nicoodoz: "We had the hardest bracket in this swiss format"

Following fnatic's victory over 9z, Ryan Friend had a chance to sit down with one of their key pieces — Nico "nicoodoz" Tamjidi. The two discussed fnatic's run through the Challengers Stage, William "mezii" Merriman's transition into being the team's IGL, and the team's plans to prep for the Legends Stage, among other topics.

What's going through your mind off the back of making it into the Legends Stage?

I think I'm relieved, there was a lot of built up tension and stress coming into this game. We choked other games and being honest we had the hardest bracket in this swiss format to get to the Legends Stage. We played against tier one teams so it was really rough, but I'm feeling relieved now and happy.

Do you feel the swiss bracket pushed you onto the backfoot?

Yeah a little bit. We also came into the tournament with a bad seed, that didn't help the case. We got some really tough matchups.

How do you feel the team has developed overall? Has fnatic hit their stride?

We feel really good, every loss we go through gives us something to improve on and there's always improvement to be made, right? CS has a lot of unique scenarios and it's all about getting that experience and building on that as a team, especially getting mezii more comfortable calling. Even more time we'll be really good.

How has the transition to playing under mezii been since leaving Copenhagen Flames to join fnatic?

I think the first few months had a bit of a question mark behind because we were really trying to find our identity as a team and how we should play. It was the first time mezii really started calling. Yes in the old fnatic lineup he had a lot of responsibility but it's not the same as being the full-time in-game leader.

It was up to him to figure out he wanted to call and how we would work as a unit. We're slowly figuring that out and he's getting more comfortable, and we're trusting him more with his ideas.**

How's the crowd been for you in Rio, especially against 9z today?

I would say it got to me a little bit on Mirage T-side and Nuke T-side. You can really feel the pressure because every time they start winning the rounds they get the momentum and the crowd starts getting louder and louder. You try to say to yourself it doesn't but you can still hear it and its physical.

It's still a good experience and to hear the crowd shouting. Even after the game was finished they kept cheering for 9z. I have a lot of respect for the fans and they are doing a really good job.

What is your prep going to look like ahead of your opening Legends Stage match?

We're going to try and use the next one or two days to look back at the games we've played. The schedule has actually been eat, prep, sleep, eat, prep, game, eat, prep, and then you wake up the next day. You don't have time to look back at your old games besides the post-game talks but we're going to focus a lot on ourselves the next two days and then do the prep for the next opponent.

Any other thoughts about reaching this new apex in your career as a player?

I'm really grateful for all the support I'm getting from my friends and my family. It makes me really happy. I'm not stopping now, I want to keep going and be the best. I'm going to keep improving and getting all the advice I can get.

fntaic will take tomorrow to rest, recover, and study their previous demos. After that they will face off against old organizational rivals NIP in their opening match of the Legends Stage at 01:45PM on Saturday.