Insider Gaming spoke to Sebastian ‘Tauson’ Lindelof prior to BLAST Rivals Fort Worth, which sees the roster return to Tier 1 Counter-Strike for the first time since their IEM Kraków run ended in January.
The Danish rifler spoke to IG about Ashley ‘ash’ Battye’s formal departure from GamerLegion, their loss of form in the second half of 2025, and refinding themselves in 2026 after that humbling period.
ash has formally left GamerLegion. I wanted to get your reflections on ash as a coach and how you worked with him.
Yeah, I think I had a very good experience with him. I think he was the guy who took me on the team. I mean, he’s a lovely guy to be around, and he’s a very good coach. I’m sure that we will see him on a Tier 1 team very soon as well.
What kind of qualities did he have that you appreciated as a player?
I think he has very good prep when you play teams, especially the best teams. I think he always has a good plan on how he wants to approach the games and what ideas he wants to play.
Then I think he has a very good fundamental understanding of CS, and he’s very good at explaining his way of how he wants things done.
I think we lost maybe faith in the project, or we lost the hunger to keep on being good… we just lost our identity.
Tauson on struggles in the second half of 2025
With imd now coaching, he was the assistant before, but now as a coach, what kind of qualities are you seeing?
Yeah, I think it’s very similar to ash. He and imd, they worked together for, I think, two years, so I think he gained a lot of experience from ash as well.
So I would say they’re pretty similar in that case, but he’s very good as well. He’s also very good at preparing us for the big games and making us ready.
I think he’s a bit more detailed. He goes down to the very small details, and I think that can be a very good thing as well.
Going back a bit to last year, you were number eight ranked in the world at one stage, and then it didn’t go as well in the second half of the year. Why do you think that was?
Yeah, I mean, after the summer break in 2025, I don’t know what happened. I think we lost maybe faith in the project, or we lost the hunger to keep on being good.
I don’t know what it was, but I think we just lost our identity, and we struggled throughout the winter season. But I think we’re on the right path now, and I think we are doing better each day, and you can feel it on the server as well right now.
So, I’m looking forward to playing some Tier 1 tournaments again and showing that we belong at the top again.
I learned that it’s just a game, and you can just take it easy.
Tauson on improving individual form
Do you think having to take that step down has given you the hunger to be back again, and you’re not just taking Tier 1 tournaments for granted?
Yeah, I think, before and after the summer season, in 2025, I think we thought it was maybe a walk in the park to go to playoffs at these big events, but, yeah, it was a big reality check that it’s not that easy as we thought it was.
So, yeah, it’s definitely given us some hunger to get back to that level again.
Okay, and what about confidence as well? You know, because obviously you’re not having to play Vitality every week. You know, you guys have been grinding through these Tier 2 LANs. Have you gotten confidence, like, from, you know, maybe playing, like, lesser teams in a strong kind of LAN environment?
Yeah, I mean, I think we won one Tier 2, Tier 3, I don’t know what you want to call it, tournament.
I think that gave us a lot of confidence. Then we have just been to two Tier 2 tournaments as well. I think we could have done a bit better, but I think in one of them, we showed that we can actually play pretty good CS still.
So, yeah, it definitely gave us some confidence to play these smaller tournaments.
In terms of confidence, last year you guys had three different AWPers. As a player, what does it feel like when your AWPer changes so often?
It’s a weird dynamic when you change so often with your AWPer because it’s, I would say, maybe even the most important role in the game, alongside IGLing.
It changes a lot when you change this role. So, yeah, we kind of had to get used to that and try to adapt when changing AWPer.
But I think right now with Hypex, he’s really good. I think the numbers show as well now that he’s really talented. I would even compare him to m0nesy a bit. He’s, I would say, as fast as m0nesy, and I think we’re going to see that at this event and at the Major as well.
Well, an opening game against Molodoy will certainly be a good test.
Yeah, definitely.
I think when we brought in Snax, we had to all get on the same page again, because it’s a new IGL, and we also had a new AWPer, you could say.
Tauson on GamerLegion refinding themselves in 2026
We had to refind ourselves, and I think we did a pretty good job with that.
Individually, your form improved despite the team struggling in the second half last year. What would you attribute that to?
I don’t know what I found, but I just found the confidence to play well. I don’t know where it came from. I think I was nervous going into the big games and going into the big tournaments, but I think with experience, I learned that it’s just a game, and you can just take it easy. And I think that’s what I kind of learned from that.
I think that’s why I’m performing a bit better than I did when I first joined this team.
I think what people really like is that core of you three, REZ, PR, and yourself. Do you feel more connected again now in 2026 in the server?
Yeah, I think when we brought in Snax, I think we had to all get on the same page again, because it’s a new IGL, and we also had a new AWPer, you could say.
So yeah, we had to refind ourselves, and I think we did a pretty good job with that. I think with each day going on, I think we’re getting more and more on the same page.
I think everyone is pretty comfortable right now with the way we’re doing things.
Do you look at this kind of event as a kind of stepping stone to get a bit more experience against these top teams as you go into the Major?
Yeah, I mean, I think we will use these next tournaments to see where we are right now, like what level we are at and what we need to work on going into the Major.
I think it’s kind of like a I don’t know, reality check, these two events, to see where we are.
In terms of the Major, obviously it’s at Cologne this year, a historic venue for CS. How are you guys going to make sure that you peak at the right time?
I think we’re going to have a little boot camp before the Major, and then I think we’re just going to play a lot of CS and try to get in the best shape we can.
I don’t think there’s any formula on how to peak exactly at the Major, but I think we’re going to try and do our best, at least.
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Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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