device: "I really enjoyed the eye contact, the head-to-head thing, in the group stage"

Mr. Consistent took some time to speak with HLTV after Astralis qualified for the playoffs of IEM Cologne.

Astralis arrived in Germany after getting off to a somewhat shaky start with their new roster at the BLAST Fall Groups, dropping close series to Natus Vincere and BIG before recovering in the Knockout Stage with wins over Complexity and Liquid to qualify for the Fall Final.

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The Danish team added Johannes "⁠b0RUP⁠" Borup and Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr during the off-season and benched long-time in-game leader Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander, with Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer taking up leadership duties in his stead. The recent changes and results in Copenhagen meant that expectations of Astralis weren't too high coming into Cologne, especially with them residing in a stacked group that included Vitality, G2, FaZe, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and MOUZ.

The team around Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz managed to impress and make it through their group despite that, however, initially falling to an in-form G2 before recovering in the lower bracket with wins over Ninjas in Pyjamas, MOUZ, and Natus Vincere to qualify for the Lanxess Arena.

Throughout the group stage, teams were shouting back and forth at each other thanks to the frosted glass player setups from ESL, and the usually more-subdued device was one of the louder and more frequent participants in that playful atmosphere. device spoke to HLTV during the media day between the group stage and playoffs about playing in that environment, and touched on the team's recent changes and their performance in Cologne so far. The Danish AWPer stated that the team might have "overachieved" a little bit with their playoff qualification, and added that rather than focusing on a particular result or goal, his dream has been just to play in the arena as he hasn't played in one for quite some time.

Made it to the LANXESS, a little bit above expectations in that tough a group?

Of course, we feel really good. I think we overachieved maybe a little bit, but the most important thing is that we kept our focus on one game at a time, trying to leave everything we have on the server energy-wise. Now we're here, we have to appreciate that as well.

What's blameF like as an IGL? In your dust2.dk interview you talked about how into the meta he really is, how hard he works, is that a big positive?

Yes, I would say. He knows everything about everyone and watches all the CS there is. It's one of his biggest strengths, other than that I think he's really good in general on the T side, how you manipulate the map, and how you call mid-round, early-round, how to default and set up people. I think he has all the aspects of being a good IGL.

And how about casle as coach. You had that weird structure before with two coaches, now it's just him. How much say does he have now?

Definitely, I think he's really good. He's grown a fair bit over the last month with more responsibility, bringing more clear leadership. In-game he's really innovative, he's really smart, but he's also good with different personalities of the team, making everyone work hard but also letting them take care of themselves and stuff like that. He's really good at reminding us of stuff we work on as a unit, when we are playing the games, in the timeouts and so on. I think he's doing a really good job.

Another part of the structure changed over the break, Kasper Hvidt leaving and Kasper Straube coming in. What's he like?

The biggest difference is basically that he is way more hands-on. He's here with us, seeing the day-to-day, how the energy is, how people are working and stuff like that. The core difference. He's also a little bit more into CS and the whole CS world since he traveled with Heroic. I think he's really good, I'm getting positively surprised when I talk with him or we work together with the team. Big kudos to him, a big steal [smiles].

Is it a bit sweeter to get him from Heroic?

Yes and no, honestly. I don't really care about his history other than that he is coming from a team that is really good and really respected. It just shows there is some merit to what he is doing, that's really nice. I don't think about where he comes from, or if he is taking stuff that he has used before or whatever, it's just about how this unit works. He's not really trying to copy what he has done before, it's so individually based, the different people in the group. Even changing one person changes the dynamic completely.

On playing Heroic, was there a part of you that wished it could come a bit earlier and had a bit of a shouting match?

Maybe? I really enjoyed the eye contact, the head-to-head thing, in the group stage. Did I wish we faced them earlier? I'm not sure about that, but in general I just enjoyed that environment, it was a really good setup by ESL. It's way more enjoyable, it gives more depth into the game.

More on the in-game part, it's so easy for us to play into the narrative of the big rivalry, how big is it within the team?

I wouldn't say so, I haven't heard much especially from the new guys. I've never really been a part of it, the rivalry started after I left for NIP, I don't really think too much about it. I do have a lot of respect for them, they've done a lot of stuff that has changed the meta in-game. They are a well-functioning unit outside of the game, I think they are a great team. We're both Danish teams so the narrative is obviously going to be Danish derby or whatever. Maybe in the future it will be like that for me as a player, but I don't really know if anyone thinks like that. It could only be blameF but I promise you he doesn't care too much.

They are the meta-defining team right now. You've taken a few things from them, like everyone has, the aggressive lurkers who become entry fraggers and things like that. How much are they a good blueprint?

It's been like that for a while. Ever since the past six months, even dating way more back, even a year, they have been working that way ever since jabbi joined the team. Every other team is also doing it that is functioning well. Everyone has a little bit of Heroic in them, it's like that with all teams, it goes the same with how Vitality play as well.

All the teams steal a little bit, or get inspired, by each other. I think that's the best way to put it. You look at all the top teams and you try to see okay, what's working, what's the meta. Heroic have obviously been really good with the CT re-aggressions and the T aggressive lurkers whereas you look at some of the other teams that are really good at using their utility and, there's a lot of teams that do stuff and you take away what you feel like fits your team the most.

What do you think about the meta right now? It's in a weird place with CS2 upcoming, a few people have called it stagnant, what's your take?

I don't think its stagnant. I would say that it's individually based a lot, but it's also a bit slow-paced I would say. I think that more so than ever, there's a lot more thought going into utility and manipulation on maps. That's how I view it at least. I think I have a good understanding on how to play the T side and help blameF a lot, because I have seen some gaps myself that we use a lot. So, that's how I view it, I think the utility is a little bit underplayed in the media or whatever but I think it's a big part of how you block a site, and re-aggress on stuff. It's more apparent to the top teams, that's one of the core elements right now.

With the Major having so many upsets, why do you think Cologne has fewer? Is it due to utility; is the Major a perfect breeding ground for upsets? This top six is more what you would expect.

Aside from us yeah, I think this top six is what you would expect. I think two best-of-ones in one day at the Major is really stupid in my opinion, so you naturally have way more upsets in that way. Also, all teams went through a period when they accepted that the top 30 teams can all beat each other if they're not playing good that day.

For us, we realized that pretty quickly playing a lot of online CS. We could beat the teams that went to the Major final but also lose against some other teams. I think there is more respect even from the top one team down to the top twenty, top thirty. That naturally makes you prepared for some of the YOLO plays. Their whole chaos element of like, when the Ts are executing and CTs swarm the site and chaos it, that threw a lot of teams off earlier whereas now you know that okay, just because you put a smoke down doesn't mean that they won't flash two CTs through it.

The LANXESS has been a bit of a bogey ground for Astralis. Like you said, top six might already be a bit of an overachievement, but are you letting yourselves dream of breaking that curse?

For me, the dream is just to be in the arena. It's been a long time since I've been in such a big arena, maybe even before COVID.

Stockholm?

Yeah, I think Cologne is way bigger from what I've heard as well. But yeah, around that time. So for me it's just about enjoying all the moments in there, trying to play some good CS but just do our thing. We're not the favorites this time around, 2018, 2019, maybe we were, but who knows, maybe we can do a really sick underdog story.

We've already done a job that way, to go all the way through we have to win five BO3s and a BO5 in a row, that's really tough. You rarely see even the top two teams do that. Maybe it's a bit of a stretch but we're focussing on the quarter-final, if it's the semi-final then we will focus on that. Who knows?