Draken has unfinished business in CSGO: \u201cI wasn\u2019t happy with the way I left things\u201d GuildSwedish AWPer William \u2018draken\u2019 Sundin discusses returning to CS:GO after a Valorant stint, and learning from his past mistakes, in an exclusive interview with Dexerto. If there\u2019s anything that has defined draken\u2019s CS:GO career, it\u2019s the shots that he has missed. At the height of his powers, when he played for NIP and fnatic in 2017 and 2018, draken was capable of pulling off the most ridiculous of flicks \u2014 think of his 1v2 clutch against Gambit that left teammate Christopher \u2018GeT_RiGhT\u2019 Alesund in awe. But at the same time, his proneness to whiff the easiest of sitters became a running gag in the scene and a stick to beat him with by casters and analysts. \u201cI\u2019m really heaven or hell,\u201d he told theScore esports in 2020. \u201cSome shots are really f**king sick but some shots I can really miss and it looks really bad. \u201cEveryone misses shots, but I guess I\u2019m just the one who got the 30-degree meme.\u201d Unable to reach the level of consistency required to compete at the highest level, draken saw his career fizzle out. In 2020, he switched to Valorant \u2014 the place where a number of CS:GO players have gone when they started fading into the background. But almost two years on, draken is back in CS:GO with a ragtag group of Swedish players. It begs the question: Is this the start of his redemption story? Bouncing back in a new setting In Valorant, draken was able to start afresh. He took part in some of the earliest invitational tournaments in Europe and was even named the MVP of the G2 Esports Invitational. In October 2020, he and the rest of his Bonk squad were signed by British organization Guild Esports. The Swedish team, coached by his former CS:GO teammate Andr\u00e9 \u2018BARBARR\u2019 M\u00f6ller, didn\u2019t make it to any of the international LANs that Riot Games hosted in 2021 but were still a considerable force in Europe. They placed 3rd-4th in the VCT Stage 1 Masters, 5th-6th in the Stage 2 Challengers Finals, and 7th-8th in the Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs. Just before the end of the year, they were one victory away from securing a spot at Valorant Champions but lost out to Team Liquid in the grand final of the last-chance qualifier after beating G2 Esports and three Turkish teams. \u201cValorant is a great game, and I feel that I have grown a lot,\u201d he told Dexerto. \u201cBefore Valorant, I always played the main AWP role, but here I was tested outside of my comfort zone. \u201cI played a more supportive role, and that really helped me understand small details in competitive games that I didn\u2019t think about before. \u201cA team needs to work like clockwork. Everyone needs to be on the same page and know their specific tasks to succeed. And, of course, believing in your teammates is one of the most important things.\u201d The ensuing offseason brought a wide sweep of changes to Guild, who moved on from Yacine \u2018Yacine\u2019 Laghmari, Malkolm \u2018Bonkar\u2019 Rench, and draken as part of their rebuilding strategy. Yacine and Bonkar have since built a new team, called YONK, who are closed to signing with London-based organization Tundra Esports. Draken, too, could have continued his Valorant career, and there certainly wasn\u2019t a shortage of suitors after him. But that prospect wasn\u2019t nearly as alluring as finishing what he had started in CS:GO. As they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and draken\u2019s time away from CS:GO only made him appreciate the game more. \u201cA little part of me always wanted to go back,\u201d he said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t happy with the way I left things. I always knew I had so much more to give, but I had lost my motivation in CS due to playing too much and joining one team after the next with no breaks. \u201cThe Major has motivated me a lot, just like seeing how all the \u2018new\u2019 teams performed. \u201cI\u2019m very hungry to play CS again. I have found the focus and ambition that I once had. I want to give CS another try and see how far I can go. I\u2019m getting older as well, so it was kind of a \u2018now or never\u2019 situation.\u201d Draken is one of a number of players who have gone back to CS:GO after giving Valorant a shot. The most notable example is that of Nick \u2018nitr0\u2019 Cannella, who returned to Team Liquid earlier in January after playing Valorant at the highest level in North America with 100 Thieves for over a year. \u201cI don\u2019t think it has anything to do with Valorant,\u201d draken said about the returning players. \u201cIt\u2019s more about getting your passion back. \u201cValorant is a great game but CS is purer. It\u2019s no bulls**t, you really get what you see. It\u2019s the FPS godfather.\u201d Lessons learned Draken is currently plying his trade for Savage, a Swedish team that includes another former NIP and Fnatic player in Simon \u2018twist\u2019 Eliasson. The rest of the roster is made up of Niclas \u2018PlesseN\u2019 Plessen, Denis \u2018grux\u2019 Gutaj, and Adam \u2018dezon\u2019 Wahlqvist, with the latter being the only unknown quantity of the team. It\u2019s a solid lineup on paper, as their current world ranking of 38th attests. Draken raised eyebrows with a 1.72 HLTV rating in his first official match in almost two years \u2014 a 2-0 mauling of MASONIC \u2014, but his numbers have since stabilized. He is still averaging a respectable 1.14 rating after playing against higher-caliber opposition, including GamerLegion, SAW, and Sprout. This time around, draken is taking nothing for granted. Looking back, he admitted that he was \u201cimmature\u201d and that his meteoric rise to the top clouded his vision. \u201cI think I was too comfortable in the position I was in,\u201d he said. \u201cI got everything handed to me a bit too early.\u201d With a renewed love for Counter-Strike and a fresh outlook on himself and on his life based on three pillars \u2014 \u201csleep schedule, diet, and exercise\u201d \u2014, draken is ready to write a new page of his own history. Two years ago, he left CS:GO through the back door. Now, he is returning to the game a different, \u201chappier\u201d man, one who, according to him, has more self-esteem and discipline. He knows that he has a long line of critics to prove wrong, but that doesn\u2019t stop him from dreaming big. \u201cI want to win a Major, that\u2019s the first goal,\u201d he said. \u201cI have always had high expectations for myself, and I intend to keep it that way. I know my talent and how much impact I can have. I just have to play with and for the team, and success will come, I\u2019m sure of it. \u201c2022 is going to be bigger than just me coming back to CSGO. I\u2019m working on a big CS:GO project. I\u2019ll be able to tell everyone more about it when all the dots are connected.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Draken has unfinished business in CSGO: \u201cI wasn\u2019t happy with the way I left things\u201d GuildSwedish AWPer William \u2018draken\u2019 Sundin discusses returning to CS:GO after a Valorant stint, and learning from his past mistakes, in an exclusive interview with Dexerto. If there\u2019s anything that has defined draken\u2019s CS:GO career, it\u2019s the shots that he has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38070\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}