The story of acoR: From MOUZ disaster to GamerLegion resurgence PGL & Helena Kristiansson\/ESL Gaming via ESPATFrederik \u2018acoR\u2019 Gyldstrand is back at the top of the CS:GO scene after a barren spell with MOUZ. He leads the charge for a young and vibrant GamerLegion team that wants to impress at the IEM Rio Major. acoR is a name that many CS:GO fans had seemingly forgotten about. Almost a year away from the spotlight \u2014 a lifetime in esports \u2014 will do that to a player. They become yesterday\u2019s news. But as he landed in Malta for the European RMR \u2014 the qualifying event for the IEM Rio Major \u2014 he reminded everyone of the player he used to be. He averaged a 1.21 HLTV rating as GamerLegion, a team ranked just 60th in the world at that time, qualified for the Brazilian event after beating Aurora, G2 Esports, and B8 in the Swiss stage. Perhaps more impressive than those victories was the way GamerLegion played in the two matches they didn\u2019t win. They took reigning Major champions FaZe and CIS giants Spirit to their absolute limit before succumbing in overtime, wasting 11 game points across those two best-of-one games \u2014 a sign of the team\u2019s immaturity and lack of experience on the big stages. GamerLegion are one of the great feel-good stories heading into the IEM Rio Major, their team assembled (at least officially, for what it\u2019s worth) just two weeks before the RMR. It\u2019s an interesting group of players that have one thing in common: A burning desire to prove themselves. Especially acoR, who is determined to show that his ill-fated MOUZ spell was not an accurate representation of his stock. \u201cIt feels really, really good to be back,\u201d he tells Dexerto. The Danish AWPer is feeling on cloud nine, even if he doesn\u2019t tend to let his emotions take over on the server or in interviews. In addition to marking his return to a top-tier event, IEM Rio will also give acoR the chance to have his name added to the list of Counter-Strike legends with autographs in the game. (PGL Major Stockholm, the first Major he qualified for, only had signature stickers for the players who reached the playoffs.) \u201cEvery player wants their own sticker in the game,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s what a lot of players play for, winning a Major or getting their sticker in the game so they have something to remember them by when they\u2019re done.\u201d The lack of a signature sticker in his first Major outing was just one of many things that didn\u2019t go his way during his time on MOUZ. A forgetful period When acoR signed with MOUZ in January 2021, there was a great deal of hype surrounding the move. He had established himself as one of the most exciting up-and-coming AWPers during his time with MAD Lions, with whom he had won the inaugural edition of the $1 million Flashpoint league. MOUZ seemed like a natural fit for acoR to prove his mettle and continue to move up the CS:GO ladder, but he couldn\u2019t replicate his MAD Lions form and was inevitably dropped to the bench in favor of academy player \u00c1d\u00e1m \u2018torzsi\u2019 Torzs\u00e1s just short of a year after his arrival. All of a sudden, a career on the fast track had ground to a halt. \u201cI went into this break trying to figure out what I could do to improve,\u201d he says. \u201cI thought, \u2018What is the best thing that I can do to help myself in the future on a new team?\u2019\u201d During his time away from the spotlight, acoR did a lot of soul-searching to try to find an explanation for his disappointing performances for MOUZ. This is a team that has historically acted as a gatekeeper or a measuring stick to anyone who attempts to break into the senior echelons of the game. Did his struggles mean that he was just not cut out for tier-one Counter-Strike? Looking back, acoR says that \u201ca mixture of things\u201d explains what went wrong with MOUZ during his spell on the team, where he took up the AWP from Chris \u2018chrisJ\u2019 de Jong. He joined MOUZ during a time of transition as veteran in-game leader Finn \u2018karrigan\u2019 Andersen was on his way out to rejoin FaZe. His replacement, Christopher \u2018dexter\u2019 Nong, took some time to adapt to the European style and also quickly became a target of criticism for not being able to put in the sort of numbers he used to on Australian teams in their international outings. There was also a clear lack of cohesion among the players, who at times looked like they were playing for themselves and not for a common goal. acoR acknowledges that he, too, was guilty of this. He regrets not taking a more active role in the team. \u201cI wish I had taken more initiative and more control of my game,\u201d he says. \u201cThe system was pretty open for me, but I was more laidback and didn\u2019t help out a lot. Whatever dexter was calling, I would just do it and not really think about it. \u201cIt was more of a team problem, in my opinion, even though I didn\u2019t play even close to what I can do.\u201d acoR did have his moments during the first half of the year, but things took a dark turn after the player break. As the AWPer, he was the one expected to pull the team out of its slough, so when he struggled to perform, the community turned against him. There were insults, even death threats made against family members. The sheer amount of toxicity he had to endure eventually became unbearable. \u201cThe problem for me was that I knew I played really badly and I didn\u2019t hit any shots at all, and at the same time I couldn\u2019t open social media without being bombarded with messages and flames everywhere. I couldn\u2019t even open HLTV to watch a CS:GO match without seeing my name in five places in the forums. \u201cNormally, I\u2019m not a guy that gets affected by it, but in the end there was so much of it that I couldn\u2019t ignore. Even if I tried, I couldn\u2019t. In the end, it became too much.\u201d Finding his groove again acoR says that the difference between playing for MOUZ and GamerLegion has been night and day. \u201cI have a lot more trust from my team,\u201d he says, adding that he has rediscovered himself in the game after being shrouded in self-doubt for so long. \u201cI have a lot more initiative and a lot more confidence because I feel I\u2019m in a good period,\u201d he explains. \u201cThis helps me read the game more easily. \u201cConfidence in general is something that is really underrated. You just don\u2019t care. It could be NiKo on the other side of the wall, you\u2019re just going to go and peek because you have so much confidence.\u201d But his contribution to GamerLegion goes beyond his fragging output. The team\u2019s skipper, Kamil \u2018siuhy\u2019 Szkaradek, says that acoR\u2019s professionalism and impact outside of the game have also played a significant role in their rapid ascent. \u201cHe is always putting in hours when needed,\u201d siuhy tells Dexerto. \u201cWorking with him has been a pleasure from the start, and he\u2019s one of the key factors behind our success so far.\u201d GamerLegion\u2019s team are currently bootcamping in Berlin ahead of the Major, where they will face South American side 9z in the opening round of the Challengers Stage. His team may be one of the least experienced in attendance (with just two Major appearances between the whole squad) but acoR remains optimistic. According to him, one of the reasons for the RMR success was that opponents had no material on his team, no way to anti-strat. \u201cWe have a lot of new stuff that we can take to the Major and surprise people with,\u201d he says matter-of-factly. The IEM Rio Major will be the first opportunity to see this GamerLegion lineup lock horns with the world\u2019s best in front of a crowd \u2014 an invaluable learning experience for the team\u2019s young players. Just like at the RMR, they will come into this event completely free of pressure to succeed. And given the tournament\u2019s upset-friendly format, it\u2019s not out of the realm of possibility to think GamerLegion can take a big scalp or two and move on to the Legends Stage. At the same time, the Rio Major could be one of the last chances to see this lineup, such is the way of the CS:GO scene, where rising teams often become victims of their own success and are unable to hold on to their prized assets. acoR and Mihai \u2018iM\u2019 Ivan have been GamerLegion\u2019s standout players, and siuhy has earned himself a reputation as an in-game leader on the rise \u2014 a priceless commodity in today\u2019s CS:GO market. acoR says that he is happy at GamerLegion, but he doesn\u2019t close the door on a move to a bigger team. Before he joined GamerLegion, there was a brief interest from Complexity. The North American team ended up not qualifying for the Major. \u201cI don\u2019t want to leave GamerLegion, but if a really good team shows up I\u2019ll probably take the offer,\u201d he says. \u201cI really want to win a Major at some point. It\u2019s one of my goals. Individually, I feel I have the level to compete against the best players in the world.\u201d acoR\u2019s time on MOUZ was nothing but a pit stop he\u2019d rather put behind him, though it helped him to mature and to become stronger and more impervious to pressure. A year later, he is back at a Major, bursting with confidence and happiness, ready to do what he couldn\u2019t in Stockholm. And this time, he\u2019s finally got his own signature sticker to show for it. \u201cI got so much hate in the past that I just want to show everyone that my time on MOUZ was not close to what I am,\u201d he says. \u201cI want to come back and have a really good time. Win tournaments and go back to the top 20, top 10. I want to win against good teams.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The story of acoR: From MOUZ disaster to GamerLegion resurgence PGL & Helena Kristiansson\/ESL Gaming via ESPATFrederik \u2018acoR\u2019 Gyldstrand is back at the top of the CS:GO scene after a barren spell with MOUZ. He leads the charge for a young and vibrant GamerLegion team that wants to impress at the IEM Rio Major. acoR […]<\/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-39188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39188","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=39188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}