cadiaN: "It still haunts me that we lost to Outsiders in that Major final"

The Danish IGL discussed HEROIC's adaptation to LAN play after the end of the COVID-induced online era in episode two of a three-part interview series.

The second episode of HEROIC's interview series with Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller chronicled HEROIC's journey as Counter-Strike returned to LAN play following the COVID-induced online era, beginning with IEM Cologne 2021. Losses to Astralis and FaZe meant the team exited prior to the playoffs, but cadiaN was measured in his reaction.

"We had a rough transition to LAN at the beginning," the Danish IGL admitted. "It was not awful, we still played good CS on some maps and beat some good teams, but we didn’t hit our ceiling at all the same way. Gradually it got better, and the Stockholm Major was where we really felt ‘We can do this.’"

It wasn’t long after Cologne that HEROIC brought Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström into the fold as their coach, and cadiaN spoke about how the experience of the Swedish legend helped the team adjust to LAN. "He helped us perform at the Stockholm Major," cadiaN began.

"He is such an experienced guy, he has tried this multiple times, playing in these arenas. It gave us some calmness to know that we have a guy behind us that knows what he’s talking about, and if he does a timeout, we can trust him. So he definitely did help us a lot in the early stages of the LAN transition."

The interview eventually turned to the hostile reception HEROIC received at the BLAST Fall Final 2021, particularly when they played against Astralis. cadiaN was not impressed by the behaviour. “Obviously the Astralis fans loved beating us in the arena, and there were of course more Astralis fans than Heroic,” the 28-year-old stated.

"It’s one thing to cheer for the other team, it’s another to boo us, they also booed FaZe and karrigan when they played against Astralis, and they also booed NIP and device. When you boo karrigan, and device, and all of Heroic, what are you even doing on home soil? I get you want to cheer for the other team, that’s fine, but you need to recognize device brought you four Majors and was your best player for so many years, and karrigan was part of that project and has done so much for the Danish scene as well."

cadiaN recounted how, after HEROIC couldn't match their online era form when LAN play returned, he knew change was needed. "I think after Katowice," he stated. "That’s when I knew that at some point, we were going to have to change.”

“I knew that when the right option came, we would have to make a change. I still believed we could do good things and solve the issue as the five players and the coach, yes we changed refrezh but it was not just his mistake, it was a team thing. One guy’s communication can obviously swing things, but if four others are communicating great, the one guy is going to get better information and overview, so it was a team thing.”

Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard was the player that HEROIC turned to in order to improve their fortunes, but cadiaN states it was not necessarily a straightforward decision to bring the young Dane into the fold.

"He had a lot of games where he was showing a lot of body language and not looking like a good teammate," cadiaN said. "So we had some worries with him that we had to address before getting him on. When we signed him, our communication got instantly better, because he was really good at communicating."

After a period of adjustment immediately after jabbi's arrival, HEROIC's LAN form began to improve steadily, and this led to what cadiaN called one of the proudest moments of his time in HEROIC. The match he refers to came at the IEM Rio Major 2022.

"The FURIA semi-final of the Major is definitely one of the games, maybe the game, that I am the most proud of that we played during my Heroic time." cadiaN reminisced. "We went into that arena, which was the most crazy maybe any esports tournament has ever seen, the amount of noise they could make in a 360 arena. People have to think about that, this was not just all the sound coming in front if you, it was everywhere you looked."

Unfortunately for cadiaN, one of the biggest regrets of his career is also associated with the Rio Major. "It still haunts me that we lost to Outsiders in that Major final," cadiaN lamented.

"Not that they are a bad team, because they played incredible, FL1T and fame were so good, hitting so many headshots, n0rb3r7 and Qikert were playing their roles to perfection, and Jame is Jame you know, he does his thing and it works. So the utmost respect for the way the played and how they did it, but it’s probably going to be hard to find a better chance of winning a Major and lifting the trophy, so I still have some nightmares about that."

The episode ended with discussion of HEROIC's first significant LAN trophy, which came on home soil at the BLAST Premier Fall Final 2022. "Probably the best moment of my career, lifting the trophy on home turf with all the people I love around me. To share this with the team and the organization, all this, it was unbelievable."