Interview With hallzerk About Roster Changes and New Map Rotation
hallzerk talks about Lekr0, the changing of roles in the team that has been happening in the last few weeks, as well as the addition of Ancient and what that means for the team.
Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli has been having a few good weeks with the team, but they’re not without a few hiccups. After failing to make FLASHPOINT 3, the RMR event that awards ranking points towards the Major, 20-year-old turns his focus into the future. Lekr0, the changing of roles in the team, and the new map pool with the addition of Ancient are all topics that were covered in this interview.
Hi Håkon! How are things going since the addition of Lekr0?
hallzerk: It's going well, we've been getting some good results and we've been playing against some really good teams - top 5, top 10 teams. We just need to get some practice now and eventually even beat some top 3 teams!
What changed in the team as a whole?
hallzerk: Lekr0 comes in with a lot more experience than H4RR3 had, and he has great firepower as well, which doesn't hurt anyone (laughs). Also, since he was an in-game leader before, he can mid-round call very well.
He also told me that some change of roles might have had an impact on your good results all of a sudden. Can you elaborate on that?
hallzerk: We used to have different lurkers before and now Lekr0 is taking that one for himself, making everyone else more comfortable with the things they need to be doing. We also have changed some positions on our CT-sides, so that everyone can be more comfortable. The more comfortable people are, the better it will be for us, so hopefully, it just gets even better in the future.
You actually got directly invited to the playoffs of the ninth season of LOOTBET. What are the expectations for that tournament?
hallzerk: We go into every tournament expecting to get a good result and even win it! We're just going to keep grinding and prove our worth to everyone out there, I still keep hearing the same "retirement home" speech... we're here to compete and not just play for the money.
You’re on a steady climb on the HLTV rankings right now. Where are you aiming to be, realistically, in the next few months?
hallzerk: Hopefully, I think we're going to get Top 20, but we're aiming to be at least Top 15 in the next few months.
We have to talk about the FLASHPOINT closed qualifier. What went well and what went bad in that tournament?
hallzerk: Sometimes it's good that we lose because then we can understand what we're doing wrong, review the demos and fix it as soon as possible. It's easier to fix problems when you lose, so we try to take something positive out of every negative result. We played both good and bad CS, and we're going to use everything we can to review them and understand what we can do to avoid making the same mistakes again.
You were eliminated by HAVU on the Lower Bracket on a series with some relatively one-sided maps. Is the map pool still a problem for the team?
hallzerk: I think we have some good strong maps, we have one of the best Nukes in team CS, in my opinion, but we need to have more maps like that so that we can beat every team. We're working on that, we're still a relatively new team, we have to get some more practice in and hopefully, we will be able to get some good maps!
But now they have removed Train, which was a good map for us. We beat some good teams there. Now we'll either try to play Mirage or Ancient, in hopes of getting good at one of them.
I was actually talking with a friend the other day, and we were saying that the teams who are not participating in FLASHPOINT might have an advantage over those who are regarding Ancient due to having a bit more time to practice. Are you going to try and capitalize on that?
hallzerk: I really don't think we will get an advantage over FLASHPOINT's teams. Most teams are going to try to play it in the beginning and those teams just have to look at the demos and understand what's going on. I'd say a week or two is enough to understand how the map should be played at the moment.
We're not going to start practicing it just yet, since we still have tournaments in the next few weeks, but after that, we should be ready to pick it up!
And do you like the map?
hallzerk: Personally I'm not a big fan of the map just yet, to be honest. I don't like the colors... I've only played it once, but the colors are a big turn-off for me, it makes it really hard to see and it's not very enjoyable to play. I haven't played it enough to really understand how it plays, but first impressions... I'm not a very big fan.
Do you want to leave a few words to the fans?
hallzerk: Thank you so much for all your support! I see all your amazing messages and they're greatly appreciated!
Make sure to follow hallzerk on social media!
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