REZ: "Something happens in our heads when we reach the quarter-finals"

The Swede feels GamerLegion are "ready" to break their top-six curse in Cologne.

Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner and GamerLegion were back to their best as they swept through Cologne's stage one.

It's a familiar feeling for a team that has shown a solid ceiling making the quarter-finals of IEM Dallas and IEM Melbourne before the summer break.

But the floor of the team, despite swapping Henrich "⁠sl3nd⁠" Hevesi for Jeremy "⁠Kursy⁠" Gast, is still a concern: It disappeared completely when they finished in last place at PGL Astana, and the same demons were present in the FISSURE Playground quarter-finals against BetBoom.

Date	Matches
FISSURE Playground 1
18/07/2025	GamerLegion Finished 1:2 BetBoom	Match

"I think we have put more focus on the mental aspect than the gaming aspect recently," REZ said when he swung by HLTV's microphone in Germany. "How we're gonna approach games mentally and how we reset if we have a bad start or stuff like this."

But GamerLegion have been busy in the server too, secretly integrating previous permaban Dust2 (and Ashley "⁠ash⁠" Battye's favorite, Overpass) in addition to putting Kursy through the wringer of tier-one Counter-Strike.

As they enter the main stage, the goal is clear: "We're looking for that first win on the stage. I think we are definitely ready."

If you cannot see the embed, watch the interview here.

---

REZ, congratulations on making it through to the second stage here at IEM Cologne. A fairly straightforward run apart from this Ancient finish against VP - tell me about that, you took some time to close it out there.

Yeah, obviously we had a bit of struggles in the mid rounds, I would say. It was kinda hectic for us in the comms and all, I think that's why we struggled so much in the end. But overall, I'm super happy with how we're playing right now considering how little practice we had with Kursy. I'm super stoked to see what we can do in Stage 2.

Read more

GamerLegion qualify for IEM Cologne Stage 2 over Virtus.pro

Is it also a good sign that Virtus.pro tried to punish pick you on Dust2, which was your previous permaban? You guys have picked it up pretty quickly, you already started banning Anubis back at FISSURE - did you already prepare that during the break, or was it in response to the Overpass change?

No, we've been secretly prepping Dust2 for a while now, so we are trying to get more and more comfortable on it. Today was kinda surprising for us, we didn't expect VP to take Dust2 cos I think we've been looking really solid the last two games on it.

We thought they were gonna pick Overpass, and I was really excited for Overpass, but unfortunately I didn't get it here. Maybe I'll get it in Stage 2, it would be really nice. But overall I think our Dust2 is really solid, I'm really happy to debut it here as well to show all the teams that we are confident on it.

We've heard from PR and ztr that Kursy is more of a vocal guy, more aggressive than sl3nd used to be. How is it from your perspective as the pack guy who creates space for him and how are you playing off of each other?

It's definitely more of an aggressive AWPer on that side, so yes, we're trying to utilize him much more, give him a lot of space and freedom as he wants, cos I think that's when he shines the most, when he gets to do his plays and when he gets a lot of opportunities in the game. That's our approach right now with him, trying to get him into these comfortable situations where he shines.

For me, it's really nice to play with him, he's an easy AWPer to understand how he thinks and how to move around with him and adapt how he plays, so overall really confident and comfortable playing around him.

When we spoke to ash at FISSURE, he was saying it was taking Kursy a little bit of time to get used to having a big playbook. Has there been a progression in that sense? How quickly has he evolved in that from FISSURE to here?

Of course it's difficult because it's also his first international team, and maybe it wasn't so comfortable for him to speak English in the beginning, so that was all new. I remember for me as well, when I switched to English for the first time, you get a headache the first the practice day instantly, because you're so not used to it and you're extra focused on listening and trying to understand everyone.

It's super understandable that he was kinda confused in our first games, but you can definitely see now that he's getting more comfortable, more and more focused on himself rather than talking and listening. When he has that in the backbone and he doesn't really have to think about all the comms so much and does it intuitionally, then it's gonna be so much easier for him to play.

It looks like you have been a lot more comfortable here over FISSURE. Was it just rustiness, or what happened there that you've managed to shake off here?

I think we have put more focus on the mental aspect than the gaming aspect recently, how we're gonna approach games mentally and how we reset if we have a bad start or stuff like this. That's been our main focus right now, and I think it's looking really good because when everyone is active, happy, talking and all this, everything flows. We put more focus into that and that has been making our game easier.

The first half of the season was a big story of, you always get close to the playoffs or make it to the playoffs, but the deep runs wouldn't come. How confident are you that this early into the second season, with a new player, you're gonna be able to break through that glass ceiling?

Our goal is always first to reach the playoffs. Now we've done it multiple times, we're feeling confident in that, so I would say right now we're looking for that first win on the stage. I think we are definitely ready to reach the semi-final at least, we have the skills for it, but something happens in our heads when we reach the quarter-finals. I don't know what it is, maybe it's a curse or whatever, but I feel like we're really close to breaking it. Hopefully we can do it here, it'd be really sick.

Read more

Why GamerLegion look beyond the now with Kursy