dexter: "There were a lot of offers, but I really wanted to go with fnatic"

Despite coming into IEM Cologne with a dramatically different roster from the first half of the year, fnatic have impressed so far at the German event with the additions of IGL Christopher "Dexter" Nong and AWPer Aurélien "afro" Drapier, with the European side besting Complexity and 9INE in the Play-In, before taking down Cloud9 in their debut event of the main stage.

Following fnatic's narrow win over Cloud9, Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore caught up with dexter regarding the harrowing BO3, his thoughts on working with afro, Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson, and William "mezii" Merriman, and if he considered offers other than fnatic during the player break.

Please note that the full interview can be found below on YouTube, while the transcript has some key snippets from their conversation.

What are the emotions on the team like after that insane nail-biter win over Cloud9?

Obviously really good. I think everyone really enjoyed the game. It was one of those crazy games where you make so many mistakes and the other team makes mistakes but then you just have to try and keep into it mentally, so it was a really nice experience to play.

In terms of firepower, early days are suggesting that this has been a relatively good transfer season for fnatic. Who has impressed you the most since joining the team?

Obviously everyone, but I think I really enjoy watching afro play. He's an extremely smart player, has a lot of impact with the AWP, and the way he thinks is extremely smart is well. It makes my life a little bit easier when he wants to do his moves and he knows his place, and he's a very relaxed kind of guy as well. It's a nice feeling from him.

KRIMZ is one of the most experienced players you've played with in your career. How much input does he have in the decision-making of the team alongside you?

He's really good with the mental side of things, keeping everyone calm and not stressing out so much in these really important rounds and crucial scenarios. We're doing really good right now with him.

You left MOUZ, and now you're here on fnatic. Were there other offers you looked at during the interim period?

There were a lot of offers, but I really wanted to go with fnatic especially based on the support network of everything. It makes my life easier because in the past I had to do a lot of work. With everyone here now it's more of a team thing, and everyone's contributing in their own ways. keita is doing his job really well, and all that's really nice.

Joining fnatic, you're taking over mezii's role as the IGL. How have you seen his playstyle change since his shift in roles?

I don't think I really watched too much of him when he was IGLing, but right now I'm kinda creating that synchronization with him so we can kinda work because I play really different positions every map on T-side, so I'm asking him for lots of information or helping to call if needed because there's info that I'm missing. Things like that.

You can watch the full interview here below: