sjuush: "We're not where we want to be, but it's the same for Gambit, so it's going to be interesting"

Heroic are about to kick off their BLAST Premier World Final run against Gambit in a tournament that will close out an incredible year for sjuush.

HEROIC are about to get their final event of the year underway after a packed couple of months, going up against Gambit in their opening match, an old foe during the harsh days of the online era that they haven't faced since April.

The Danes will have to make use of former teammate Johannes "⁠b0RUP⁠" Borup, however, as Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund has been sidelined due to personal reasons and will miss the closing tournament of 2021.

Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck sat down before he and his team take on the CIS squad on Tuesday at 19:30 to talk about the match against Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov and company, having b0RUP as a stand-in, trying to live up to expectations at the last few events of the year and taking a look at what's to come in 2022.

b0RUP has been announced as a last minute addition for this event as stavn will be out for personal reasons. Have you had time to think about how it's all going to happen?

We haven't had much time but Heroic reached No. 1 in the world with b0RUP and he has a lot of talents we can use to our favor. I played with him in Tricked, as well, so I think the only one that hasn't played with him here is refrezh.

We all know each other pretty well and we know each other's play styles well so we know how to get the most out of each other. There may be a few changes in how we play a default, but I think it's the best we can do with this short notice.

How about the CT side, will it be a one for one change?

It'll probably be a surprise for people, I won't tell too much about it.

stavn has been putting up huge numbers for you guys this year, so what are the expectations going into this tournament without him? Are you still contenders?

We can be a strong team even with b0RUP, stavn is an amazing player and he's been playing great this year, so those are some big shoes for b0RUP to fill but I think we can put some great numbers out there and win a few matches if we take it one match at a time.

Looking back you had a semi-final run at the Major, since then do you think you've been living up to expectations? Particularly considering the two rough losses at IEM Winter with many teams in flux during the silly season.

It's been rough the last three months because it's tournament to tournament without much time to breathe. We haven't done what we're expected, like finishing last at IEM Winter, but there was a lot going there as well, we're pretty tired.

At BLAST we expected to go farther than top 4 but we're pretty happy about it as well, it was a huge thing to play in front of a Danish crowd. I don't know, we're all disappointed about Winter but we don't think too much about it because either way we're qualified for IEM Katowice which is pretty much why we wanted to play it in the first place.

You had two tough games with FaZe at those events, winning one and losing the next, what changed the second time around?

I think we knew how they played quite well through all of the matches we've played against them. We had some good anti-strats. I think it's mostly ourselves, the rules we have in the team and how we play the game. We don't hold them up to each other so a small mistake happens and that turns into another small mistake and in the bigger picture everything seems wrong because it's not how we practice or how we play officials. Small things turn to big things, in the end.

Heroic seem like one of the more stable teams right now and you're behind the top teams at the moment but still fighting. What's the mood like inside the team?

Outside of the game we feel really close, we have so much fun together and we enjoy spending time together. The only thing is that between tournaments it's hard to find the time to be alone and reset.

There's no issues when we're together, we play football and have fun, we go out and eat and have amazing talks. We have talks with our mental coach and we talk about our feelings and if things are bothering us to let us know we love each other and want to be there for each other.

We're entering a silly season with a lot of teams making changes to try and dethrone NAVI. There aren't rumors surrounding you guys, so will we see the team remain the same and will you be able to challenge teams that are trying to make upgrades?

I think we can definitely challenge NAVI, for example. They're most likely not going to make changes and we're not going to make changes. There are some teams that will make changes and it may be hard for them to come up and compete against NAVI. I feel like we're close every single time but it's the small things that make a huge difference. I expect us to do good next year, even better than this year.

What makes you think you'll be able to do even better than this year?

The last few months have been rough because we had so many tournaments and not much time to relax and not be stressed about going to the next tournament. This break is going to do a lot of good for us to get away from the game a bit. We spend so much time just watching demos, finding new stuff and being together. It's a lot of good stuff, but it can be hard at times mentally.

I think next year we'll still have the same hunger. We have a lot of good things to look back on this year, ESL Pro League and BLAST and the Major. Those are big titles but not exactly where we want them, we want to win some events and we haven't been there yet but I feel like next year we'll be even closer, if we don't win a trophy.

So you believe you'll be challenging the top dogs. Where do you see the roof for this Heroic lineup? Do you still have room for improvement?

Yeah, obviously we can see some stuff is going wrong since we finished last at IEM Winter and we lost to some teams we shouldn't lose to. There's obviously some things going wrong that we can easily see and we want to fix. We watch demos of ourselves all of the time when we lose to see what we can do to fix those things. Next year is going to be the same, we'll keep focusing on ourselves and looking at what other teams do.

You're opening BLAST World Final against Gambit. You lost against them in the last match you played and before that beat them at the ESL Pro League grand final. How are you going into it?

We played them many, many times, but it's been a while since we played them last. We played them when we were at our peak pretty much. We had a peak at the Major but in Pro League it was when we had just joined the team and it was very fun to play against them because they were so good back then.

I feel like we're not where we want to be right now but it's the same for Gambit, they're not the same as they have been, so it's going to be an interesting match. I think we have a good chance to take it.

Yeah, it seems like Heroic and Gambit have both taken similar paths since the purely online era when you were both at your peaks. And this is going to be on LAN, too... Do you think it's a 50/50 situation or do you see yourselves at a disadvantage having to play with a stand-in?

Yeah, it's going to be fun, but we're definitely underdogs. Since we're with a stand-in we can't exactly play at 100% although b0RUP is still in the system a little bit, but we haven't practiced or played that much so it can be hard if they get a good lead or they get good momentum, it's hard to shut them down from when I last remember playing them. They're good players, as well, but if we just get the momentum going it's going to be good for us.

Last tournament of the year. Looking back at 2021, what's the balance you make of the year?

It's been an amazing year. I've never been playing on a top 5 team for a year and playing in front of a Danish crowd, playing a Major, getting my first sticker, getting the little in-game trophy. It's so weird. It feels amazing and looking at all of the things we achieved compared to me looking at myself one year ago, at lot has happened.

It's also really rare that you can find a team in which you can be yourself 100% and just feel like the other guys have your back and be vulnerable and talk about feelings and cry and just be there for each other without feeling that 'oh, maybe they wouldn't like how I'm acting.' We can just talk about everything and that's really nice.

Heroic comes through as a pretty emotional team, the way you celebrate, and having a guy like cadiaN who is also quite emotional. Would you say it's one of your strengths?

Yeah, a lot of people repress their feelings but we openly talk about them a lot. cadiaN is probably the most emotional guy on the team and I don't see that as a bad thing. Some people trash-talk us in-game like 'you're crying,' but I don't see that as a bad thing. He's so passionate about the game and I love that about him, he wants to win so bad and when he wins, it doesn't even matter who we win against, just a win is amazing for him. That spark in his eye fills you up with energy.

To wrap things up, you're about to get a much-deserved break after a busy calendar, so what is it you're most looking forward to in 2022?

I don't know exactly what tournaments we have, to begin with, but there's IEM Katowice. I just hope everything will be played on LAN in front of a crowd, that's the first thing, we'll have to see with covid and how everything evolves. I was at IEM Katowice 2020, the last event before covid and that was a rough event. It was really weird being there and everything shutting down, so I just hope everything will be better next year tournament-wise. Everyone really needs that, from staff to players, everyone needs to be there again.

The feeling at BLAST Fall Final and the Major, it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. It's so amazing, I miss it.