He might have been fazed for sure. Carlsen is famously grumpy about losing. And there's a big difference between losing a single game, and losing a match consisting of several games. It's much more difficult to dismiss the latter as a fluke.

Now obviously this wasn't a fully serious match format, but then again Carlsen prides himself on his dominance under short time controls.

after all, it was in rapid playoffs that he defended his world champion crown against both Karjakin and Caruana. It was only once it came to that when he would simply blow them out of the water.

Plus they directly contradict themselves in the story

> Before the clash, the world no.1 player didn't underestimate Firouzja, calling him "by far my biggest challenge."