sjuush: "We haven't won a grand final in a long time; I don't expect us to do that again"

HEROIC survived a scary semi-final affair against Imperial and are now heading into their third final of the year hoping to break their unsuccessful streak.

Leading up to their semi-final affair against Imperial, the HEROIC players had decided to take the pressure off by going out on social media and saying in interviews that they expect to lose the bout against the Brazilians, in line with their several exits at the hands of underdogs in recent times.

The Danes ended up coming out on top to secure their place in the grand final, but only just, giving away a 15-7 lead on the deciding Nuke before finally closing it out in overtime, much thanks to a superb Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller 1v2 clutch.

Following the match HLTV caught up with Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck to get his impressions on the crazy finish to the Imperial series, and their chances to break their title-less run dating back to the end of 2022:

Congratulations on making the final. What are your initial impressions after the crazy ending to Nuke?

It felt like we couldn't find a solution, but some crazy individual rounds with Casper doing his sick clutch, which brought us the one T round that we needed, and we were pretty strong on our CT side and pretty confident.

It must have gotten pretty scary at the end there until cadiaN pulled off that clutch.

It definitely was scary. We've seen it before, but this time we closed it (chuckles).

I was talking to cadiaN about your mindset for this semi-final, joking around and accepting this is where you will lose. Tell me about who came up with this - I heard this was you and stavn?

I don't know who brought it up, but I think everyone was into it. We lost so many semi-finals, so many grand finals, why not just make a joke about it and see what happens, and I think it gave us something to joke about, something to bring up the mood when it's hard.

Do you think it actually made any sort of a difference, or was it just about making sure the pressure is a little bit less?

It's just making the pressure a little bit less, but now we are in the grand final and we haven't won a grand final in a long time. I don't really expect us to do that again.

I'm not expecting you to tell me if it's there's any sort of a preference, but what do you expect from either matchup against G2 and Vitality in the grand final?

I think G2 is very eager to show their level. I think they really want this grand final, at least, so I think that could be a fun opponent. But also actually having the Major grand final against Vitality could be fun as well, to put them in their place, kinda. I think I'd rather like to play Vitality, just to prove we're the better team.

Does it also put you in a position of the underdogs if you play against Vitality? They are the team to beat at the moment, and you guys have been making sure you can be in a position of underdogs so that the pressure is off, is that something that adds to that as well?

Yes, but I think, or we think that we are the better team than them. Statistically they are better, they are No.1 in the world, they won the Major as well, so it is less pressure for us and more on them.