kHRYSTAL: "face back stabbed me"

Frey "kHRYSTAL" Sjöström has made sure to heat things up at Arbalet Cup Europe less than 24 hours before the tournament begins.

The Swedish player had joined SK together with Johan "face" Klasson back in September, but was forced to part company with his former Lemondogs team-mate after being released from the team.

Sjöström, who was seen representing Swedish-Danish mix Shark Gaming for Copenhagen Games, became last month Meet Your Makers' fifth player when he joined as a replacement for Jimmy "Jumpy" Berndtsson.

MYM will be present at Arbalet Cup Europe this week in Stockholm, having been drawn in what looks to be a very tough group, with Na´Vi, mTw and Alternate also in contention.

In this exclusive interview with HLTV.org, Sjöström discusses his team's preparation for the tournament, their future, but also his departure from SK Gaming.

Less than six months after joining SK Gaming, the team decided to relieve you of your duties, allegedly because you did not fit in with the remaining players. What happened exactly?

I wasn't good enough, that's about it. Rumours about me not fitting in with the team outside the game is totally not true. Liquour, girls, gambling... we all liked it! LOLOLOLOLOL. Except that face back stabbed me. I believe my own friend from H2k betrayed me and said that Gux was a better choice than me...

Three months into 2010, you were seen in a project for Copenhagen Games. Was playing alongside your brother, qp, something you missed?

Yeah, I missed the times in GIANTS when we were almost unbeatable=D!

At Copenhagen Games, your team placed second, behind mTw. Were you happy with your placing at the event?

Haha, yeah I was very happy and really surprised by how better we performed on LAN than online.

Ever since that tournament, nothing else has been heard from the team. Was it always going to be a one-event project? Do you think it could have worked on a long-term basis?

To be honest, before the event I was very sceptic to even go since we played so bad online, but afterwards I started to think: why not?

Last month, you were announced as Meet Your Makers' new fifth player. What made you accept their offer?

They just wanted me to play with them, no special offer with salary or something, I just felt that I wanted to play with pros against pros again!

At the Swedish ESWC qualifier, MYM managed just a third place finish. What went wrong in the first event of the new team?

It was a failure for sure, but still we (and especially I), played very very well the first day, but we played like shit in the match against H2k. Our loss may have been because we had a very good first day and H2k had a really bad first day. They really had something to prove, we did not.

MYM have been drawn in Group A, alongside Na'Vi, mTw and Alternate. What is your opinion about these three teams?

I believe we have the hardest group of them all, all three other teams are really good teams. We have been practicing against them and they all seem to be in good shape. I think we need to play our very best to advance into the second groupstage.

What are MYM's goals for Arbalet Cup Europe?

Of course we aim for the first place, but I wouldn't be disappointed with top3. I believe SK will be hard to beat on their homecourse!

How has your team been practicing for this event?

We've been bootcamping since Monday in Gothenburg at Game-Z, before that we were not really been that serious during training days. Still I think we have been training enough before this tournament and I believe we'll do well.

Are you looking forward to the possibility of taking revenge on SK Gaming?

It would be a nice feeling for me to win against my old team-mates for sure. If we'll face each other I'd really be excited to win it.

What has your brother been up to? Is he contemplating playing again on an active basis?

He is still active but not playing in a clan. He often plays IHL-gathers and this week he is going to Dreamhack Skellefteå with berra, kojz, danne and wenton. I'd like to wish them good luck and apologize over the fact that I cannot  play with them because of Arbalet Cup.