SK Gaming announced Sundström's signing in the first days of September, a move that left many hoping he could emulate the impressive Ninjas in Pyjamas form that had turned him into an ever-present name on every "favorite starting-five", GotFrag.com forum thread.

GotFrag.com reported in June 2008 that Anton Budak, coach of SK Gaming, was more than keen on bringing Sundström to the team. SK and Sundström would not finalize the deal until three months later.

The wait was a smart move, considering Sundström's longtime absence from 1.6 competition. Even though zet was probably not quite ready in September, Abdisamad "SpawN" Mohamed's unimpressive form and apparent desire to become inactive paved the way for Sundström's arrival. A move that could be classified as a "the lesser of two evils."

With Sundström on board, the team placed first at WCG 2008 Sweden Finals, second at DreamHack Skellefteå, first at EM III Global Challenge LA, second at EM III Global Challenge Montreal, 5th-6th at EM III Global Challenge Dubai and 5th-6th at World e-Sports Masters.

SK Gaming has won twenty-seven times, lost six and drawn twice. Despite the team's impressive overall record, zet's performances since joining SK may tell a different story.

Although today's game relies more on strategy and team coordination rather than pure fragpower, zet's signing became a reality not only because he was a free agent but also because he had been one of Sweden's most skilled Counter Strike players ever.

There is no doubt that SK Gaming's zet has not been at the same level as Ninjas in Pyjamas' zet just yet. Most of you will remember walle's performance against GamePlay in Dubai, RobbaN's great AWP action against Blank, allen's impressive display against fnatic or Tentpole's topnotch game against Meet Your Makers in Los Angeles. Who can name a world-class display by zet since joining SK Gaming?






Looking at Sundström's GameSense statistics, one can see that zet's frags have been rare of late, having walked out of EM Montreal the only player from SK to have a negative record and more than 60 frags behind SK's best, walle. Moreover, he scored just 102 frags in 185 rounds, making it a 0.551 Frag Per Round count.





In Los Angeles, Sundström grabbed a +13 record, still SK's worst player. 35 frags behind his next team-mate, RobbaN, and 54 frags behind the team's best player at the event, allen.





At the World e-Sports Masters - where SK crashed out at the group stage - zet was once again the team's worst player with a -12 record, 14 frags behind SK's top fragger in China, Tentpole.




It is impossible to tell whether zet will ever make a return to the form that saw him shine with Ninjas in Pyjamas from 2005 to 2006. He was signed by SK Gaming because, following SpawN's retirement, he was believed to be the best player to fit the bill. Did SK get better with zet's addition/SpawN's departure? Maybe. But so far zet's team-mates have been cloaking his poor form.

With SK Gaming flying to Cologne for the World Cyber Games on the back of two disappointing events, pressure is piling on every player, but specially on zet. Anything less than a top-three finish will come as a shock to the fans - who will be left wondering whether zet is hot or not.

Sundström Photo courtesy of www.esl-world.net