LNZ: “We need to show more passion.”

MIBR captain Linus “LNZ” Holteng commented on the team’s loss in the tournament’s opening match during an interview at the IEM Cologne Major 2026 and discussed what needs to change ahead of their upcoming matches.
On the loss to THUNDERdOWNUNDER
This is our first game at the Major, and yes, it’s been about a week since our last official match, which also didn’t go very well. The most important thing right now is how we can bounce back from this. <...> But maybe it’s also the fact that, overall, we needed to be more aggressive.
On preparing for teams from other regions
It doesn’t really affect me, at least. I’ve had to deal with this many times before at similar tournaments or just at major competitions. Besides, right now teams are going into matches with practically no serious preparation because we only recently found out who we’d be playing against. So right now, everything relies more on intuition and an internal sense of how to play Counter-Strike.
On what needs to change before the next matches
I think we need to show more passion.
Right now, MIBR is in the 2-1 bracket of the first stage of the IEM Cologne Major 2026. Today, Linus “LNZ” Holteng’s team will face Lynn Vision Gaming in a match to advance to the second stage—the match starts at 5:30 p.m. Moscow time.
Photo — PGL.


