Xyp9x: "We're not at our best level, but we can get there by the end of the tournament"

HLTV.org sat down with Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth after his Astralis beat MOUZ, 2-0, on Train and Nuke, to secure a semi-final spot at IEM Chicago.

Astralis have won three of their four matches in Chicago, where they only showed signs of weakness when they lost against FaZe in the last series of the group stage. The Danes righted their wrong by making quick work of MOUZ, winning 2-0 in the quarter-finals and securing a spot in the semi-finals. The Danes will now have to face Group B winners fnatic in the semi-finals in a match that, were they to win, would lead them to rematch FaZe or face Liquid in the grand final at the Wintrust Arena.

In the interview we did with Xyp9x after his team's victory, the Clutch Minister of Denmark talked about the match against MOUZ, losing to FaZe, not making the BLAST Pro Series final in Copenhagen, and what he thinks about fnatic and the bout that is to come tomorrow.

Let's go ahead and talk about today's match. I'm particularly interested in Nuke, where mousesports pushed you pretty hard. What happened and how did it be so close?

We started off quite well, we got ahead, but then they got rolling and took a 7-4 lead, although it's pretty typical that things go that way for us on the T side. We start off doing well, go through a bad period, and then we clinch the last rounds. To be honest, we won a lot of situations we shouldn't have, a lot of clutch situations and so on. They were stacking a lot and it seemed like they had us figured out but we somehow managed to win those rounds. I'm pretty happy we won that map, to be honest, they had the upper hand and knew what we were doing.

I guess on the CT side we just relied on our go-to things, and we knew what they were doing. Honestly, we also had a few lucky rounds in the end and device stepped up pretty massively. So yeah, props to them, they played well.

Actually, zonic was talking about Nuke on stream between maps, saying that you're not practicing it as much as other maps anymore because you're doing well on it and he said he expects one day a team will have you figured out and will able to break your streak. Do you feel like that's what's happening?

Yeah, it's true that we're not putting as much effort into it because we have other maps which are lacking more than Nuke, and it's hard to keep renewing things on that map because everyone is looking at us to see what we're doing and we can't really copy anything from other teams, so we don't want to put that much effort into it because then other maps will be worse. I feel like it happened with Overpass back in the day, when we were really good on it, this is the point in which it starts to become a bit shaky, but we'll see. I love when people let Nuke, through, it's one of my favorite maps, at least, so go for it!

You've been the dominant team in the scene for a while, but you slipped at BLAST. You always have the pressure of winning everything, so when something like that happens, how does the team react to it?

I don't think you should put too much weight into the BLAST loss. If you narrow it down, it comes down to two rounds which could have gone our way, and we would have been in the final. At least that's what we're saying to ourselves, you know? So we don't put too much thought into it. If we would have lost every map and it would have been a disaster, then, of course, we would have to change a lot of stuff, but the preparation up to BLAST wasn't the best. We had a few things going on behind the scenes which were out of our control and stuff like that, so we're not giving that result too much weight. Now we're here, and it's going great, and I feel like we're not at our best level, but we can get there by the end of the tournament.

I talked to rain and he said that he feels like if you meet FaZe again you could have a trick up your sleeve, that you didn't show everything you had in your match against them yesterday. Is he on to something?

I don't know, to be honest, they played great. We don't have anything up our sleeves, we tried to win that match, I'm not going to lie, but it wasn't our day. They're going to face a better Astralis when if meet them later on.

You're facing fnatic tomorrow. How do you feel about that match-up? A new team with Brollan and twist. Have you watched them a lot?

I've watched them during this tournament and I think they look very impressive, it's like a whole new fnatic. I think the addition of Brollan is making them look great. They have so much variety. They can do a lot of stuff and they're not stuck in that old fnatic style that they used to have. I'm looking forward to the match. It's time to prepare for them and see what they're doing, so it's going to be some tough hours now preparing and getting ready for them, because they're a great team.

Let's say you beat them, would you rather face Liquid or have another go at FaZe?

I'd rather get revenge on FaZe, I'd say, for the storyline and so on, it would be great, but it doesn't really matter. They're both great teams and it would be a great final either way.