f0rest on the collapse of Swedish CS:GO: Players are not willing to grind and work together
In an interview with Pley, the Counter-Strike legend talks about some of the problems the Swedish scene are facing right now.
If you ask the Counter-Strike community which nation has been the most dominant and paramount in the history of the game, the majority will most likely point towards one certain European country.
The Swedish CS:GO scene has produced a myriad of legendary figures in Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg, Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund, and many others. The big Scandinavian nation, embodied in Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas, also dominated the very beginning of CS:GO, winning four out of the first six Major Championships.
However, every great dynasty has its end, and for the Swedish CS:GO scene, it was no different.
We have sat down with f0rest to hear what he believes caused the collapse of the great Swedish dynasty, and why the Swedish CS:GO scene isn’t as dominant anymore. When speaking with the former NIP superstar, one particular aspect seems to appear – The unwillingness to grind your way to the top.
- The Swedish players feel kind of entitled because Sweden always has been presented as one of the best nations in Counter-Strike. Because of that, some people expect to be a great star player right off the bat and to join an already tier-1 team. But people are not fighting together as a team to reach that goal collectively.
The quality and the grind that Danish players are doing, is what’s lacking in Sweden. The Swedish scene hasn’t really committed to the lower-tier teams in the way Denmark has, where teams have stuck together and made the grind to reach the top, f0rest explains and continues with his comparison between the two neighbouring countries:
- What Denmark does right, is that they nurture and have a lot of really strong teams in lower-tiers that grind their way up towards the higher ends. Heroic for instance, they came from battling in tier-2 to now being a stable Top 5 team in the world (…) At the end of the all, we just need to see more Swedish teams stick together longer and actually grind and try to make it work.
Fnatic has this year gone from being a fully Swedish roster to an international team with the signing of the British trio ALEX, mezii, and Smooya.
Swedish players in Top 30 Teams (HLTV’s world ranking):
2021 (October): 11 
players
2019 (July): 19 players
2016 (December): 25 players
Source: HLTV
f0rest's way to the top of Counter-Strike
Long before becoming one of Counter-Strike’s most accoladed and greatest players in history, f0rest recalls a time and a period where he alongside some of his fellow friends were trying to break through to the professional scene.
- When I started playing Counter-Strike there was already a lot of Swedish pro teams, where I only played with four of my friends. We all had the same goal to reach LAN events or just do something. During that path, we all became really good, because we all wanted the same thing – to become great players and a great team.
We didn’t make it that far, however, we did a few upsets as a team, and that was enough to get recognized and picked up by a better team. You got to grind – I think that’s the way to do it because it’s not up to others to show you the way.
I don’t think it’s as hard to get recognized now, as it were be back in the day. There are a lot of tournaments you can play right now. So just get in there and make sure you have four teammates, who are playing for the same reason as you.
NIP's iconic roster who managed to set up a massive 87-0 map streak (From left to right: Fifflaren - GeT_RiGhT - friberg - xizt - f0rest)
The upcoming PGL Major is set to be held in Sweden’s capital of Stockholm, with the $2 Million tournament being the first Major in over two years. Sweden’s best hope for an overall victor will undoubtedly be NIP, after their impressive win at IEM Fall.
Despite the iconic Ninjas’ great success lately, Sweden will only be going to be represented by a historically low of five players at the PGL Major – the lowest in Major history.
The number of Swedish players at selected Majors:
PGL Stockholm Major (2021): 5 players
Starladder Berlin Major (2019): 7 players
IEM Katowice (2019): 12 players
FACEIT Major London (2018): 11 players
DreamHack Winter (2013): 21 players
Source: Liquipedia
The future of Swedish CS:GO
The two Swedish mastodonts in Ninjas in Pyjamas and Fnatic has in recent years tried to strengthen the Swedish talent pool with the creation of Young Ninjas and then also Fnatic Rising. The creation of these academy teams is something f0rest sees as a very positive direction.
- NIP is doing something right with giving LNZ a shot, being a young player from Young Ninjas and now has won IEM Fall. That will hopefully give some motivation for younger Swedish players to see that it’s possible.
That grind, where you develop at a certain pace and get a feel out for the game is a healthy way of doing it, in my opinion. Jackinho and the Young Ninjas players on NIP have been thrown into tier-1 competition and are expected to deliver results right off the bat.
I think the future of Swedish Counter-Strike looks brighter than it has in the last few years. There are a lot of upcoming talents who are beginning to pop up within the scene, and it feels like the Swedish CS:GO has got reignited and realized “Hey, we are not so bad after all”, f0rest concludes.
You can watch the entire interview with f0rest in the video below.
