Mxey joins Team Liquid

Former FaZe Clan rifler Anssi "mxey" Pekkonen joined Team Liquid, replacing Jere "Jembty". Kauppinen, who left the team in January this year. Here's a short interview with the player:

After leaving FaZe, what made you decide to come to Team Liquid?
First, it’s an amazing organization and I’ve known Jeemzz and Ibiza for a long time and I’ve been friends with them. I’ve been wanting to play with Jeemzz for a long time, and I knew some time we might have the opportunity to play together. So when a spot opened up like this, I knew I really wanted to play with these guys.
You were both Captain and secondary IGL for FaZe right?
I think at some point it was more like Fuzzface was the main in game leader and the rest of us were sort of just backing him up and stuff like that, but yeah I was the team captain.
Are you maintaining that role coming over to Liquid, as a team captain, and IGL or is that something you still need to figure out?
We’ve already pretty much figured it out. Jeemzz is going to be our IGL who has the final word on pretty much everything and all three others support on that stuff of course, but I think I’m going to be the one supporting Jeemzz the most with the calling and stuff. I’ll be helping him out with that.
You put a lot of emphasis on communication in-game and having clear comms. Why do you think this aspect of the game is so important and how has it helped you throughout your career?
Hmm I don’t know, I always felt like the more info and talk between players in the game, it just helps that everyone knows what is happening. You can feel like even if you are watching some side you know what is happening in 360 degrees around you because your teammates are telling you. Even small stuff, it doesn’t matter, you can just say it so everyone knows that stuff. It has to be clear calls though, you talk a lot but there’s not useless talk in that so it keeps it clear so everyone knows what is happening. I think it’s one of the most important things in PUBG and probably all other esports games too that you have really good communication between the players because then it becomes pretty much automatic and everything goes really smoothly I feel like.
You’ve also previously said that you don’t mind having a slow start to tournaments. What allows you to have those slow starts and not get discouraged and make up ground as the tournament progresses?
I just think it’s like… well for me, it didn’t really matter if we have bad games at the start of the tournament. You always know how good you are and what you are capable of doing so even if you have a bad start you can just go to the next game. Every tournament you go to its different teams and a different setup and different everything so you get those couple of games to adapt and then you can start playing better because you know how good you are. At the same time, a slow start is like… I just feel it’s easier to come back in the end than it is to stay in the number one spot for an entire tournament. I don’t know if in the end it’s too much pressure or if it feels too easy because you’re leading but I find it easier to not be at the very top and then drop down from there but rather be 4th or 5th and then at the very end climb up to number one and end up winning the tournament.
Is it harder to recover in a tournament then? Rather than start off a bit slow and build momentum during an event? Is it more difficult to recover at the end of an event?
I guess it depends… one thing that’s important too is if it happens at the end of like the first day then you can always reset for the second day. Or if there is like 6 games a day and you play the first three really good and then you have the rest as pretty bad games then I guess it can be harder to head into the next day of games but even then it’s hard to say.
I don’t know. In the end I think it doesn’t really matter, even if we have bad games I always know how good we are and what we are capable of so we just talk a little bit and reset and go next game. A pretty good example is the semi-finals in PGC, we were literally out of the tournament already and then I died at the start of the game too and we still end up making it to grand finals. So one foot was out of the tournament already but everyone gave it they best they could and we ended up winning huge and making it to the next day. It’s just that mentality that you have and you build yourself and you know how good you are so you never give up pretty much so I think even if you do good and then bad you can still recover as well.
What has been one of your favourite moments in PUBG?
That semi-finals win is definitely one of them but other than that I think my personal favourite was a long time ago at DreamHack Austin. We had Jembty and Haxete and we ended up 2v4 with me and Haxete and we ended up clutching that game so that is my personal favourite moment of my career.
What do you do to relax?
I guess it depends. Sometimes I just want to play something else, some other video games, and just relax with that. I listen to a lot of music, and sometimes you feel like you just want to get off the computer so I just chill on the sofa and watch something with my girlfriend.
Did you play anything else competitively before PUBG?
No, PUBG is my first esport. I played CS since 2007 but I never went for it to try to be pro or anything like that. I did play some small stuff but it was always for fun, it was never really serious like PUBG started to be so yeah PUBG is my first esports game.
How was it for you then, trying to show your family that gaming went from a hobby to a serious career?
My parents were really surprised when I told them that I started getting money from playing video games so it was kind of funny and then after they started realizing what it is they started following it and they support me and follow my games and things like that and it has been amazing to see that kind of support from my parents. My girlfriend is a gamer too so there’s no problem from that side *laughs*.
Do you have anything you’d like to say to fans who will be cheering you on, perhaps considering you're coming from the team that was often times our toughest competition? *laughs*
I’m really happy to be in Liquid! To all the fans, even if you’re a fan of FaZe there’s no reason for any hate between our teams. *laughs* We’re all still friends with everyone and of course in the server we’ll kill each other but we’re all still friends!