Staehr on the Major: "It didn't feel like we got fully owned there"

Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr spoke about the team in high-pressure situations and the difficulties of communication in an international lineup.

From Rio to Espoo, Sprout has gone from an underdog at the Major to a favorite at Elisa Masters. The Danish-majority side got off to a good start in Finland, beating HEET closely in their first game and then only dropping one map to go 3-1 heading into the final match. Sprout faced GamerLegion in a late match where a loss meant they might not make it through to playoffs and a win saw them top the group.

In a three-overtime affair, Sprout beat GamerLegion to make their way into the semi-finals on the back of an impressive display from Staehr, who dropped 42 kills. After the long match, the young Dane spoke about the mentality of the roster, the experience gained from IEM Rio Major, and the struggles of communications in an international roster.

When you came into this event were you expecting to make the semi-finals and to end up at the top of your group?

To top the group we didn't really expect, we were of course hoping for it. There are tough opponents in the group but we expected to qualify, as we had some pretty good hopes and it ended well.

Going into that final game there was a possibility that if you won you topped the group but if you lost you could have been out of qualification, what was your mentality going into that game?

Before the game we were like "we might qualify, we might not we don't know, even with three wins" but we just don't think about it. We think about it like a normal game and we are here to win, we don't care about losing, we just need to win and that was what we focused on.

In that game there were three overtimes, which must take a toll on your mental game, how were you able to pull yourselves together to win?

When it went to overtime the first time, refrezh, who is very experienced, talked about how it was okay. He was getting us back to mentally being okay and then after two overtimes when it was 21-21, he was like "now it's a mental game, we just need to be ready and be focused and then we win." Everybody was hyped still and mentally ready, and that's how we ended it.

Let's talk about IEM Rio Major as it was so recent, how was your experience there, and did getting a win in the Legends stage boost your teams confidence?

It was a very nice experience, my first ever Major and my first ever time in Brazil. It was a super nice place and a nice tournament. One win was nice, we didn't want to go 0-3 but when we met Spirit and I think we would have met MOUZ in the last game, we kind of had to hope to actually win one or two more games but it's still two very good teams. One win was definitely nice, it didn't feel like we got fully owned down there since we actually gave NIP a fight.

When you were there you were an underdog, you were written off as a 0-3 in a lot of pickems, and now you are here at Elisa Masters Espoo as one of the favorites. What is it like to go from underdog to favorite in two different events?

I don't know what the other guys really think but for me it doesn't matter, I don't really feel any pressure if I'm the biggest underdog or the biggest favorite, it's still just a game and an opponent we have to beat. Of course, when you are underdogs you don't really expect anything which is the only thing that is different if you expect to win or don't expect to win. Mentally, it's just the same, it's just an opponent and you just have to play your game and you'll win.

What did you learn the most at the Major as a team?

Playing against the good teams, we do it in praccs, but you learn a lot more when you get punished and why you get punished against the better teams. Online some teams are decent but it's not the same at all as tier one and tier two teams at LAN, so you learn when you get punished by the good players. Let's say today's games, with BIG and ENCE being tier one teams I would say and we learned a lot against teams like that at the Major.

Would you say there is one specific thing your team needs to improve on for you to take the step into tier one?

I talked about the mentality, today it was pretty good for example in overtime but overall I would say the team mentality in the close games when we get stressed and frustrated, that is our biggest weakness.

You mentioned getting stressed, English is a second language for most if not all of you on the team, does it get hard to communicate in those stressful moments?

Of course it gets hard, in that overtime, I will tell you that it is good but in a lot of rounds, we still got stressed because the round was so intense. In overtime a lot of random stuff happens and when the communication has to be fast, normally we just begin shouting and we have to say "calm down, let's play this with control." In this game, we were very good, so if we keep going like this it will be very nice in the future.

What are your expectations now for the rest of this tournament?

I won't say we expect to win but I definitely hope to win, I know there are still very good teams, and also we will see who qualifies in the other group tomorrow. I can't say we expect to win but we have okay chances and I hope so, but at least let's hope we can win the semi-final, that will be nice.