Draken has unfinished business in CSGO: ‘I wasn’t happy with the way I left things’

Swedish AWPer William “dragons” Sundin talks about returning to CS:GO after the Valorant stint and learning from past mistakes in an exclusive interview with Dexerto.

If anything defined Dragons’ CS:GO career, it’s the shots he missed.

At the height of his power, when he starred in NIP and fnatic in 2017 and 2018, Draken was able to make some of the funniest movies ever: think of his 1v2 pairing against Gambit, which stunned teammate Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund. † But at the same time, his penchant for whistles from the most comfortable seats turned into a whirlwind and a stick racing across the stage, hitting him with announcers and analysts.

“Am I really heaven or hell?” He told theScore esports in 2020. “Some hits are really sick, but some hits I can really miss and look really bad.

“Everyone’s missing out, but I think I’m the only one who got a 30-degree meme.”

Unable to achieve the level of consistency needed to compete at the highest level, Draken found his career ruined. In 2020, he moved to Valorant, where a number of CS:GO players went when they started to fade into the background.

But almost two years later, Draken returned to CS:GO with a group of Swedish gamers. The question arises: is this the beginning of his rescue story?

Back to the new environment

In Valorant, Drake could start again. He has competed in several top European tournaments and was even named G2 Esports Invitational MVP. In October 2020, he and the rest of his team were signed by the British organization Guild Esports.

The Swedish team, led by its longtime CS:GO teammate Andre ‘BARBARR’ Möller, failed to make it to any of the international LANs hosted by the Riot Games in 2021, but remained a major force in Europe. They finished 3-4 in the VCT Stage 1 Masters, the 5th-6th Stage Challenger Finals and the 7-8th Stage Challenger Playoffs.

At the end of the year they were one win away from qualifying for the Valorant Champions but lost to Team Liquid in the grand final of their last qualifier after beating G2 Esports and three Turkish teams.

“Valorant is a great game and I feel like I’ve grown a lot,” he told Dexerto. “Before Valorant I always played the lead role of AWP, but here I was tested outside my comfort zone.

“I played more of a supporting role and it really helped me understand little details in competitive games that I hadn’t thought of before.

“The team has to work with a clock mechanism. Everyone needs to be on the same page and know their specific duties to be successful. And of course the faith of our teammates is one of the most important things.”

The following descendants made major changes to the Guild, from Yassin “Yatsine” to Laghmi, Malcolm to “Bonkari” Ranch, acting as part of their recovery strategy.

Yassin and Bonkar have since formed a new team called YONK, which has no plans to sign a contract with London-based organization Tundra Esports.

In recent months, several players have returned to Valorant CS:GO

Draken could also have continued his male career, and after that there was certainly no shortage of plaintiffs. But this prospect was not as appealing as completing what had started in CS:GO. Absence would love the heart, and Drake’s time from CS:GO would only be more appreciated.

“A little part of me always wanted to go back,” he said. “I wasn’t happy with how I left everything behind. I always knew I had so much more to give, but I lost motivation in CS because I played too much and joined one team without breaking the other.

“The eldest motivated me enormously, and also saw how all the ‘new’ teams performed.

“CS is still very hungry. I found the focus and ambition I had for that. I want to try CS again and see how far I can go. I’m getting older too, so it was a ‘now or never’ situation.

Draken is one of the few players to return to CS:GO after defeating Valorant. The most notable example is the example of Nick ‘nitr0’ Cannella, who returned to Team Liquid in January after a year of playing Valorant at the highest level in North America, involving 100 thieves.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with Valorant,” Draken said of returning players. “It’s more of a return to your passion.

“Valorant is a great game, but CS is cleaner. This is not a bull**, you really get what you see. This is the godfather of FPS.”

Learned lessons

Draken currently works for Savage, a Swedish team that includes another former NIP and Fnatic player, Simon ‘twist’ Eliasson. The rest of the roster consists of Niclas ‘PlesseN’ Plessen, Denis ‘grux’ Gutaj and Adam ‘dezon’ Wahlqvist, the latter being the only unknown number on the team.

This is a solid composition on paper, just like theirs. 38th place in the current world rankings Confirma.

More recently, Drake has played on NIP and Fnatic. How far can you go now?

Draken raised eyebrows at 1.72 HLTV in his first official match in nearly two years: Hide MASONIC 2-0 – But his numbers have leveled off since then. He still averages 1.14 after playing against high level opponents including GamerLegion, SAW and Sprout.

This time, Drake himself gets nothing. Looking back, he admitted he was “immature” and that his meteoric rise to the top clouded his vision. “I think I was very comfortable in the position I was in,” he said. “Everything was delivered to me in advance.”

With a newfound love for Counter-Strike and a new vision of himself and his life based on three pillars: “Sleep Schedule, Diet and Exercise”, Drake is ready to write a new page in his own history.

Two years ago, he walked out of CS:GO through the back door. Now he’s back in the game with another, “happier” person who, he says, has more self-esteem and discipline.

He knows he has a long list of critics to prove him wrong, but that doesn’t stop him from dreaming big.

“I want to win a major, that’s the first goal,” he said. “I have always had high expectations of myself and I will keep it that way. I know my talent and how much influence I can have. I just have to play with the team and the team and the success will come, I’m sure of that.

“2022 will be bigger than when I return to CSGO. I work for one. Awesome CS:GO project. I can tell everyone more about that if all the points are connected.