Xyp9x: "Against Na`Vi and especially on Inferno, it's all mind games"

We talked to Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth following Astralis clinching their first win in the New Legends stage, defeating Natus Vincere in a thrilling match on Inferno.

In our interview with the 23-year-old, we went back to the previous stage to find out what his thoughts were on Astralis' shaky start into the Major.

Xyp9x also commented on the upsets of the first round in the New Legends stage and gave us his opinion on why they happened, and he shed some light on Astralis' mindset going into the match against Natus Vincere:

Let's first go back to the previous stage, where you had a couple of shaky performances, what do you chalk that up to?

I think it's hard to prepare for these teams in the previous stage, they don't usually play a lot. They don't play the same style as the tier one teams, I would say. They have a different playstyle and sometimes you have to adapt, and sometimes that's really hard to do when you're incorporated in another playstyle. I think you could see a lot of upsets that happened, right... I think the New Challengers stage is where you'll see the most upsets.

Well...

(laughs) Right now, of course, there are a lot of upsets, but I think that's because a lot of teams are not prepared for this environment and all the new challengers have been here for so long, got used to everything, the computers, perhaps, and all kinds of stuff. I think that's really the reason why the New Challenger stage teams have the upper hand.

Touching back on what zonic said in Stockholm about you feeling a bit off coming from the off-season, is that something you're still feeling or has that improved since?

I feel it has definitely improved. I didn't really feel it that much, to be honest, in my opinion. Obviously, there was some rustiness from the break, I think every team had that, but I didn't think it was more than the ordinary, what you should expect from it.

We've heard quite a lot about these sound issues in the previous stage and, since the update, gla1ve even tweeted about some others earlier today. How has the game felt in this first match, is everything okay now?

I think a couple of us had a problem in the previous stage, but I didn't really see any issues, or hear any issues, this time. I think gla1ve had something when he was in library and they were running around - I think it's something else than what it was. Maybe it's the new update causing some problems, I don't know. You'd have to ask gla1ve about that.

You've just had a tough game against Na`Vi, as usual, with what mindset did you go into that match and how did you prepare for it?

Against Na`Vi and especially on Inferno, it's all mind games because they stack all the time. Only in one or two rounds as CT, they don't stack. So we did a lot of preparation for that and I think gla1ve handled that very well with calling and making them keep guessing where we are coming.

And also, for example on the antieco, we didn't just run into B, we sent one arch and checked whether they are stacking. I think we did a lot of good homework, I wouldn't say we hadn't done this, but we hadn't been focused so much on the stacks, which we did this time.

So was that largely how you managed to close out that match, figuring out what their setups were?

Yeah, I'd definitely say that the key was to know how they're setting up, their stacks and what their tells were when they were stacking.

It must have been a relief to avoid the 0-1 pool that is looking quite tough right now.

Yeah, but there is a reason why they won, right? Like I said earlier in the interview, it might be the conditions that everyone is used to. I don't think that changes too much for the next game, either, so they're just maybe the better team, right now at this stage.

I don't really put too much thought into 'what if we're going to meet FaZe in the 0-1 pool' or anything like that. And I don't think you should before a game like this because then you just put a lot of pressure on yourself.

More interviews from the FACEIT Major New Legends stage:

Day 1
REZ: "Not playing the Minor means a lot to me, I have played so many"

Media Day
JW: "We considered twist after the early StarLadder exit; he wasn’t really interested"
jmqa: "After the last Major, our practice wasn't great, we didn't have good conditions"
flamie: "We still want to play Dust2 because no one is playing it well"
SmithZz: "We aren't completely ready at the moment, but we are getting there"
RUSH: "Hopefully, after the Major, our ranking will reflect how we actually are as a team"