Xizt: "We got the monkey off our back, not being able to perform on stage"

HEROIC's coach is confident his team will carry their momentum from the Major throughout the BLAST Premier Fall Final.

HEROIC are one of the few teams in Copenhagen that didn't disappoint at the IEM Rio Major; n fact, they did quite the opposite by marching all the way to the grand final, taking down the likes of Liquid, Spirit and FURIA en route.

They have maintained their excellent form here in Denmark, defeating Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-1 off the back of some fantastic T sides to open their campaign at the BLAST Premier Fall Final with a victory.

Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström spoke to HLTV to give his thoughts on HEROIC's positive start and reflect on their run at the Major, as well as what the runner-up result means for the team going forwards.

If we just take a look at Inferno first, you started quite dominantly on that map and then let the Ninjas back into it. Why do you think they were able to come back?

Yeah like you said we got a really good start, but then they got like five or six rounds in a row, something like that, obviously I have to rewatch the game to see what happened. It felt like they went for some set executes, we kind of knew where they were coming and we usually got the first and second kill when they executed, but then we kinda repeeked too much and they killed us, and then won the after-plants. I think we did a pretty solid T side, it's just that we dropped the ball on CT and we could have closed it out with at least 10 rounds.

Moving on to Ancient, you had an incredible T side on that map and it's a map where a lot of teams struggle on the T side. Why do you think you were able to be so effective?

I think we've had a really good T side for a long time. Yes, against FURIA we almost blew a 15-4 lead or something like that, but I think against FURIA we also had really good executes, we got into 3v3s and 4vs4s with the bomb down, but we just couldn't convert. This time obviously we did convert, I think cadiaN called a really good Ancient T, we played back and forth, getting the bomb down with like four or five seconds, good old Heroic CS. Everything clicked.

You also had quite a dominant T side on Overpass, what do you think happened on that half of that map?

I would say it was kind of similar to how it was on Ancient, the only difference was that we didn't really know where their positions were going to be, it was their first game on Overpass with the new lineup and new IGL. We just had to focus on ourselves and do whatever has worked in practice basically, and yeah it paid off, cadiaN called a really good T half there as well.

If I could just ask a couple of more general questions about Heroic and your run at the Major, obviously it was fantastic to finish in second place, how do the team feel about their Major run?

After the loss in the final everyone was really tilted and we were devastated, especially because we didn't really show any Heroic CS, we played very differently than what we usually do. Obviously looking back now we had a really good run at the Major, we were the only team that could beat FURIA against an amazing crowd there, I think that's something we can be proud of. We also got the monkey off our back, not being able to perform on stage especially when we have a crowd against us, now we did that. We played in total I think six games on stage, which is huge for us because we are such a young team so a lot of experience, and second place at our third Major. We can be proud of that.

Are you confident that you can carry that momentum on now into the last couple of events of the year, but maybe also into next year? Do you think Heroic can stay in the very top of the rankings?

Yeah 100%. That's also something that we're talking about all the time before tournaments, or during a tournament, that we are in really good shape right now we just need to keep working, keep doing good prep no matter who we play against. 100% we are feeling really confident.

One last question, how are you feeling about the FaZe game? Obviously you are going to be playing them in the upper bracket.

You don't really know where you have FaZe right now, they obviously had a really dominating win against OG so they looked good today. They have some really good players so I think it's going to be a good game.