CleanX: “I wouldn’t be playing if I didn’t think I had what it took to win a ring”

Toronto KOI is on fire at the Call of Duty League Major II, with a new addition to their roster and a role change for longstanding star Tobias “CleanX” Juul Jønsson, seemingly flipping their season on its head.

At the heart of every Toronto success story since the CDL was formed, the Danish sharpshooter is reinventing himself as he moves away from the flex position and back to a more familiar SMG role alongside Joe “JoeDecieves” Romero.

While it’s often JoeD that gets the plaudits, and Jamie “Insight” Craven’s British passport has him championed at Major II Birmingham, it’s the Dane who has stepped up and become the glue between his rapid teammates, and KOI is reaping the rewards.

During Major II, CleanX sat down with us at Hotspawn to reveal the intricacies of his second wind, how they are relishing being back ‘home,’ and dream of landing a ring that serves as his motivation to keep getting better.

CleanX talks Toronto’s Major 2 Revival

Jack: How have you found the season so far? 

CleanX: I mean, obviously first Major was a rough one. I think that’s one of the worst placements I’ve had as a player under this organisation. So the season so far has been pretty shit, but coming into this major, we just had to do better. For ourselves, for the points, for the standings, for the confidence. So overall, it’s going up. 

Jack: Since we’ve seen Kips join the roster, there has been a remarkable improvement. How have you found it introducing him? 

CleanX: I feel like with a player like him, he listens so much, so it’s kind of easy to slot him in. He’s a natural flex, whereas I was the flex before. So I had to learn my own role again on the SMG. But he came in and made that incredibly easy. It’s taken a little bit longer than I thought it would take me, but I think he’s done a really good job of just making the game overall easier for us. SnD, respawns, he’s insane. 

Jack: You just mentioned how you are coming back to the SMG role. How have you found it being partnered with JoeDecieves again? 

CleanX: Last year, I enjoyed it the whole way through. I think we had a good dynamic going. I would say for this qualifier stage, I’ve been having a rough time getting back into it. Obviously, I’ve had to get more reps. People are ahead of me. I feel like I had to like get back in the flow of things. Doing maybe some of the wrong things. Maybe playing a little too fast. Kind of just now learning how to like play with Joe again. It takes time. It takes time. 

Jack: We’ve seen that kind of that across the board. Being in your situation and knowing how much you’ve got to adjust, does that kind of give you sympathy for those like across the board, like aBeZy and Envoy with their new partners?

CleanX: The way I view it, sometimes you just don’t work. Like, sometimes there are SMG partners that just don’t work in-game, and sometimes they either have to change, but sometimes they just can’t. And I think sometimes people just need to realise that sometimes it won’t work. That’s how teams work sometimes. I think I’ve had it before. I’m not going to name names, but like MW2 when we switched Standy for Charlie [Hicksy], I seem to get a lot better. Sometimes you just work better with other people, and I mean that’s the way of Call of Duty. 

Jack: What little micro adjustments have you had to make this year?

CleanX: A lot more overview of the game. Sometimes I have to take a little deep breath during the games because I catch myself playing way too fast – we have a fast team already, Joe’s insanely fast, Kips is fast, Jamie’s not the fastest, but yeah, sometimes you just have to take a step back in the map and just you know try and like relax a little bit. 

CleanX on the return to Europe and the Birmingham experience

Jack: So here in Birmingham, you started the Play-Ins. How was that, and what were the vibes like in the camp, knowing that it is a little bit high stakes? If it didn’t go well there, the tournament is over before it started. 

CleanX: We all knew it was do or die from the moment we spawned in against Vancouver, but we’re pretty happy to play obviously them in the first round instead of Gentle Mates, who we thought we were going to play. It was just a good match to kind of get going back into LA, and also for Kips as a rookie to just get adjusted to the stage. So that was a good one. 

Jack: We’ve seen TJHaly, especially, criticising the format. Do you believe that on the flip side of his stance and you’ve now had multiple games, do you find that game served as a good warm-up and you’ve carried the momentum through, or did it reset after OpTic? 

CleanX: I honestly think the more reps you have on a stage, the more reps you have sitting down as a team at a line event, the better you get. I’ve always been under that impression, and I mean, you see many teams go through that losers’ bracket run where they just slam teams on teams upon teams, and I think it’s an advantage. When we faced Falcons, we came off the back of a 3-0, but we had that game in the Play-In to look back at. So that kind of worked out in our favour. Whereas [Falcons] were down in the dumps. They didn’t look happy. 

Jack: It’s the easy question to ask, but how have you found it in front of this crowd, with yourself as a European, Jamie as the Englishman?

CleanX: We played OpTic, so we already know how OpTic crowds are when we play them – Usually favouritism for OpTic – so that’s just the way it is. But, so far, watching the other games, I think the crowd’s been one of the best we’ve had in the past two years. Obviously, there’s been some insane crowds, but this one’s been absolutely insane. Like, you peek out the curtains, and you see a full crowd. Every chair is full. I’m not used to seeing that on a Friday.

Jack: Did you expect OpTic to have such a repertoire in the UK, considering yourself and Jamie? 

CleanX: To be fair, I remember watching OpTic back when I was still in Challengers and an amateur back in BO4. I remember they were getting cheered for then, and everyone loved them. So OpTic’s still going to be OpTic, but we’ll see how it goes when we play other teams. 

Using the crowd buff and momentum to bring home silverware

Jack: Looking forward to your lower bracket run. How do you prepare for that, not knowing who your opponent is? Do you predict who you’re going to play, or do you just look at yourself? 

CleanX: We mostly look at ourselves, but we have it in the back of our mind who we think we’re going to play. We try to prepare for both teams, but I feel like we’re set for whatever we want to do for each team. We have an outcome for both. 

Jack: You mentioned a minute ago that momentum is a good thing. By the time hopefully you reach Sunday, does fatigue come into it at all, or will momentum carry you all the way? 

CleanX: We were the last match yesterday, so we had a bit of a late night. But, but we also have a bit of a late game today, so you get that time to kind of rest up. I think when you come into Saturday, the fact that you only have one game, and if you win this game, you’re into championship Sunday, it doesn’t really fatigue you as much. It lets you rest a little more when it’s just one match. So yeah, the fatigue’s not as bad as like previous events you’ve had to like go through the grueling Saturday with a high-stakes best of five matches. 

Jack: Finally, how confident are you in winning the entire event? Because that’s why we’re here, yet there’s a lot of good teams at the moment, such as OpTic, and a lot of teams coming back into form with Gentle Mates looking good again – how confident are you? 

I’ll honestly say I know people are going to be ‘whatever,’ but I feel like this team has what it takes to win. I wouldn’t be saying this if I didn’t think it, I wouldn’t be playing if I didn’t think I had what it took to win. The reason I still play is to get that trophy and to win a ring. I still feel confident. I’ve been having a bit of a rough period, it’s an adjustment period with a new player and a new role, I think he would just let us work it out and we’ll get there.