Today is the first day of the ECS Season 1 LAN Finals. Last night we got the chance to speak to the world's most versatile CS:GO player, Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer, where we discussed various hot topics regarding his return to professional CS:GO, amongst other topics of interest.
Aleksei: Hello Olof, how are you doing?
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer: Hi, I’m good. You?
Aleksei: Yeah not bad, thank you.
Aleksei: How are you enjoying London?
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer: We just came in yesterday; I’ve only been to the hotel so far. I’ve been here before, I really like this arena; I’m a big Arsenal fan, so it’s good.
Aleksei: Yeah it’s a very iconic arena.
Aleksei: The highlight of recent times is your wrist, how is it doing, how are you feeling?
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer: I’m feeling OK, it’s not 100% yet, but it’s playable and yeah, I’m feeling good. It’s really fun to be back playing, it’s been hard not playing.
Aleksei: Whilst you were away, “wenton” was replacing you, what are your thoughts on his performances?
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer: First of all we had “plessen”, then “wenton”. I think “wenton” did really good and I think that he has shown that he can play at a top level. I think that he should be on a top team, he’s really good.
Aleksei: During your rehabilitation period with your wrist injury, what did you get up to? Was it more of a chill out period, where you completely abstained from CS:GO or did you go through the theoretical aspects of the game?
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer: Regarding CS:GO, I didn’t play and didn’t think about the game. I just watched a lot of CS games, but I didn’t do much more than that.
Aleksei: Going into ECS, how are you feeling, how’s your confidence in terms of performance?
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer: I think we have some things to work on, of course, but I also think that we’re one of the best teams in the world. I think we can win and the goal is to win, I think that we are able to win as well.
Aleksei: Since you’ve left CS:GO for your wrist rehabilitation, there have been a few changes to the game, the first one would be the introduction of de_Nuke into the competitive map pool. What are your feelings on the map?
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer: I haven’t really played Nuke that much, I’ve played it maybe four to five times. I mean I’ve always been a fan of them bringing in new maps, but not in the way they brought in de_Nuke. They removed one map and replaced it with a map that hasn’t really been played before, just forcing it into the map pool, which is kind of stupid. They could have asked some pro players or something, some feedback on the map and then maybe bring it into the map pool instead of just forcing it on.
Regarding the map, to be honest I don’t like the map; I think there’s way too much clutter on it. It’s kind of unbalanced right now; it’s too easy for Ts to move around. I don’t really like the map, it’s probably the first time I‘ve not been a fan of a map.
Aleksei: The removal of de_Inferno must have hit you guys hard as it’s considered one of your iconic maps, so many momentous plays.
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer: Ahhh, of course, but at the same time at the end of Inferno we didn’t play it that much because most teams banned it against us and also, even though everybody said that it was our best map, we didn’t first pick it that many times in the end, which we probably should have done. Of course it’s bad for us, but at the same time I think people overestimate Inferno for us.
Aleksei: The second change would be the addition to stairs on Cobble’s B Plateau, how do you think that’s going to affect games, in particular professional ones?
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer: I don’t really think it’s going to change that much because it’s a change, just not that big of a change. I mean you still have the same spawns, which means that if you have a little bit of balls, you’ll be out on the platform before the CTs anyway. I think it won’t bring as big of a change as people think it will be. Maybe if you find some new smokes and stuff like that.
I like the change, but I don’t see why they did it, as there are a lot of different maps they should focus more on. Cobble is probably the most played map right now, they could have changed Nuke in way more ways. I don’t know why they focused on Cobble, but yeah, I don’t have any problems with the change.
Aleksei: Fairly recently, I think it was during the ESL Season 9 Pro League Finals, we heard of the WESA announcement, of which Fnatic are a founding team. What are your thoughts on the initiative?
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer: I have no idea what it is; I wasn’t a part when it came up. I don’t have any comments on it. I have been told is that it’s something for the players, almost like a player union, but I kind of feel like it’s not the case, because then it shouldn’t be organisations, like team organisations or event organisers, it should all be players.
Aleksei: Thank you for the comments.
Aleksei: Going back to ECS, what are your projections, what are you guys aiming for?
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer: Of course we’re aiming for first place, anything other than that, we’ll be disappointed. Top four is OK to start off with, as this is the first event for me. I mean ELEAGUE was the first event, but this is a different level of teams.
Aleksei: Finally, any particular teams that you’d like to play against going into ECS?
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer: No, I want to win against everyone.
Aleksei: Fantastic man, thank you very much for the interview and good luck at ECS.
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer: Thank you.
Images courtesy of DreamHack Flickr/Sebastian Ekman and Fnatic.com
