LNZ: "Everyone on the team should be super proud of what we've done"

Sangal have been on a steady rise during 2024.

Sangal began the year at No. 74 in the world rankings and slowly climbed the ladder to reach their peak of No. 20 at the start of September. Linus "⁠LNZ⁠" Holtäng's troops have won three online tournaments and notably beat FaZe at ESL Pro League S20, and the Swedish IGL said that the team can be proud of their achievements.

Sangal have also qualified for the European RMR after breezing through the closed qualifier with a 3-0 record, and are currently attending the $250,000 RES Regional Champions 2024 LAN tournament in Belgrade.

After securing a hard-fought opening win against Nemiga in Serbia, LNZ spoke to HLTV about their opening game, Sangal's expectations for the tournament, and their preparation for the upcoming RMR.

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You just won against Nemiga 2-1. You lost the first map and barely made it through on the second. Did you expect such a tight game?

We play them a lot online in tier-two, and I think we always expect to play close against them. They're a very good team, and you always have to be on your toes against them. In another world, we maybe shouldn't have won this game. We played well at times, but we really had to fight for that win.

Did the fact that you played many online games against them and knew each other help in any way?

You know what to expect, what kind of playstyle they have, and also the feeling of playing the team. For me, it didn't help that much because I think they changed a bit from what we saw in the prep, which I think they did really well as well. But I think you just feel more comfortable mentally, you're coming into the game in a much better place, and I think it helped us a little bit.

You are the highest-ranked team here. Do you feel like the favorites?

Both yes and no. I feel like we had a pretty good showing at EPL a bit over a month ago, where we challenged very good teams. At the same time, as we know from online games in tier two, you can lose against everyone if you're not on your best day. We're not coming in thinking we need to win this, but we know for sure that we can and maybe even should win this.

Sangal has been a team in the lower tiers of competition, depending on the definition, that has been mostly playing online. Now you're here at a 250k LAN, and you are the highest-ranked team here. How did it feel to get to this stage? Does it feel special to think how far you have come?

Yeah, that's kind of exactly what we said when we talked about it. Just a bit over six months ago, we were barely a top 80 team, and now we can consider ourselves a pretty consistent top 20 team, so it's a really great feeling. I think everyone on the team should be super proud of what we've done, and I think the sky's the limit for us.

Tomorrow you'll be playing against Fluxo. What do you expect from that game? Is there any curiosity or excitement about the fact that you will be playing against a team from a different region?

I don't really know what to expect, to be honest, but we watched their game a bit because they played before us. arT is arT, you can expect him to do all the crazy stuff that he did in FURIA, but we'll have to see a bit more in the prep. But I think every team here, just as online, can challenge for a win in a game like this. So I think we're going to prepare the same way that we do against other teams, and hopefully we will win against them too.

And the final question about this tournament. This is your second LAN event. How important is it?

I think it's a really good event for us before coming up to the RMR. We had a bit of nervousness at the Malta LAN, and now coming into a much smaller LAN is really good for getting the LAN experience. We're really happy to be here, and hopefully we can win it.