REZ: "I know I've got more in me than what I showed in the past"

The Swede is eager to prove that he has more in him than what he could show in NIP as he picks up a leadership role in GamerLegion.

GamerLegion kicked off their IEM Katowice 2025 journey with a victory over SAW in the opening round of Stage 1. Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner, the second-highest rated player on the server behind Erik "⁠ztr⁠" Gustafsson, was particularly strong in his team's 10-0 on the CT side of Inferno, fueling a comeback from a 3-9 deficit at the half with 14 kills to his name.

The Swede took some time after the victory to talk about leaving his longtime home, Ninjas in Pyjamas, where he spent eight years, what it's like playing under Ashley "⁠ash⁠" Battye and reuniting with former teammate ztr, as well as his new role as a secondary captain in a squad lacking in the experience department.

You're moving on from NIP after eight years. You were there through so many iterations, so many different teams, with varying levels of success. What were the feelings like when you finally found out that you weren't going to continue?

It was a very strange feeling, but it was a feeling that I've kinda been ready for, kinda expected. I know NIP and how they work, and I felt like my time is about to come. I was a bit mentally prepared during the player break if it would happen. But still, a very strange feeling. This full transfer to GamerLegion, it happened so quickly as well, I maybe had like three days off after the benching and started talking to them.

But I'm so happy that I made this decision. I'm super happy to be with ash as well, he's such a great coach, and as well with all these young players. I feel like I can teach them a lot of things and I can learn from them as well, they bring this really motivated atmosphere in the game and they are very hungry. They make me feel young, you know? It's a nice atmosphere to be around.

After so many rebuilds in NIP, failure after failure in the last few years, did this opportunity feel as a fresh start for you, a complete reset to finally put that behind you?

Joining this team was kinda like getting a new lineup in NIP, starting from scratch, starting very fresh with PR as well. The guys I'm joining, ztr and Tauson, haven't been together for that long either, so it's a very young team overall. We have to start from the basics and build our way up. We have a great coach who is building the structure really well from the start.

Right now, it's just gonna be a lot of basics from the beginning. We can't go into depth and have all these protocols yet because we need experience. We need PR to play more LANs, get more comfortable on the stage and studio, and all this. I'm all for it. I see a lot of potential, and I'm really happy to be a part of it and help this team grow to what it can be. Yeah, super stoked to be here.

You spoke about ash there. He's been known for bringing these young guys up, and you come in as more of an experienced piece of this roster. ash also spoke about how your addition helps solve some of the issues with roles that were there in the past. Are you feeling comfortable with the way you're being used?

ash wants me to bring out the prime REZ that I was before, to make me as comfortable as possible. That's his goal for me in this team. With that, I also kinda need to take this new role outside of the server and step in to be this kind of veteran to help ztr in rough situations and make some mid-round calls. This is kind of a new thing for me to show this leadership, secondary captain role. I wasn't really in that role much in past NIP lineups, but it's something that I'm growing into now. I can see myself doing it on a really consistent level.

I'm super happy so far with the practice we've had with this team. It's going really well, and I think this first LAN match really showed our capabilities. Even if we played SAW, which is kind of a new team as well, we showed some rounds that look good on paper. That is this whole core we have right now and everyone working together, and me stepping into a role that I'm not really familiar with yet. When I get more into it, I think it's gonna be much better.

You played with ztr around three years ago. How has he changed in that time? What do you think about him now?

He's definitely grown. He's definitely smarter. He's such a clever guy, very smart, learning the game very quickly. But ash is also a big part of what ztr has become today. I'm super impressed with what I've seen so far, from what I saw when I was first playing with him. He's grown a lot as a person, as well, outside the server. I've got a lot of confidence and trust in him and his leadership.

Earlier you spoke about getting the young guys a bit more experience, PR especially. Where do you set the goalposts for yourself individually and for this team heading early into this year? Have you spoken about what the goals are going to be in the first part of the season?

Obviously, we want to make the Major, that's a big goal. But we want to be realistic as well. It might be very tough for us because we're starting over from the basics. We're just gonna take it one step at a time, we don't have any huge goals for this year, we just wanna grow as a team because we have so many young players and me taking this secondary role as well. It's a lot of new stuff, so we don't wanna be too harsh on ourselves at the start of this year at least.

For me personally, I feel I can do way more than what I did in NIP. I wanna be close to being a top 20 player again. I really wanna step in and show what I can do for the Counter-Strike scene. I know I've got more in me than what I showed in the past. This is a great opportunity for me to shine. That's what I'm gonna do my best to do.