Devilwalk on GODSENT and how to keep a rising team from falling

M Alzamora Published 07/02/2020

WIN.gg sat down with GODSENT Counter-Strike: Global Offensive head coach and former professional player Jonatan “Devilwalk” Lundberg this week at the GG.BET ICE Challenge to talk about GODSENT’s recent successes, stumbles, and the tools professional teams use when they get ready to compete.

Devilwalk, a CSGO legend in his own right, brings over ten years of experience on both sides of the keyboard. Under his care, GODSENT won Season 2 of the WePlay! Forge of Masters and placed well in both DreamHack Open Sevilla 2019 and this week’s ICE Challenge.

Devilwalk talks GODSENT, CSGO data, and improving

But as the team grows, the competition grows with it, especially with GODSENT CEO Ludwig Sandgren telling WIN.gg that the team has officially accepted ESL’s invitation to Season 11 of the ESL Pro League. WIN.gg took the opportunity to pick the brain of one of the more experienced coaches in Counter-Strike on how he’s keeping GODSENT moving forward

GODSENT is improving at every tournament. You took home first place at the team’s first tournament, which is a pretty impressive achievement. As other teams start to study your team’s play and tactics, where do you need to improve to start pushing past the top teams?

Devilwalk: I mean, there are always small details that you can change. I think we could be a bit faster at times to adapt. We have all the structure and the key things that we want to do, but sometime’s we’re a bit slow in adapting to opponents. It can break our momentum heavily.

Sometimes we lose five or six rounds in a row when maybe we should have adapted after two and shut down the other team’s momentum. Shutting that down and adapting to our opponent’s changes quicker are the key areas that we can improve on.

That sounds simple, right, but it’s probably more complicated in practice. So how do you implement that? You see teams like Cloud9 create a Data Science position for Soham “Valens” Chowdurry before left for NRG. Many teams are going that route to fill in those small gaps that teams have. Is GODSENT using any tools for review or statistical analysis?

I’ve used others in the past, but right now GODSENT is using a trial period of Skybox, and we’re really interested in working with them. We also have our new sponsor, GRID, helping us with some data. GODSENT is looking around right now for the best tools for all different kinds of data scenarios. 

For a coach, you need a different program [than a player or a fan] that is going to have more functionality than just some statistics on a page.

[A coach] wants to see free-flowing gameplay in a way, I want the whole picture. We haven’t really figured out where we want to end up in the regard, but right now we’re trialing Skybox as our data software for Counter-Strike.

__________

While GODSENT continues to grow into the difficult tournaments ahead, they’ve already proven to be a threat to top teams. Making underdog betters incredibly happy, GODSENT defeated both ENCE and Virtus.pro 2-0, proving that they need to be taken seriously every opponent.

While they suffered a 2-0 loss against Natus Vincere to end their tournament run, the team performed Valiantly against a Na`Vi side running on all cylinders.  

Fans will see GODSENT next at the 2020 Rio Mino Closed Qualifiers starting on March 7. They’ll attend the event as an invited team stemming from their ESL World Ranking, where they currently sit at number 23.

After the Rio qualifiers, GODSENT will take their place at EPL to see what they can do against some of the world’s best teams starting March 16.

M Alzamora

About M Alzamora

There are few things that writer M Alzamora loves more in life than Pokemon. And there are even fewer things that she loves more than her favorite Pokemon, Eevee. But M’s appreciation for gaming isn’t just limited to Nintendo’s famous pocket monsters. She’s interested in every type of game across every genre of gaming, and she has the credentials to prove it. M’s work has also been seen on Working Classicists and gaming sites.

View full profile

Read Also

Counter-Strike

IEM Cologne Major 2026 CS2 Stage 3 Pick’Em Predictions Owen Harsono It’s that time of the year again, as the next Counter-Strike 2 Major is right around the corner. The IEM Cologne 2026 Major is set to start on June 2, meaning you still have some time to lock in your Pick’Em predictions. The Pick’Em Challenge is one of the most exciting parts of the CS2 Majors, as it allows you to test your knowledge and predict which teams make it ...

Counter-Strike

Team Spirit concede just 10 rounds in Stage 2 of the IEM Cologne Major Owen Harsono It was pretty weird seeing Team Spirit having to start the IEM Cologne Major from Stage 2, but they quickly proved why that was a mistake. With donk shooting on all fronts, the Eastern Europeans speed ran the competition to book their spot in Stage 3. With how they’ve been playing, it’s hard not to wonder whether they can actually win the entire thing. These boys can sometimes be known ...

Counter-Strike

BIG pull off 0-12 comeback to stay alive – IEM Cologne Major Stage 1 recap Owen Harsono We’ve just witnessed arguably the worst choke in Counter-Strike Major history, and we’re only on the first stage of the IEM Cologne Major. If you didn’t tune into the Stage 1 matches, here’s what you need to know heading into Stage 2. Many fans tend to underestimate Stage 1 teams for fair reasons, but some survivors in this tournament look extremely promising. Two Eastern European teams, BetBoom Team and B8, ...

Counter-Strike

Who will win the IEM Cologne Major 2026? Owen Harsono If you’re looking to play it safe and back one team at the Counter-Strike 2 IEM Cologne 2026 Major, traders prediction markets platforms have a clear frontrunner – it’s Team Vitality. But if it’s not meant to be, there are a few other candidates that could lift the trophy. Here’s what traders on Polymarket and Kalshi think. If you haven’t been watching CS2 this year and are only jumping on ...

Counter-Strike

The 10 best CS2 players who have never won a Major Owen Harsono In Counter-Strike, winning a Major immediately puts you into legend status. It’s an achievement that proves you won the game’s biggest trophy. However, there have been some really good players that could never get their hands on the biggest trophy that Counter-Strike esports has to offer. Here is WIN.gg's list of best CS2 players who have never won a Major. ScreaM is one of Counter-Strike's most famous players for one ...

Counter-Strike

IEM Cologne Major 2026: All the teams, favorites, and outright betting odds Owen Harsono Mark your calendars, as the IEM Cologne Major kicks off on June 2, 2026. We’re going to see the best teams in the world compete, but which ones are actually favored to take the title? This will be the first time in 10 years that IEM Cologne will return as a Counter-Strike Major, so the stakes this year are much higher than they’ve been in a decade. In this guide, ...

Esports Betting

All IEM Cologne winners and rosters in Counter-Strike history Owen Harsono IEM Cologne is one of Counter-Strike’s biggest events, happening every single year. Some seasons, the event is labeled as one of Valve’s two Counter-Strike Majors of the year, but if not, still stands as one of the big events every player chases to win. With the IEM Cologne 2026 Major right around the corner, let’s take a trip down memory lane and check out every single winner of the tournament, ...