gla1ve: "Nuke isn't the best map in the pool, but it's pretty balanced"

The Danes won three matches in a row en route to first place in the new format, beating Renegades, SK, and Liquid to secure their ticket to the semi-finals.

gla1ve addressed yesterday's ending on Mirage against SK

After their latest match, we talked to Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander about the series against the Brazilians and the technical issues that may have affected the winning 2v5 clutch from the Danes on Mirage. He also touched on the new version of Nuke, which Astralis already played three times, as well as the Liquid series:

I have to ask about the SK semi-final at first and about the way it ended, with the 2v5 win after which it turned out coldzera tabbed out of the game, how did you react to that after you realized what had happened?

I think we just realized that we were extremely lucky to win that match, because if he didn't alt-tab I'm pretty sure he would have killed me in that last round. I saw it from his POV, he was looking at me, I was just strafing to the side and I didn't even really peek him, so I think he would have killed me and we would have played one more overtime. We just feel extremely lucky to beat SK on Mirage.

SK didn't look too competitive up until the second half of Mirage, did it feel like the real SK before they switched to the CT side?

I think SK's CT side on Mirage is just extremely good, really hard to counter, FalleN is doing a lot of good stuff on A. He's everywhere, trying to get peeks, he's pressuring us a lot, so I don't think they played a bad T side, I just think we had an understanding of what they wanted to and we kind of tried to lock it down and then we won some key rounds that just broke their economy, that is how the game works.

Apart from Inferno, you looked very comfortable in the Liquid series, with one-sided results on Nuke and Overpass, what did you think about the matchup overall and how it turned out in the end?

We were actually really prepared going into the match. We were really happy going into it, they have proven they are such a strong team right now, we kind of expected that they would come in with full force from the beginning and they did that.

But then they started to play a little slower and they did that pretty well, they made us rotate a lot and such. I just think they're a really good team right now, EliGE and Twistzz are such good individual players and you see NAF as well, the new fifth, he's just an amazing player as well. They have a really solid team right now and I think with practice they're going to be a lot better.

When the new version of Nuke was released, people thought it was going to get heavily CT sided, but that doesn't seem to be the case at all, especially from your perspective. How do you feel about the balance of the map and the overall dynamic?

It's still new with the new stuff going on in yard and the stairs down under, so there's still some new stuff that you have to figure out, but overall I would say it's pretty balanced right now, actually. You can get seven or eight rounds on the T side, but you can also have a lockdown half as CT if you know how the opponent is playing. I don't think it's the best map in the pool at all, but I still feel like it's pretty balanced.

I'd especially like to touch on Nuke from the Liquid series and the map in general. When the new version was released, people thought it was going to get heavily CT sided, but that doesn't seem to be the case at all, especially from your perspective. How do you feel about the balance of the map and the overall dynamic?

It's still new with the new stuff going on in yard and the stairs down under, so there's still some new stuff that you have to figure out, but overall I would say it's pretty balanced right now, actually. You can get seven or eight rounds on the T side, but you can also have a lockdown half as CT if you know how the opponent is playing. I don't think it's the best map in the pool at all, but I still feel like it's pretty balanced.

I already talked to Magisk about him fitting in with the team, what is your perspective on this as the in-game leader, how has he been meshing with the rest?

I think Magisk is an awesome player. He's really good to have for us, because he has such a good team spirit when we're playing, he's always yelling when we get rounds and he's just hyping up the other guys. I really like to play with him and yeah, it's just been good fun this first month and I just hope we can keep being productive, because that is the one thing I appreciate the most. We have been so productive this last month with Magisk and I just want us to keep that feeling and just keep winning.

How difficult was it to find out where he fits in terms of roles?

Yeah, Kjaerbye left for North and it actually fits us pretty well that we got Magisk, because then dupreeh could take over Kjaerbye's roles and then Magisk could take over dupreeh's old roles. So it fits us perfectly, dupreeh wanted to be more aggressive like Kjaerbye had the opportunity to be before, so now dupreeh is taking that opportunity and using it to his advantage, and then Magisk can be the laid-back, chill player in the different position on the T side. And then he just has really good spray control on the CT side, so that helps us a lot as well, and he has a good USP, so it helps us win some pistol rounds as well.

Having clinched first place in the group and making it to the semis, how are you feeling going into the playoffs and about your chances to defend your Katowice title?

The best thing for us would probably just be to win the whole thing, because we've just been working so hard lately and it's really starting to feel like it's paying off. We're putting in a lot of hours, both together and also just on deathmatch, so we would really just love to defend our title, but we know that you can lose games even though you play really well, because the opponent can just be better on that day. So we're really motivated to keep on playing and keep on refreshing our gameplan.