Interview with DignitasVIE CS:GO Player f0rest on the new lineup
We sat down with our CSGO player f0rest to discuss the latest lineup changes for the DignitasVIE lineup.
We're in a time of changes for the DignitasVIE CS:GO team, having two new players on board - H4RR3 and HEAP. We've talked with Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg to know more about what made them choose H4RR3 and HEAP, the next steps for the team, and FLASHPOINT.
Hi f0rest! You’re finally back with a full roster! How do you feel looking at the future of this new team?
f0rest: I'm quite excited and optimistic. It's very nice to have fresh players, so to speak. One of the guys, HEAP, for example, has only played in the Swedish Esports League. That's the highest he's ever been, but you can see insane potential in both of the players, H4RR3 and HEAP. It's just very nice to be a part of their journey and hopefully, we'll be able to reach some very good heights together. No doubt, it will take a lot of work and hours, but I definitely think we can do some damage in the future.
A simple question - why H4RR3 and HEAP?
f0rest: We were actually testing out a few players, it all happened pretty fast. With H4RR3, it was definitely the way he was communicating and playing - he's very team-minded, he doesn't think about himself, about his stats, or anything and that's quite rare to find nowadays. He's really a team player, which is needed, he would go and talk to help the team setting up plays. It's a very nice player to have. And it was kind of the same story with HEAP, he has a really amazing raw talent, his aim is super on point, but honestly, I didn't expect much when we started playing with him, but he was also communicating really really well, even though he just joined a FACEIT lobby... but I can imagine that he was sure that something was up. There were me, hallzerk, and Friberg in that lobby, some quite big names, but that didn't scare him at all, and we got super impressed by him. In the end, everyone just felt comfortable with both of them and we decided to go with it.
So, you made like "surprise" try-outs on FACEIT?
f0rest: Yeah, you could say that. We tried to make it as casual as possible, like "We're going to play some FACEITs, do you want to join?" I think it's a good indicator to see what they're capable of in terms of communicating, how they aim, and move around the map, so it was very nice to first see them this way.
That's actually really interesting! hallzerk already played with H4RR3 in the past - how much impact did that had on your final decision?
f0rest: It had some. To be honest, he wasn't one of the first names we thought of, but hallzerk was always saying, "This is the guy we need" and we eventually tried him out. We knew instantly what hallzerk was talking about when mentioning him, what kind of perks he had as a players, and thought "Ok, this guy is someone who can lift up the team in a way we did not have before." Also, it can help hallzerk a little bit to have another Norwegian player coming in, might unlock him a little bit more to have him more comfortable. All in all, he was a really good surprise!
What’s the first step for this new team?
f0rest: The first step is definitely going to be to get the teamwork going. Unlike the previous lineup where we already knew each other from before and we kind of know how we play and we play with each other, this is totally different new, we have to build something new for this lineup and it will take a while to really get those split seconds decisions going. Communication and teamplay need to be on point as fast as possible if you want to stay competitive in today's Counter-Strike, so we're going to put a lot of work into that.
How are you approaching this new project - are you starting from scratch or trying to apply some of the ideas you had with GeT_RiGhT and Xizt?
f0rest: I think it's important to try and come up with new stuff to see how people want to play. Obviously, we're still going to use some older ideas and the way we want to play Counter-Strike, but it's important to have H4RR3 and HEAP get a feel for what they want to do, make stuff they're comfortable doing... it's hard because they're very different players from GeT_RiGhT and Xizt, so we need to figure out how they want to play as well and apply that as a whole into our style of play. But definitely try to mix new and old stuff together and hopefully we can find something in between where everybody's happy.
What are your short and mid-term goals for this new lineup?
f0rest: For starters, it's to be able to play against tougher opponents, and these invitationals it's going to be more of an experience since we took on this project pretty fast, but they'll be a good indicator to see where we're standing because we do have FLASHPOINT and that's where we're setting our eyes, it's our main goal right now. It's going to be fast, but I think we could do some damage over there.
Unfortunately, most of the teams at FLASHPOINT don’t have a complete lineup at the moment. Can that affect your preparation for it?
f0rest: I think it can suit us pretty well. I think that since we're a new team as well and other teams will be playing with new lineups as well, it could suit us better. There are still some teams that the full lineup is still unknown, but we will see on qualifiers and other small tournaments before FLASHPOINT. Overall, I think we should be in the best possible scenario to actually go far.
Would you like to leave a few words to your fans?
f0rest: As always, thank you so much for the support, it's been a rough couple of months and hopefully we can turn this around now and finish the year strong. Thank you so much and please continue doing it!
Make sure you keep up to date with f0rest and the team on his social media!
