Xyp9x: "What keeps us going is that we're not satisfied with dropping off, we know how tough it is to be No. 1"

In our final interview from ECS Season 6 Finals, we spoke to one of the winners, Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth, to reflect on the grand final and Astralis' run overall.

Astralis have secured their eighth victory in 2018 following a closely contested grand final against MIBR, which saw the Danes take Inferno 16-14 and Overpass 22-20 after double overtime.

As the MVP of the tournament, Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz, was not feeling well, we interviewed Xyp9x following Astralis' triumph to discuss a variety of topics about the event.

Let's start off with the final and the veto, was it a surprise to you that MIBR picked Overpass?

We actually thought they would pick Train. It's a bit weird because we picked Train against them in the group stage, so it was quite an evolution during the tournament, we were favorites on Mirage and now they were favorites on Train, and we both picked the opposite.

It was kind of a mind game regarding the veto, but we felt like we should have won that Inferno game [in the groups] and that's why we went with the Inferno pick. We didn't expect them to pick Overpass, but we thought it would be the third map, so we prepared for it. It went well, some rounds we shouldn't have lost, to be honest, some rounds we shouldn't have won. It was just a crazy game overall.

Talking about Inferno, after you were up 13-7 MIBR almost pulled it back, so what happened there and how did you manage to close it out with just pistols?

I think they didn't play in their structured way in the last couple of rounds, for example Stewie had an AWP on banana and picked us off there... It just felt like they went for some YOLO plays, not to say that they played unstructured, but maybe that's the way to win when it gets close against us.

I think it was very stressful and it was hard to keep up with the rounds, there were so many close rounds, and even the cold clutch where I think I killed four in that round... It was just a crazy game and I think what really threw us off were all the crazy plays they did, the unexpected plays, which we hadn't seen from their demos and stuff like that.

It looked like you were ready for MIBR's explosion strats on mid, in which they jumped out of the smoke, and that's also what they used when you finished it off with pistols - I know you play on the other side of the map, but was it something you had anticipated?

Yeah, we anticipated that. It was something we talked about before the game if we should fight the middle area. We aren't really known for doing that too much, so maybe when they were looking back at demos of us, maybe they thought it would be clear and we wouldn't be sitting there, but... Yeah, it's something we talked about before the game and it worked out.

Tell me about the comeback on Overpass from 9-14 to overtime on CT side, were there any adjustments towards the end of the second half?

I think the adjustments we made, we knew they weren't really rushing B and they just played very slowly, so we kept our grenades and we played three A a lot. Usually you play three B a lot because it's where they normally hit, but they didn't contest B that much, and even if they did, it was just one or two guys peeking.

I think we did a lot of good adjustments off them going a lot towards A, and, in the end, I think they tried some B rounds, but at that point you're going to expect B because they had been hitting A so much. I think we played the mind games correctly.

Regarding overtime, do you feel like you got a bit ahead of yourselves in the 1v4 that tarik won?

I was alive as the last player, so I didn't really see what was happening, but, in that position, he shouldn't be able to win the round. I think the bomb was down and we could just have held angles on the site and it would be over, but that's what happens in these chaotic games. We won some rounds we shouldn't have, either, so...

You have won your eighth tournament this year, how do you keep the motivation up? What keeps you going, what keeps you working hard?

What keeps us going is that we're not satisfied with just dropping off. We know how tough it is to be the number one team and always being innovative and all that kind of stuff. It's kind of our trademark right now that we are making the meta game for every team, everyone copies us.

For the motivation, I think it's just about not attending every tournament like we are doing right now, having time at home to actually find that motivation again and getting the hunger to win the tournaments. I can understand that viewers are thinking it's boring if we win all the time, but, to be honest, it's just the hard grind and everyone should respect that. We keep grinding and we are the number one team, we have been that for seven months and that's just amazing that we have done that, and we keep on trying to keep the streak alive.

We've seen some teams get very close at the last few tournaments, MIBR being one of them - you keep winning, but there has been some fluctuation lately, do you think that's up to you falling off, not being as consistent, or because of other teams catching up?

I think it's a mix of both. Teams study us and it's also that we are at the end of the year, so obviously some of our players are also tired and maybe there are teams very hungry to win against us. I think right now it's unbelievable what we're doing with this high level of competition in the scene.

We definitely have one of the best eras right now, NiP did an amazing streak and really showed that they were unbeatable, almost immortal at that time, fnatic also at that point, but I think we are definitely up there.

When I interviewed STYKO, he was talking about preparing Nuke against you in a way that they never even practiced the changes made, just to try to beat you. Is this something that you notice regularly, that the meta game changes in matches only against you?

At least in some rounds and also sometimes vetoes, they try and surprise us so that we can't prepare the map they're going to pick. Sometimes we caught off-guard by that because I guess it's the only way they think they can win, if we can't prepare for them, well then they have better chances. Yeah, definitely, in some rounds, we think 'what is this tactic? We've never seen this before,' so I can definitely relate to that.

During this tournament you faced quite a lot of backlash because of the smoke drama, and I asked gla1ve about this, as well, but I wanted to get your take - has this affected you mentally, or have you been able to get past it?

To be honest, I think it was blown up for no reason. NiKo also pulled back and said sorry to me in private. It shouldn't have come out like that, I think you can even download the demo and actually see his shadow underneath the smoke, so I think there is nothing to it now.

I understand that with all of the smoke kills we usually do a lot that they don't like that, but me and gla1ve especially are good at doing that and it's just about practicing. We've been in those situations so many times and, for example, on banana, we know the lineups for all the usual spots people are in. The whole situation was blown up and now we're just making fun of it because there is nothing to it. I think all pro players don't think any differently.