All-Star Q&A: Rekkles on friends and zombies

The All-Star Event brings out the troll and the memes that lurk deep inside of everybody -- including me!

I had a chance to sit down and ask Rekkles some really important questions. 

How is All-Stars so far?

I think All-Stars is going really well. I learned a lot of things last year when I attended in Los Angeles. Just taking it not as serious has helped me a lot. Probably goes in hand with us remaking the team [last year], but I was just streaming for fun -- going to Los Angeles, I probably wasn’t in my best shape. I got kind of smashed by Doublelift in 1v1, and I wanted to avoid that this year. So I was really nervous going into my game against Reignover, but hard work paid off.

So you think these events are healthy?

I think these fun events should happen more frequently. It actually helps as a pro when we don’t have extreme stress -- there I feel like I play worse. Here, I mean, I play every game seriously. I’m not going to go into a game and intentionally do something I wouldn’t otherwise. I might take more risks, but I’m still playing my game. The mentality of feeling like I don’t have to win things -- that difference is really huge for a pro player. Coming to this event puts some perspective on what it means to be a pro and what I want to accomplish in my career. It always feels like these events teach me something.

Who is the one pro player you'd want with you in the event of a Zombie apocalypse?

I would want YellowStar with me. He’s both fit and very down to earth, so he would make very rational decisions. He has always been side by side with me, so we would have a much easier time than me with a bunch of other people.

What's your survival plan? 

Well, obviously you need to stack up a storage and find a place to stay and kind of huddle up. I haven’t watched too many zombie movies lately, though, so maybe the theme has changed over the years.

What are some of your favorite memories as a pro outside of the game?

During Season 4, we watched the world cup together when Germany beat Brazil. Even though it’s not related at all to the game, it was just cool to hang out and just do something together that everyone enjoyed -- mainly because of each others' [presence]. It just gave a really good taste of what kind of team we were.

Last year [2015], there were a lot of moments in the house that many people got to see as well during "Life of Legends" -- like where Huni and Febiven ran around and had pillow fights with each other. These kind of kid moments or whatever you want to call them made me realize that I’m still just 18. I was still just 18! I just felt like I've been around for ages already. It made me realize that there’s still so much to it, and it gave me a boost.

For this year, though, it’s tougher to recall a special moment. But I think IEM was special regardless of how the team ended up doing in the end. We kind of had a slump going into the event -- we lost our first games and were down a game in our Bo3. It was all or nothing, but we turned it around and still finished second.

Do you have any similarly fond memories of the All-Star Event?

During last year’s ASE, I had a good time with Kasing. I’d never played with him in the past but we played a lot of solo queue together and shared a room. It was just great fun not having the stress of "this guy is my support" and thinking we have to improve all the time -- or that we have to match Bang and Wolf [as a standard]. All those stress points. It was nice to just go into a game and have fun with someone who wasn’t actually my support.

As for this year’s ASE -- probably hanging out with Doublelift and Bjergsen the first day was really fun. We didn’t plan for it. I just went down to breakfast and saw them sitting there and asked if I could join. Then we went sightseeing and walking. It was just generally really chill to get a perspective of how NA players do their thing and seeing familiar faces again. After all, we have been around for a while now and have met on multiple occasions. So getting to hang out together just once and not having awkwardness between us was really cool.

If you could be as good at anything else in the world as you are at League of Legends, what would that be?

Something I really enjoyed doing when I was younger was badminton. It wasn't a very common thing in Sweden -- I think it’s more of an eastern thing. That was mainly because my dad used to play back in the day when he was younger. He was ranked first with his brother, who was ranked second. When I was growing up, he tried to bring me into it I guess. The irrational [I don't think this is irrational at all] side of me said I wanted to play football and handball with all my friends. And badminton wasn’t fun for me because it was a solo sport and blah blah blah.

In hindsight I didn’t give it a fair chance, and he would have been very proud of me to follow in his footsteps. It would be fun to give it a fair chance to see where it could get me, because even though I just played for like a year and got 3rd in one of the bigger tournaments at the time. Many of the other people were in clubs and played full time since they were kids. So I think if I actually gave it a fair chance, I could have actually gotten somewhere even if the sport wasn’t that big. We still play when I go home, and it’s fun to see how much better he is without even trying.  

In a television show where you are the main character, what would your theme song be?

Theme O -- a song I used to play on my stream.

Which champion is most similar to you?

People compare me to Ezreal due to the looks. I can’t really see anyone else fitting me better than him. I would love to be like another champion, though -- who’s a buff guy? Olaf. It would be cool to be Olaf. He’s pretty big. I started working out in the summer split with Bora. He told me a couple things, and ever since I’ve gained like 15 kilos this year. It’s a lot of fat I don’t want to keep, but I guess that’s just the bulking experience where you need to gain weight to get muscles. Eventually, I think I’ll get into good shape if I keep up the good work.

What's one thing about the world you wish you could change?

I guess most people would say peace, but that sounds like an easy answer...

The biggest thing I think about is when I go to the gym in Sweden -- there are always people outside the supermarket asking for money.  I always feel so bad walking by and not giving them anything. I wish there was nothing like that in the world.

Make sure to tune in as action resumes at 4:00 pm CET. Team Ice and Team Fire are neck and neck as they aim to claim supremacy in the battle of the elements.