We sat down with WinFakt captain Joona "natu" Leppänen to discuss his opinion about Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and also the team's transition from 1.6.

The Finnish veteran announced last month his return to activity with a CS:GO squad more than a year and a half after stepping down in Power Gaming.

In this exclusive interview with HLTV.org, Leppänen shares his view about CS:GO and the improvements that can be made to the game and also comments on the team's preparations for DreamHack Winter.

It has been quite some time since we last heard from you. What did you do during all this time?

I have been doing what normal people usually do, such as go to work and do fun things on my free time :-D. Other than that, I have been participating in some sim-racing competitions and played a gather here and there. Normal life would probably be the best way to describe? 

What made you return after such a long hiatus?

Probably that I like competing, simply put. Also that I enjoyed playing with the guys I am playing with right now. It was more or less random to be honest. I am not one to take things too seriously really. I do what I like to do! 

Is CS:GO really to your liking, or did you decide to play it simply because 1.6 is nearing its end?

I do like playing a new game really, it is a lot of learning and every time you play matches/gathers/mixes you learn new things. Kinda like what 1.6 used to be back in the day. Obviously I initially was not a great fan of the game as the beta was in the early stages. But I kept my mind open as I like new challenges and saw the game develop. It is a new and different game from the previous ones and should be treated as such. If you like the game or not - judge it for yourself.

Is there something that you think that needs to be changed for the game to be more suitable for competitive tournaments?

Well, definitely the fact that you get different rewards for killing with different weapons to start with. Also the smoke grenade exploit where you can see through them by nading into them should get fixed as soon as possible. Some people call P90 very over powered, which it is to an extent. With slight nerfing it would remind me of 1.6's MP5 from past times. Server passwords, HLTV, various fine tuning and it is not a bad game for competition.

What is your opinion about your team? How far do you think that it can go in the future?

It is absolutely impossible to say for real, but I think we have been doing fine so far every time we have played in cups and such. Of course it is not much of an indication until we see the field practiced and we have played some events. But of course I am confident we are good at this. We all have put in hours to learn the tricks and twists of this game to have the assets to make an impact.

Some newly-created CS:GO teams have players from different countries. Having had a similar experience when you were in 4Kings, do you think this is a viable solution?

I do not see it as a problem as long as people are comfortable speaking English in fast pace while playing. I know I would not mind it anyway.

After partaking in some practice and mix games, who do you think that is adapting to CS:GO better? 1.6 or CSS players?

Hmm, well the only real advantage I see Source players having is that the game is based on the Source-engine. Which means that you need to play rather aggressive all the time as the game favours the one that is moving much of the time. But I think there is no real advantage to anyone anymore. Everyone has played enough hours to have understood what is the name of the game. 

DreamHack Winter will be the first major event using CS:GO. What are your thoughts about this tournament and how will your team prepare for it?

It will be interesting for sure. Without people having much idea of their opposition in tournament play, the lack of anti stratting beforehand is a fresh breath of air. We will of course put in plenty of hours to get our book of tactics sorted and make sure we hit our shots. No special tricks here, just good ol' fashion practice.