jkaem: "Why not win the whole thing?"

Apeks' veteran rifler is filled with confidence after his team produced strong performances across their first day of play in Espoo.

Apeks have not been in the best form in recent times, and more broadly they have struggled to match the heights of their fairytale BLAST Paris Major run ever since it ended.

However, here at the Elisa Masters Espoo, Apeks have shocked the competition with their high level of play, taking down the No. 3 team in the world MOUZ in a tight double overtime battle before brushing aside FURIA to make the playoffs.

Fresh from securing a semi-final berth, Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad sat down for an interview with HLTV and gave some insight as to why Apeks are playing so well, expressed his optimism for the rest of the event, and gave his thoughts on his team's latest additions, Torbjørn "⁠mithR⁠" Nyborg and Ådne "⁠sense⁠" Fredriksen.

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

It feels really good of course, a little bit unexpected to be honest! We had the group of death, every team we were in a group with were in form, especially Complexity and MOUZ, FURIA maybe not so much. Surprised, but really happy with the way we played.

Why do you think you have come into this tournament in such good form? It seems like the team is playing well, you, nawwk and CacaNito are individually playing really well, have you got any idea as to why that is?

We are changing a little bit of the approach we have been having in the past, we are now trying to be looser, have more fun. Not have this, ‘It’s a business, it’s a game that’s your job, take it super serious.’ We are trying to put that one away a little bit. We joke a lot, we try to just have fun honestly.

nawwk mentioned that you have a sports psychologist involved now, is that helping?

Of course it’s helping. It has been due for a long time. We probably needed it before Paris as well, even though our Paris run was kinda magical, for us at least. We have definitely been in need of it for a long long time and I’m super glad that we have it, because she has a little bit more of an overview while we are in the moment and it’s hard to say what you feel and make all the right decisions. I’m glad to have her onboard.

Looking forward to the rest of the tournament, does this give you confidence you could go on and try to make a serious run at the trophy?

100%. Coming into the tournament my expectation was not to win the group to be honest. It might sound a little bit harsh on ourselves but the way that it’s been going the last few months, we have been struggling a fair bit, getting this group, we were not expecting to win it. Now that we actually are here and playing the way we are playing, we have dominated the whole day you know?

Versus MOUZ, they are a tough team, the fact that we actually beat them in overtime with the little experience that some of our players have makes me so proud. FURIA had no chance. So why not, why not win the whole thing?

You’ve had a bit of time now, both with mithR as your coach and with sense in the lineup, how have those changes been for you?

They are coming in from the academy team and they definitely have a little bit of a different approach than we had in the past, in Paris and with our previous coach. So it’s been a learning curve and we kind of have to learn again and find the mix. It’s been taking some time but I think we are finally heading to a place we want to be, and it’s looking good.