Brollan: "I think I can still be a top player"

The young Swede is still confident in his abilities, despite struggling towards the end of his tenure in NIP.

Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin was once one of the hottest talents rising through the ranks of pro Counter-Strike, but his time on Ninjas in Pyjamas did little for his reputation.

As such there was not much excitement when Brollan was named as MOUZ's stand-in for BLAST World Final. It seemed MOUZ would struggle without David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský, especially as few expected Brollan to be a strong replacement.

MOUZ and Brollan have gone some way to refuting any scepticism by making the playoffs at the expense of HEROIC, with the 21-year-old mustering a strong performance on Nuke against the Danes. He sat down with HLTV after the victory to chat about why he struggled in Ninjas in Pyjamas, why he's feeling better with MOUZ, and the potential Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser-led Swedish team.

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Brollan, it’s nice to see you smile again. We didn’t see much of that during your time with NIP. Are you enjoying your time with MOUZ?

Yeah, it’s all good. I think it’s really fun to play with the boys, and they’re very welcoming. And, yeah, it’s really good to play a tournament again.

You had a very good performance, especially on the first map. You had a clutch, some multi-kill rounds and a lot of impact. Do you think that you are feeling more comfortable now than you were yesterday? Did you feel maybe a little bit rusty after not playing on LAN for a couple of months?

Yeah, I think that’s one of the points. We started off on Ancient, and I played a little bit of an anchor role and it was kind of slow in the beginning. As you said, I had’t played a single official on LAN since CS:GO and there were some nerves yesterday. Today, it felt very comfortable to play.

I noticed that, after the first map, your teammates were hugging you and everyone was smiling. What is the mood inside the team like? How have they been treating you?

They've been treating me very well. They want me to perform and to give my best, and they really support me. Overall, it feels very good, they are supporting me outside the game and also inside the game. They’re adapting to how I’m playing instead of trying to do what they did with frozen. And that’s something I’m very thankful for. I think they’re happy with how I’m performing.

How are you treating this event? Do you see this as a chance to prove yourself?

Yeah, in some way. I think I have had a rough year individually, if you look at the stats. But I feel like I’m in a really good spot, on a good level to be one of the best. This is one of the times when I can really show myself that I belong here.

You were regarded as one of the best players in the world a few years ago now, but things were a bit rough for you with NIP. Have you had the chance to reflect on what happened and some of the things that went wrong with you, especially during your time with NIP?

Yeah, for sure. I had a break for two months, maybe three. Before, I was really focused on the team. I did not improve that much individually. But when CS2 came out, I played a lot of FACEIT. It helped me a lot to find again how I want to play the game instead of thinking about the team too much. It was just practice, practice, practice in NIP, so I couldn’t really focus on my individual level. Since then, I have tried improving as much as possible in CS2.

There were some rumors that a Swedish team could be in the making, with you, hampus, nawwk, isak. Do you think that such a team could be competitive? Do you see yourself joining such a team, if possible?

It’s pretty hard now. We basically have no AWPers in Sweden, and nawwk has signed a new contract with Apeks. So it’s kind of not a thing anymore. Before, it might have been an option. I think it could be on a good level, but it’s really hard to find organizations willing to have a single-nationality team. I think the only country where that is happening is Denmark, and that’s really outstanding because they have a really big player pool to choose from. I think that, with time, we could be a good team, but it would be really hard to find an organization that could support us. I think that’s one of the main issues.

What do you think you have left to achieve in your career?

I have always wanted to improve my teams and myself. In the past, I was working my ass off, trying to improve. I was overthinking so much about my past years because I was doing the same, and of course you need to adapt. It was really hard for me sometimes to adapt, and I was really overthinking sometimes. I think I can still be a top player. This year was not me. People are maybe going to say, ‘He had a rough year, he’s washed,’ and stuff like that, but I know that I’m a really good player so I don’t really think about that much, what the community says.