Swisher on slaxz-: "His confidence is something that I've never seen before"

M80 have been on a tear of North America, having only dropped four maps domestically since the addition of Fritz "slaxz-" Dietrich. The move was questioned by some but has been proven to be successful as the squad is now solidified as one of the best domestically. As for Michael "Swisher" Schmid, this is the team that finally is allowing him to reach the potential he has shown for so long.

The 25-year-old rifler spoke with Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore to discuss the newest addition to the team, the unfortunate visa issues plaguing them, how Rory "dephh" Jackson is helping out with the squad, and what the future holds for the roster. Please note that the full interview can be found below on YouTube, while the transcript has some key snippets from their conversation.

How recently did you guys know that Marcus "maNkz" Kjeldsen was not going to be able to make it?

We knew pretty far in advance that it was pretty unlikely. There was always a little bit of hope that he could make it, but we decided to keep him in North America at least to play the last Cash Cup to play for the IEM Katowice invite. That was a bigger event to potentially qualify for.

In regards to Fritz "slaxz-" Dietrich, how is he different from Adam "WolfY" Andersson, and what qualities were you looking for when you brought him into the team?

His confidence is something that I've never seen before from an AWPer that I've played with before. Adam is great, a great guy, I love him, but he just lacked confidence sometimes and that's something that slaxz- has been absolutely phenomenal at. We have a joke, where we say 'oh yeah, somebody keeps peeking this' and he goes, 'okay, I'll fuck them'. He's like, 'just tell me where to go and I'll kill them' and that confidence is so invaluable.

How did you even find him? He's played in the subtop of the German scene, it's definitely an unusual pickup.

Statistically, I think he was the best CS2 AWPer. I think he was playing phenomenally in CS:GO at the end of Global Offensive and then going into CS2 he was playing incredibly well. We had our eyes on him from the get-go and then everything kind of came to fruition.