flusha: "We just can't play default rounds"

skinhub2025-04-20 18:22:4563

We spoke with Robin "flusha" Rönnquist after his team bowed out to FaZe in the quarter-finals of IEM Sydney 2018, learning about the difficulties they are having playing defaults and the addition of Dust2.

The Swedish side was fairly comfortable in the group stage, only losing a series to Astralis after already claiming a spot in the playoffs. On the stage, Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim's squad struggled against FaZe and went out of the tournament 0-2.

flusha thinks that the Dust2 meta is going to change over the coming months

A day after the loss, we talked to Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist about the match and got his thoughts on balancing individual and team practice on a limited timeframe.

Let's start with the game you had yesterday, against FaZe. I guess if we disregard the comeback at the end you looked pretty flat, so what happened that you struggled so much against FaZe?
Honestly, it's just the T-sides. We don't really have the confidence to play our defaults. If we do a set rounds, where everyone knows what to do, we have shown that we win those rounds, both on Mirage and Cache. We just can't play default rounds and the punished us.
How come you can't play default rounds? Is it just against FaZe or is it your general gameplay that struggles at the moment?
It's the gameplay at the moment, and if we play against FaZe that is a much better team than the most are, they are stronger individually, they are going to have confidence in their own skill and it's going to be harder for us to play our defaults, they are going to give us less easy peeks and do less mistakes. They are just a harder team to play defaults against.
The last couple of times you guys were interviewed, there was a thought put out that you are practicing more individually than as a team, playing FPL and stuff like that. Is that still your philosophy, is it going to change?
So before StarLadder we played a lot and focused on the team, we didn't really focus on our individual skill that much. Now, lately, maybe we practiced a lot individually and not so much as a team, and also we focused on Dust2 coming into this event a lot. We also didn't have a lot of days to practice for this because of Marseille, not enough time to stay on top.
You mentioned Dust2 - you played the first official, top-tier LAN map on it against G2. So what do you think about the map so far, is it changed, what's the meta like?
At the moment, we are playing it just as the old Dust2. Obviously, it's not going to stay like that, we are going to need at least one or two months to figure out how to play the map. Right now it's just like old Dust2, either you take long early and take peeks, or go into a B split or cat push. It was the same Dust2 as always, but I think the meta is going to change over the coming months.
Do you see any team that the map fits particularly, that could be the upcoming Dust2 team?
I think mousesports are going to be great on Dust2, they have a double AWP setup and it's a great individual map and they have five really good players. It should be a good map for them. I also think that Astralis is going to be good on it, they are going to have a new tactical approach to it and do stuff that no one else has done. I guess they are going to be the tactical choice and mouz is going to be the individual choice.
Even though this isn't the best result for you guys, it's still a playoff spot, similar to Marseille. Comparing that to your online results, at least in Pro League, those have been kind of shaky, ECS is somewhat better, but still not amazing. What do you think is the difference for you guys online and offline right now?
I don't know really, maybe offline we calm down a bit and try to do less mistakes, play as a team. Meanwhile online, everyone wants to take initiative, do their own thing, everyone is feeling at home online, they have confidence in what they want to do. Maybe that's the difference.