casle: "Buzz and jabbi play a lot of the same positions; for us, it was more between Staehr or b0RUP"

All three Astralis players had a chance to remain on the lineup.

Astralis, after a tough pursuit, have their men. Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard and Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund have been signed from HEROIC in a blockbuster move that combines the three highest-rated Danish players of the last 12 months with young guns jabbi and Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr.

The talent-packed roster, however, comes with a need for adjustment: Peter "⁠casle⁠" Ardenskjold confirmed to us that Staehr has been moved to primary anchor, while shuffles are being made to stavn's positions as they solve an overlap with Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer.

casle also took the time to explain the thinking behind the moves, and how the organization decided on Staehr as their fifth over Johannes "⁠b0RUP⁠" Borup and Christian "⁠Buzz⁠" Andersen.

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New Astralis. Tell me how that came about from your point of view.

It's mostly Sports Director [Kasper Straube], but of course, he talks to his coach about which player if we are going to make changes. I said jabbi and stavn.

Tell me about signing stavn, the second in-game leader in Heroic famously. Are you tapping into those leadership qualities? How much of a say does he have?

He's talking a lot, we're trying to do the same. Maybe gonna make him second caller, but I think everyone in the team is taking responsibility for making good calls.

What about in-game? He and blameF overlap a little bit on T side, how are you addressing that?

stavn in Heroic had a lot of T-side roamer roles, but they obviously had an AWP as IGL. In our team he's gonna take more of the map control positions as T side, the ones that Staehr had before. It's a little bit new for him, but I think it's going to go pretty easy actually.

What does that mean for the other players on the T side? For Staehr, say.

When Staehr joined Astralis in the start I tried him in the aggressive map control roles as T, but now I have him sometimes, I have seen maybe I should use him more taking space and being the first guy in. He has very crisp and fast aim, he's taking over b0RUP's role a little bit you can say. More the guy going first in, he's very good at first bullet accuracy, so we're going to use him that way.

What was the decision between him and Buzz. That was the rumored duo, what was the thinking behind the 5th?

I think Buzz and jabbi play a lot of the same positions, so for us, it was more like Staehr or b0RUP. Staehr has so much potential. He hasn't shown it yet, but I see it every day in training. He has a lot more to show.

We only have four days of practice but I can see already that the new roles fit him very well.

Does that include CT side? A lot of fuss was made about signing an anchor like b0RUP to fix role issues. How confident were you that he was able to adapt?

For Staehr, the most difficult one is going to be the CT side one. He will have to take some time to get used to the new roles. stavn is playing a lot of rotations like in Heroic. For Staehr it's a huge task, but I think he's up for it. He's a pretty good player actually, pretty intelligent as well. I think he will manage.

Is that a philosophical approach to team building? How important are roles actually? Are modern players flexible enough?

A lot of players nowadays can play all kinds of roles. It's a little bit set in our roles, I know and blameF knows how everyone plays their roles. We talk about it, but also everyone can go first.

Is that the kind of Heroic-inspired, nominal lurkers as entries, is that the same mentality going forwards, having four flexible riflers? How will that shape up?

I'm not sure that's from Heroic (laughs), but yeah we do that. Sometimes when you are playing the outer position on the map you have to both lurk and entry, and sometimes just to gather some information. So all the players can do that.

From a more pastoral side of coaching, we won't get into all the stavn and jabbi stuff, but how important is it for you to shelter them from what's going on?

Yeah, maybe a little bit. But we know we have only heard one side of the story and that is Heroic's. I am just trying to be there for them as a coach, and blameF and device take a lot of the heat and pressure in matches and stuff like that. I think it's going to be alright. Both stavn and jabbi are cool kids, I think they're going to manage.

How are they adapting to this team environment. Astralis, huge brand, is that an added pressure?

I don't think so. We have just been on a tour around Denmark, that's new. They didn't do that in Heroic so that kind of thing is new for them but other than that I think they are pretty good in the team. We already have nice chemistry, their personalities suit the team very well. In that sense, I think we're pretty good.

What was the reception like in Denmark, for that tour? You can call it a kind of Danish superteam, sorting by rating. What's the atmosphere?

I think it's good. We have the Danish superteam, you called it that. We have five of the best players in Denmark so I agree with that. We have a pretty good team. The Astralis fans like it a lot. Of course, some fans won't like that they came from Heroic but other than that we have a superteam and big excitement in Denmark.

On this event, obviously PGL Copenhagen is a natural building point, where does this event fit into that?

We are just here to try and play together as a team. We had four days of practice, two normal days, and two short days, so we didn't play together too much. We need to bring good energy, and try to talk a lot during the game, so we made some good plans. We don't have the map pool where we want it to be, so we're just here to play together as a good team and see how it takes.