gade: "North is being built up right now - this is just the beginning"

Concluding our coverage of the Minor Play-in is an interview with Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade in which we discuss the team's confidence issues, competitors from the CIS and Asia Minors, and the team's series against MVP PK.

North were the second team from the Minor Play-in to qualify for the StarLadder Major after defeating MVP PK. The Danes comfortably cruised to a 2-0 victory to seal their return to the biggest showpiece event in the game after missing IEM Katowice.

Upon conclusion of their series against MVP PK, we spoke to gade, who shared what happened between the Minor and the Play-in, spoke about on-going confidence issues, the series against MVP PK and Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså's evolution as an in-game leader and captain.

The team was considered one of the favourites for the Europe Minor, but you were unable to live up to that out after falling to mousesports and CR4ZY in the playoffs. What did the team address between the Minor and the Play-in?

I think we have some confidence issues, so we went back home, we had some practice, talked it through and we kind of thought about what was different from playing BIG two matches in the groups, and then we had the fnatic loss and also lost a pretty clean 0-2 to mousesports. I think when we play matches like that, we're just a different team, in some way, and we can't really identify what the differences are. We just tried to have a positive mentality, and that was our focus this week until the Play-in, and I think you can definitely feel and see that no one has their heads down or is frustrated or anything. That's definitely a focus point for us, we try to just stay positive and have fun while we play, because I think we can get a bit too serious now and then, and that's just not healthy for a team - we start to blame each other. Now I think we're a different team, we have a different environment and it's definitely a positive one, and we play way better CS now than we did at the Minor.

Here at the Play-in you faced MVP PK, who are arguably less competitive than some of the teams you lost to at the Europe Minor. Do you feel the confidence issues arise from facing different levels of competition or is it a general issue that the team faces irrespective of the opponents at hand?

I don't think it's a factor, somehow, no matter who we play - I mean you saw us bomb out at the last Minor against ViCi, for example. I think it's a general issue we have, we're just trying to fix that. Now we have JUGI, we're also getting him implemented with our game, and also valde being the new leader. We're also trying to have some new focus points with Torbjørn (mithR). Definitely, North is being built up right now - this is just the beginning. We haven't really had that much practice, and I think we were definitely confident going into the Play-in, and we just knew we would get the spot somehow if we pulled through, and now that we got the spot, it doesn't really matter how we got it, right? We just have to focus on the future and remember all the stuff we did wrong at the Minor last week and what we did right, and just keep improving day by day. I think we're definitely on our way to becoming a solid team.

Before arriving, you must have had a look at the pool of contenders for the Play-in and who you would potentially face. What did you think of the teams' performances over the CIS and Asia Minors?

I think CS now is just so competitive, you have so many full-time teams - you can basically lose to anyone if you're not on top of your game. When you see that, sometimes people are not ready for what they're going to meet, and I think that's something we've also talked about. You just have to not give a fuck about who you play - it doesn't matter, all the teams basically do the same things, some just do it better, right? If we just play our own game and mind our own business, I think that's when we play the best CS.

The competition is so stacked and the CIS and the Asia Minor have great teams and great players. It's just a tough competition and you really have to give props to teams like Liquid and Astralis for being that consistent over time, because it's so difficult. I just hope and look forward to the day North will be a team that consistent, and I think one day we'll be there.

Briefly about the match against MVP PK - how comfortable were you going into the series against them? Did you do any extra homework considering how unfamiliar you were with them?

We didn't really do any homework. Torbjørn (mithR) watched some demos, tracked their tendencies and prepared the veto. They ended up picking Nuke, which we thought was pretty weird because we've been working hard on our Mirage, which is not the best map for us, so we expected them to pick that. It's just a comfortable map for us, and we play it pretty well, especially when we start on the CT side. Inferno was just kind of like cruise control, we have been getting good practice on that map and we just play a really good T side. After we work on our CT side, that can be one of our best maps.

I think we felt pretty comfortable, also with the practice we had the week before, we just tried to gain some momentum and gain some confidence in that week, and I think we did pretty good. We just showed who the better team was today.

To conclude - earlier in the tournament, we did an interview with valde in which he mentioned that it was "unrealistic for people to expect him to become one of the greatest IGLs within half a year". As someone who has been at his side over the course of his journey as a captain, tell me how he has evolved since taking on the role. How does he stack up now in comparison to when he just started?

We're also trying to get a bond with him as the captain and in-game leader. He knows what frustrates him, what's on his mind and he knows what he wants, so I think that's a very good thing for him and also for our team, because we can react to certain situations really fast, and that's really really good. Now he's only been captain for like three months or so. It's just about evolving, improving and fixing the mistakes; also trying to get JUGI fired up, and the same with me, Kjaerbye and aizy, we also have to find our playstyle with valde as the captain, and we have to find plays, executes, just grinding our way as a whole new team.

We deleted our whole stratbook from when we had cadiaN back then and implemented new spot names, just getting a fresh start, you know? I'll say that we've been working hard, man, and if we didn't get this spot at the Major, I think I would've been so devastated because we really worked hard for this spot, and I think we really deserved it. We have shown great play and we have shown that we can beat the best teams.

We've been so unlucky in other tournaments with the draw and with how the system was. The group play, going back to Dallas, going back to London, yeah, I can remember so many times that I've been devastated and really sad from not moving forward or getting into playoffs or finals. Now I'm just looking forward to getting back home, a few days off and then hit the practice. We'll practice really hard and just prepare for this Major, because it's going to be so stacked with good teams.