sjuush: "It can be pretty random who's going to win the tournament"

HEROIC head into the IEM Rio Major playoffs confident they can do well after showing solid form in the Legends Stage.

HEROIC made it to the third consecutive Major playoffs on day four of the IEM Rio Major Legends Stage, beating Liquid in a 2-1 series to lock their spot in the Jeunesse Arena.

The team around Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller went 3-1 in the Swiss format, suffering their only loss to a strong-looking Cloud9 team, and now head into the playoffs confident they can do well there, Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck said in an interview with HLTV.org following HEROIC's qualification.

"We just had an off-match against Cloud9, but I feel our form is really good as well. We won 14 out of 16 matches before this one, so I'm pretty confident that we can do well," sjuush said.

The Dane talked about the competition HEROIC will face in the playoffs and the lack of two big names in FaZe and Vitality, saying it's difficult to see a clear favorite at the moment.

"It's super weird that there are no big teams, I feel like. It can be pretty random who's going to win the tournament. Even if NAVI goes to playoffs, I still feel like it can be random. I don't feel like they're the favorites, at all."

In the interview, sjuush also discussed his team's match against Liquid and their CT-side issues in the previous bout against Cloud9. Read it in full below:

You made it to the playoffs, congratulations. This is the third time in a row for you, right?

Yeah, third time in a row. We talked about it before the match, or when we went 2-0, that it could be fun to do it three times in a row. Not many teams have done that, I think it's only FURIA and Spirit who has done that, I'm not sure, 100% that FURIA has at least.

This was a very back and forth series against Liquid. First of all, I'd like to get your thoughts on the veto. Was it surprising not to see them go for their comfort picks, Inferno or Ancient?

No, not really, we talked about it before and we were pretty sure they were going to pick Vertigo. But we thought it wasn't going to be a smart move by them if they do it, because they lost the last three Vertigos. We were pretty prepared if they were going to pick Inferno. If they picked Inferno, it's our comfort, as well.

Same with Overpass instead of Ancient?

Yeah, it's like against Outsiders, we went for Overpass against them even though they won the last three and we have 33% win rate on it. We just go for our comfort and we just know we're just better on it.

You had a rough start on Mirage and couldn't get back into the game. What happened there?

I think it was just some unlucky rounds. We got shot through smokes and we just stressed situations too much. We want to win too fast sometimes. There was one time where we got the site and we just went instantly for the plant without getting any control and we didn't react according to plan. Just the smallest things that didn't go our way.

You seemed to have Overpass under control until it got to the second half, where you had a hard time dealing with their aggression on the CT side. What happened in those first seven rounds and what did you need to adjust to finally break through?

I think we just slowed down the game a little bit in the end. We lost a few rounds on playing slow, as well, where cadiaN was like 'guys, if we get blocked, you have to hold our back' after they got at least three of us in the back. After that, we just played some good defaults and cadiaN had some good reads where we went B, got blocked, and just ran A from underground with just 20 seconds left, and there was only one A. It was good reads from cadiaN and just in general good defaults.

Can you tell me about your loss to Cloud9 on the previous day and why you struggled on the CT sides against them?

We've been joking that the T side hasn't really affected us that much. Our CT side just sucked yesterday, there was a lot of things that went wrong. The agreements with your site partner and the overall agreements between the strats and all of that, everything was just wrong, we couldn't really get going and the hype wasn't there. It was a bunch of small things that became a bigger problem. We talked about it yesterday and went through it, people got their feelings out, and everything was just way better. We were there on the server today.

What is your outlook for the playoffs? A lot of the big teams are missing, FaZe, Vitality didn't make it, NAVI we're still waiting to see if they will. What are your expectations for that?

It's super weird that there are no big teams, I feel like. It can be pretty random who's going to win the tournament. Even if NAVI goes to playoffs, I still feel like it can be random. I don't feel like they're the favorites, at all.

Do you see any favorite whatsoever? What about Cloud9?

Yeah, definitely Cloud9 is in the best shape of all the teams here. They struggled through the Challengers Stage, but they made a comeback every single game and they just owned in the Legends Stage, so there's not really much to say about their form, they're playing good. But I feel like our form as well, we just had an off match against them, but I feel our form is really good as well. We won 14 out of 16 matches before this one, so I'm pretty confident that we can do well.