Jakob “Jabbi” Nygaard of Heroic shared his thoughts on the evolving metagame of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive at IEM Katowice 2023.
Jabbi may still be the newest member of Heroic, but the 19-year-old star rifler plays his role with confidence. Heroic is entering the playoffs of IEM Katowice 2023 with a guaranteed top-four finish. Along the way, Jabbi has earned the best stats of any player at the event. Jabbi reveals what he thinks about his stellar performance and how Heroic is preparing for its toughest matches yet in our exclusive interview before the IEM Katowice 2023 playoffs.
Jabbi interview before IEM Katowice 2023 playoffs
WIN.gg: Is there a sense of excitement about playing in the capital of CSGO, Katowice?
Jabbi: First of all, it’s good to be back here. The last time I was here, it didn’t go as well as we wanted it to in the play-ins, so it’s nice to reach playoffs. I have been here one time before, I even used to be a viewer watching the tournament. Always fun to play in the region.
Do you have any preference on who you will face tomorrow, Na’Vi or Outsiders?
We want to get revenge against Outsiders from the Rio Major, but I also think that Na’Vi is the strongest team right now. Outsiders did a (roster change) recently, so they are not such a built-up team at the moment. I think Na’Vi is going to win, and we haven’t played that good against them the first time we played them with me and my team. So it’s going to be two good matchups, whatever it’s going to be.
Any thoughts on the current split between M4A4 and M4A1-S?
I think the silencer is good for getting opening kills, and you can spray through smoke still. If you are an angle player, I think the M4A4 is the best because you need those extra bullets, and the gun just shoots faster as well. I think it’s the better weapon towards that, but I also think there are many good things about the silencer. Now we have four guys using the silencer and our anchor player Rasmus “sjuush” Beck is playing with the A4.
You had the best HLTV rating of any player going into the playoffs at 1.39. Is there any extra pressure to perform?
I don’t think there’s any more pressure. We obviously want to go far in the tournament and the most important thing is to play good as a team. If we do that, we are going to win. We’re not winning because of individual performance from players in the team, so I just keep focusing on what the important things are before and during the game. So, I don’t think it’s more pressure toward me.
A few months ago, SheddaN was added as an assistant coach. How does he affect what goes on in the server?
He makes all the preparation videos, so we watch that before we make our game plan. He’s grinding, he’s up until 5 am doing videos so we can wake up the next day and watch it. It’s just incredible how much work he put into making it easy for us. It’s a really good team we have.
Are there any other games you play outside of CSGO?
I think it’s a decent game. There are a lot of new things that you can do and probably some things that people have missed. In CS, the game mode is pretty much the same, there’s just some special things you can do, and I think a lot of people enjoy those kinds of things.
Was there an exact point when you were playing CSGO and realized you could make a living as a pro?
I’ve been grinding for a lot of years. Obviously it was a dream to get to play full time with stuff like this. I dropped out of school and just went full-time, living at home with not the biggest salary at all. It has just been a grind for two years to see how far I could get. Then I got a little bit higher in the rankings and now we’re here.
