{"id":12473,"date":"2025-07-08T10:09:49","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T10:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/?p=12473"},"modified":"2025-07-09T13:39:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T13:39:38","slug":"exclusive-interview-with-fredrik-roej-jorgensen-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/exclusive-interview-with-fredrik-roej-jorgensen-part-1","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive Interview with Fredrik ‘roeJ’ J\u00f8rgensen – part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

In the world of competitive Counter-Strike, few stories are as grounded and inspiring as that of Fredrik “roeJ” J\u00f8rgensen. From humble beginnings playing casually with his brother to competing on some of the biggest stages in esports, roeJ’s journey is a testament to perseverance, passion, and self-belief. In this exclusive interview, the Danish former pro shares a candid look at his rise through the ranks, the financial realities of life as a player, the emotional toll of chasing the dream, and why he ultimately chose to step away from the game he loved – only to return with a new mission: supporting the next generation of esports talent.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you get into Counter-Strike?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I have the classic story like almost everyone else, with my big brother showing me the game when I was little. I’ve always loved playing multiplayer games and Counter-Strike has always been a favorite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went back and forth and then when I was 23 years old I just kind of got possessed with the game and didn’t stop playing pretty much ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When did you realise that it could be a career?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I’ve always been pretty good at most games I play and with Counter-Strike<\/a> I was pretty good fairly quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FPS shooters in general have always come naturally to me, I didn’t have any clue about the scene or anything like that. I just kind of loved playing the game and then I was 23 I started watching pro games and they looked really fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a bit of a no brainer for me, I realised I could become professional and that\u2019s something I started to strive towards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think I was 24, when we had the Danish Pro League, you could see the competition of all the good players in Denmark and I was getting quite a lot of attention \u2013 I felt like I definitely had a chance if I just kept going and that\u2019s what I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you have a full-time career before the move?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I was living in Malta with my girlfriend and I was actually working in a casino for a year. I started playing a lot and then moved to working part-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then when I got home I had two or three months of waiting while she was studying and I had some money saved up so I just played non-stop for three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got a part-time job again but when I was with Copenhagen Flames for the first time, they asked me how much I needed to play full-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was earning around $1,000 with Flames at that point, and in working part-time getting like around $1,500 on top of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I told them the minimum I would need to live and pay rent and all those things and they covered that so I could go full time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How much were you earning in your peak?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For my earnings it was a slow climb, I went from Flames and earning the minimum I needed, to go and play for Tricked who had a bigger budget and were a higher ranked team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that was around $3000 a month and then to Mad Lions, which was around $7000-$8000 a month. That was a really really good salary, especially in Denmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For one or two years I actually started to earn some decent money outside of that salary too, it\u2019s hard for players who have to juggle part time jobs and some even end up slipping into debt each month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you earn a salary and then win more from competitions?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I had a straight salary every month and then the prize money was the bonus on top. You can\u2019t rely on that because it can change, but even from early on finishing first or even second in tournaments handed out a decent amount of money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think it’s a little bit different now, also the competition in these online tournaments is way bigger. In tier three it was about playing in a bunch of small cash cups which add up to a decent amount of money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes you didn\u2019t even get paid or it took months to get it, so winning tournaments was a bonus but couldn\u2019t be relied upon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you earn up to $8000 dollars a month?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

With MAD Lions my salary was around $8000 dollars a month, back then we didn\u2019t qualify for a lot of majors and those kinds of events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a different system and still had a long way to go, we were in the top 30 but there were some really tough tournaments so I would say that was a really good salary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We actually won one of the first tournaments, The LAN tournament at V4 Future Festival, that was crazy because each player got almost $20,000 on top which was so much money for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I really thought wow, I\u2019ve made it, that made things so much easier and took all the stress away, it\u2019s like having a pretty well paid job in Denmark annually, so I could focus totally on the game and not the financial side of things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started when I was 23 and didn\u2019t earn any money for two years. There is pressure on you from your girlfriend and you can\u2019t just sit around and earn $1500 a month. I was just lucky that I climbed the ladder fairly quickly to get to where I wanted to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did you choose to step away from your professional career?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For the last two years of my career I was struggling a little bit with motivational issues. I had periods of times where it felt more like a job and something I had to do just to keep doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have always been a player who needs to play a lot. I was always playing at my best level when I was putting in a lot of hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think towards the end I was trying to figure out a way where I could play less but still perform and I wasn’t that consistent and my level wasn’t that good enough towards the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you start to do bad and you start losing a bit more and it’s not going so well then you lose motivation on top of that. That was the starting point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tried for around two years trying to fix it and it was all like ups and downs. Some periods were worse than others and then I became a father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I needed to figure out a way where I can be at a good level and maybe get better without putting in 110 hours every two weeks and I felt like I couldn\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it was for motivational reasons and I didn’t really want to play on a team with younger guys who were super hungry and I was just kind of at work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I always didn’t really enjoy playing with those kinds of guys myself when I was younger. I always told myself that if I ever get to that point where I’m just sitting and getting my salary and that’s pretty much it then I’d rather stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you’re on a team and you have super hungry young guys and they really really want to win, they want to get to the biggest tournaments then it doesn’t feel right that you’re just there doing the bare minimum to get your salary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It just kind of feels a bit weird in that sense. I think that was my point at the end where I needed to try and figure something else out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What made you want to help young professionals?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I’m working with players and working with brands, working with just managing partnerships in general. We do a ton of different things. We are making content for streamers and players and all those kinds of things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are helping brands to connect with people inside of esports and all those kinds of things, it’s very nice to stay in the scene in some way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m also working with different other games, which is kind of fun to kind of get some insight into how it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are selling content for creators and managing those deals and also just being an agent for players, streamers and kind of talking to brands and establishing sponsorships and brand deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s super exciting and it’s a different way of working, but it fits my life right now. So I’m just very happy to be able to do it and working with some great people. Bob, my good old friend from Flames is in here as well, overall very happy with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you feel the pressure going into big tournaments?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Definitely, for sure you feel the pressure. You get used to it a little bit but I don’t think the feeling ever goes away, at least for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It didn’t really ever go away. Obviously there’s always the first game jitters in a tournament because there are a lot of traveling days and you have content days, so you don’t really touch the game that much going into a tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As soon as the first game starts there’s always gonna be that feeling of your fingers being freezing, cold hands and you’re shaking just a little bit on your aim and you can definitely feel that your movement in game is a bit more stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s definitely something I worked on. Obviously some tournaments were worse than others, but it’s definitely a lot of pressure. I can’t remember the exact feelings I had in the big games, but those rounds and clutches, especially clutches when you just feel like the surroundings are quiet around you because everyone is watching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your heart just starts pounding. It’s definitely a lot of pressure you need to be able to handle it in that sense. For clutches specifically, I noticed that sometimes when you’re in a 1v2 clutch, especially in Counter-Strike, there’s times where it slows down a little bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe you’re running towards a side and you’re just going to plant the bomb. You have time to think and you feel your heart pounding and you’re like holy s*** this is important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are there comparisons between esports and regular sport?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I haven’t really played anything else Counter-Strike on such a high level with so many things in the line so I can’t really compare to anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think the feeling that I’ve had in Counter-Strike is something I probably won’t feel again because there’s just so many things in the line especially some of the games with Copenhagen Flames where we were qualifying for a Major where you are playing pretty much one game, one best of three and you know the winner goes to the Major and the loser gets nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m never going to experience pressure like that again because it’s such a big, big moment and there’s so much things on the line for you personally and for the team. It’s definitely hard to compare it to anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How much support do esports professionals need?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been working with multiple teams that have tried to implement a sports psychologist and it can help with the pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it can be tricky, a lot of organizations are pushing the limit of their budget towards the salary of the players so it’s kind of hard add a bunch of extra stuff to help the players and sometimes even when you have something available people don’t really use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think it’s hard for players to see a direct impact from what they can get from a sports psychologist and those kind things because it’s a bit niche in that way. But I definitely think that just having someone to talk to about your experiences and your problems is good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I think in most cases a very good coach can pretty much cover all of those areas if he’s good at the mental side of things and just helping with mental issues with players and just having clear communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think it just comes down to having a good manager and having a good coach that is available to see those problems occur because a lot of these players are very young, so it’s kind of hard for them to recognize a problem and the things they’re dealing with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s always good to have professionals who are very smart in that field and know what to do in those kinds of scenarios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you have any rituals before big tournaments?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I had a point where before going down to the game I felt like I would play better when I had some blood flowing through my body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I\u2019d be working out before tournaments or I would think that I\u2019m going to play badly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was always pushing myself to at least go to the gym to keep that going, or even doing 20 to 30 pushups before going down to the stage to get blood flowing in my body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that was like the biggest ritual I had. I did that for quite a while actually. Then it\u2019s about the routine and keeping things the same and replicating that each time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the prize money in esports get closer to regular sport?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I think it’s going to be a slow process. I think there are some issues within the scene with the player salaries being a little bit inflated in terms of organizations actually being able to make money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s kind of one of the issues where we see a lot of organizations going down. A very good example is the Danish scene in general. When I was playing, when I was 24 years old, there were so many Danish organizations that could actually pay a decent salary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They had good teams. We had OpTic, North, tRICKED and Astralis<\/a> and not many of them are left now. So at least for the Danes and Counter-Strike right now is also why we’re seeing the Danish scene hurting a little bit is that we kind of like lost that ladder system where like when one guy got picked up from the other team then you know the other guy came up to replace him and all of that is gone now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s certainly some issues I think we can probably get there in time, but I think it’s gonna take a lot of time. I think there’s definitely a lot of things that need to be looked at and you kind of get adjusted so the organizations can make money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe the viewership also, I think Twitch is a big part of that because everyone can just watch everything for free, which kind of makes it a bit difficult compared to some sports like football and how they get money for TV rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that’s probably the main thing that needs to be looked at. Maybe in time people would like to pay some money to watch it and then kind of help the scene grow in that sense, but I’m not sure if it will get there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

We asked J\u00f8rgensen<\/em> even more questions<\/a> about his thoughts on the modern scene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the world of competitive Counter-Strike, few stories are as grounded and inspiring as that of Fredrik “roeJ” J\u00f8rgensen. From humble beginnings playing casually with his brother to competing on some of the biggest stages in esports, roeJ’s journey is a testament to perseverance, passion, and self-belief. In this exclusive interview, the Danish former pro […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,56,112,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cs2","category-csgo","category-interviews","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12473"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12513,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12473\/revisions\/12513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}