Frazehh: “If you’re not coming to LAN thinking you can beat anyone and win, then there’s no point in going”

Fraser “Frazehh” Sollom has been around the block when it comes to the UK scene, having previously won Insomnia 64 and Grosvenor Season 2 Finals playing with the UK CS legend William “mezii” Merriman.

Now he’s here at EPIC.LAN 46 with 8Sins as arguably the best UK team at the event, he’s got a point to prove.

8Sins, previously Dripmen, have come into the event with confidence. They dethroned five-time champion Tom “arTisT” Clarke’s Max to win the UKIC Season 7 Masters Finals, ending Frazehh‘s six-year trophy drought.

This interview was conducted after 8Sins beat The Last Resort, and before they played the Polish side Phantom in the lower bracket semi-finals.

Speaking to UKCSGO, Frazehh talks about the rematch versus TLR from the group stage, Winning UKIC Season 7 Masters and the long-term goals for 8Sins.

Congratulations on that win versus TLR. How are you feeling after that?

Pretty good, it’s nice to get revenge, especially against that org. We won UKIC, and they [TLR] could have picked us up before that. They could have taken us to the LAN before, but they refused because of some contract problems with Cher1on. So vendetta against the org, quite like the players on the team, but it feels good to win.

That game was a group stage rematch. What do you think went so right for you guys this time around versus what happened in the groups?

We were more warmed up. I think on Mirage they played really well in the groups. When you haven’t pracced that much on Mirage, it’s quite hard to end on teams in the late round when they play quite passive, which is what they were doing. I think that was a bad map for us to play. But I do think we were more warmed up this time.

You played Nemesis in the upper bracket yesterday, taking map one. Between a strong showing versus an EU team and beating TLR now. Do you think that you can translate that into momentum to propel you further in the tournament?

I think our whole team knows we should have won that game versus nemesis. We lost a 4v2 and 5v3 where they stacked, and we went into the stack at like 10-9; we should have won that game. So a bit disappointed, but I think it’s given us confidence that we can beat the EU teams that are one of the favourites. We should have a good map pool for the loser of the next game. We are pretty confident we can beat anyone. We can still make a run.

Prior to the event, what kind of expectations did you set for yourselves? Did you set your sights on beating the EU teams, or did you just want to see how it goes?

I’m quite a confident person; people might say I’m a bit egotistical, but I think if you’re not coming to LAN thinking you can beat anyone and win, then there’s no point in going. We’re coming to get our VRS points to get our rank finally. I think we’re the second-highest HLTV-ranked team despite not having our VRS rank. We’re confident, and I think all my players are really good. Even with a sub, I think we can beat anyone here.

Speaking of that confidence, you guys have come off the back of a UKIC win. Has that win given you confidence for this event?

I’d say kind of, obviously, we’re playing with a different roster. We kind of lost our momentum straight away because we knew Josh was leaving the team. I think I’ve played with him for what feels like four years now. He’s a good friend, I love playing with Josh, and I’m really confident in him being able to do anything. I think winning UKIC made us have a lot more belief in ourselves against the other UK team. We just need to get more experience against the Europeans.

Talk to me about that UKIC final, becoming the first unique victor in five seasons and taking down arTisTs lot, that’s got to feel good.

It felt really good. It’s going to sound harsh, but walking in on them, looking deflated after we won, was one of the best feelings I’ve had in a long time. I’ve been looking for a LAN for a long time now, since I’ve played with like mezii and such. It felt really good.

That UKIC final was a best of five, but you’d also played them in the groups in a best of three, which you also won. Best of fives are a different ball game, what do you think went even more well for you guys to win 3 out of the 4 maps played?

I think they really fucked up the veto. I think they picked Train, thinking we hadn’t played it. We played it maybe once in UKIC that season, I can’t remember if we won or lost, but we’d done a lot of practice on Train that season. Going into that event, I think it was our second-best map, and they picked it. We also took Dust 2, which we lost in the BO3. As soon as we went 2-0 up, we thought we were going to 3-0 them. Then they rolled us on Inferno.

As soon as we were 2-0 up, we looked at the maps left and we were sure we were going to win.

You yourself boasted a 1.46 HLTV rating, completely taking over the game. Were the calls coming in because you were fragging or vice versa, or a mixture of the two?

I think that I am a really momentum-based player. For example, if I start pistol rounds off well, I feel like I’m going to pop off in the whole game. Then the adrenaline of being better than the people you’re playing against does contribute to the calling. Getting into the flow state, even if you call wrong, you can take the aim duels and win those.

Pivoting to 8Sins to finish off here. What are the long-term goals for the project? Are you planning on staying mostly UK-based, or is your goal VRS and EU competition?

We want to keep grinding, so we want VRS rank, and we’ll see what happens with that. Hopefully, we can get that in the next game. I have no idea how it works. I think we need one game or one win, then we get our VRS rank. Wherever we rank, I think we should take it to HLTV cups or tournaments and progress. We definitely want to progress into EU events.

The post Frazehh: “If you’re not coming to LAN thinking you can beat anyone and win, then there’s no point in going” appeared first on UKCSGO.