device: Shoutout to Sunde

Astralis picked up their second victory of the tournament by defeating fnatic 16-13 on Mirage, recovering from a bad start to the match.

In an interview with HLTV.org, Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz talked about their matches at the tournament, his health issues and the Danish rivalry with North.

Let's start with the first day and the match against CLG, from what you remember, tell me about the general feeling you had. They had a good lead, you struggled but came back and closed it out in the end…

The first day was as it is at a lot of tournaments for us. We start up really slow when we arrive at the tournaments, apparently, we are 'not there'. That was what happened [against CLG] and they played well as well, koosta had an amazing game, in the end, we clinched it. I think we were all in all the better team. In the end, we knew that train was a good map for us and we were supposed to win that.

Moving on to the second day, you were drawn against North, it was the Danish derby and all that, were there any special emotions going into that, how were you preparing and mentally, how were you feeling going into that match?

Obviously, it's a little bit special. It was the first time we faced them so it means something, but it was still a group stage match and now at day three we are both 2-1 so it didn't really matter that much in my honest opinion. Obviously, they played really well and we started off slow again, the same thing as we always do, it's kind of a tendency we have and we are trying to fix that. But I don't think that we prepared more than we would've done for any other team.

Tell me a bit about the match, you started very badly and then came back, in the end, you didn't manage to close out the overtime. What were the struggles for you?

Personally, I'd say… We replayed the pistol round, there was a little bit of frustration, also there have been some issues—I don't know what it is—but it's a little bit laggy for everyone, so that frustrated me a little bit. In the end, what we took from the match was that we did a comeback again, something that we are becoming really good at and—as the team said—we wouldn't be disappointed if this was against another team, so there is no reason to be disappointed because it was North. That is what we took out of it in the end.

Third day, another close match, you get the win this time though, against fnatic. It seemed like on the T side, you had a switch of pace and then started getting rounds. What was the call there, anything gla1ve mentioned, is there something you were aiming out to do?

gla1ve is really good with calling on Mirage, same as karrigan actually is, and when you get the momentum on the T side and all of the players get confidence in their peeks, I think it becomes very easy to play the Mirage T side. I think we saw SK stomping Virtus.pro as well on the T side. When you get the snowball effect as Terrorists it is actually pretty easy to win it. I think we did a good comeback, fnatic played a good game as well, but it was mix of momentum and great calls—because we knew about their playstyle, how they place themselves in various situations.

You've been playing a lot individually here in the practice area, coming in early. Is there a special reason why you are playing a lot, is it normal for you or?

Normally I don't play this much at events, I think it's a mix. It's a little bit of pressure on me since it's the first tournament since I've had my diagnosis and I don't want it to affect me that much. I think that's why I want to play more—to prove that it doesn't really affect me. There is no other specific reason other than that there is not much else to do, in all honesty. [laughs] I get up really early in the morning, the gym isn't that good, you can't watch Netflix in the bed [due to internet issues at the hotel] so it's kinda the only option.

Can you explain the diagnosis, just so people are certain what it's about?

It's a little bit hard for me to explain in English, the diagnosis is not really usual for a person of my age. It's like reflux, but in the end, it's the muscle that closes between the stomach and the throat and in my case it doesn't close. It's genetic and it also gets worse by stress, and obviously, we are really stressed when we travel alot. Which means that it's really hard for me to travel, and now by knowing this, it puts a little bit of pressure on what I eat and what I do, how I sleep and everything like that. It's hard but it's something I think I can manage. Normally it's not this bad but in my case it's so bad that they actually recommended me to take a break from traveling.

Lastly, your name in game, sundevice. Any explanation, anything special there?

Ah, it's just a shoutout to Christoffer "Sunde" Sunde, from the old mTw team which my coach played with.

Professeur writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twiter.