dsn: "All odds are against us"

Prior to the Grand Final in the IEM5 Global Challenge Shanghai, we got hold of the fnatic sniper Harley "dsn" Örwall to question him about the expectations for the final and how it was to play a match over two days.

The match against Natus Vincere once again turned out to be a high quality one between the two teams. The match got postponed and third map had to be played today. This is however not something that worried the fnatic guys, Örwall explains.

"Well of course it was a bit of a bummer because we were in a good streak as we won de_dust2 in overtime. We would have been happy to play right away, because losing an overtime is always frustrating and I felt that Na´Vi probably would have been a bit down and not so good as they usually are.

But today was no problem, we usually wake up pretty early, most of us are a bit jet lagged and even though the match was a bit early, we woke up around 06:30 and it wasn't really any problem. We should have won it a bit earlier though, as we had 15-10 over them."

Another match against the Ukrainians and once again it came down to the wire on all three maps. It could not have been any close and the fnatic sniper mentions that this is one of the most intense matches in his career.

"I think this best of three series is about as close as it gets. It could have gone either way, but we were lucky enough to end up victorious. The match is probably one of the most intense matches I have ever played."

TyLoo.raw managed to beat TyLoo 16-0 on de_nuke, but Örwall believes that there might have been a lot of anti-stratting going on, as the two teams might have been practising against each other.

"We are happy to play TyLoo.raw on de_nuke. The two TyLoo teams might have been practicing together and it might have been a bit like anti-stratting each other in that match. But de_nuke is a pretty good map for us, looking forward to play it, we will at least not remove it and I believe we would have good changes on this map."

Örwall is also aware of what they have to worry about when facing the Chinese team and explains how important it is for them to win the early rounds of the match.

"The only thing I think we have to worry about is them getting the momentum early, even though we do not care so much about a team getting the momentum, we know we can turn any game around. Also if we start out by losing a lot of rounds, we quickly become a lot better as a team, but it’s very important for us to win those early rounds." 

The fnatic team will be playing a Chinese team in China, something that has been a huge problem for the Swedes in the past, a curse Örwall is looking forward to break.

"Well statistically all odds are against us, we have played in China a lot of times and we only managed to win WEM last year, if we win this time, then it's two Chinese tournaments in a row. That would feel really great because then the curse of us playing in China is officially broken.

Playing Chinese teams in China is always hard for some reason, at least for us. They always seem to do a lot better here than in Europe or in the U.S. They will have the home crowd, be comfortable with the time-zone, so I expect a close game."

fnatic will be facing off against TyLoo.raw at 07:00CET, which is the Grand Final in the IEM5 Global Challenge Shanghai.