it?

I feel okay. I'm doing my job I would say. I'm not shining a lot, but I'm doing my job and I'm starting to get more and more comfortable after each match. I'm just trying to learn from every match that I can, and get experience.

Tell me a little bit about your journey to get here. You've been in French teams for a long team, do you think you might have deserved a chance a bit sooner than this?

I think I could have got a chance a bit sooner, but it's okay, I could prepare well enough. I'm not yet ready, I mean everyone has to improve every time, but I think it gave me a bit of experience. I'm not that young anymore; I know myself better, I can manage my emotions well enough. I could have the chance I think, I had the level to do it but I'm quite happy that it comes with fnatic anyway.

What about your style as an AWPer. device said on HLTV Confirmed that he stole a few opening paths from you, things like that. What's your philosophy behind AWPing?

I'm trying to be the most unpredictable that I can be every time. I know that every time we play a team that is really strict about themselves and their takes, it's pretty easy for me to counter them. Like, for example, on Inferno you know that the Long smoke will come, the Short molotov and then one flash. So you just dodge the flash, peek after the flash, kill someone, and then you go out. So that's pretty easy for me.

When gla1ve was in Astralis I had a blast playing against them at this time because they were very strict and every take they did was always kind of the same or pretty predictable. So that's why I think device saw me as a dog, to peek everything but yeah, I feel it wasn't really dangerous for me to peek like that. I'm still trying to do that, to get a read on what they are doing and being on the right spot at the right time.

Coming into tier one, how different is it to try and make that style work? Is it almost easier because they're not expecting it, or is there more utility? How different is it?

The game is a bit different, actually. Everyone is better, you don't see a lot of mistakes from the opponents. Playing in LANs is always different because people don't want to make mistakes, they're a bit scared and everything, not peeking.

For an AWP sometimes it's really different. Usually online, when you see someone he's maybe alone, maybe two, but on LAN it's more likely you see four guys at the same time when you peek. So it's a bit different, but I think I'm starting to get used to it, and I'll try and get better and better.

How are you finding dexter's calling? There's been a little bit of controversy, people pointing at dexter for torzsi and acoR's form in MOUZ — how are you finding his system? Is there a lot of freedom?

He's giving the AWP a lot of freedom, actually. Obviously, sometimes he says no to something because it's not following what he's thinking at the time, so he just says no and I'm okay with that. Most of the time, he just wants me to do whatever I want.

About his calls I think he's really good, he's trying to adapt to everyone and also trying to get people to help him in the mid-round, which is really important. As a leader you cannot have the radar every time so you have to get information from people. He's doing a really good job now, he only had not even three weeks to prepare us. So far it's going really well with the low amount of preparation that we had.

Dropping to the lower bracket now, Group A is the weaker of the two groups. Maybe a rematch against Cloud9 is coming, can you see yourself in the LANXESS? Is that achievable?

I think it's still doable for us. Today it felt a bit weird because I think we were not at 100% of what we can do. If we were 100% we had a good chance to beat ENCE, but it is what it is. Let's see what happens in the lower bracket, but until we are eliminated we will not give up, and we are giving our best in every match.