Xizt's final Heroic interview: "Super proud of what we have achieved"

The Swedish coach reflected on his time with the organization and said that he is keeping his options open.

HEROIC were sent packing from the BLAST Premier World without winning a single map following 0-2 defeats to FaZe and MOUZ. The Danish team ends 2023 with plenty of question marks surrounding it, amid reports that the organization is after ENCE’s core and Eetu "⁠sAw⁠" Saha as head coach.

For Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström, the defeat marks the end of his tenure in charge of HEROIC. He joined the organization in October 2021 as an analyst and interim coach, turning what was a temporary position into a permanent role just five months later. During his time at the helm, HEROIC won two Big Events, played a Major final and reached the semi-finals at two other Majors.

In a post-match interview, Xizt reflected on his two-year tenure with HEROIC, admitting that he felt it had run its course after the recent changes. He also touched on his future, opening the door to a Swedish project “if that’s a possibility.”

If you can't see the Soundcloud embed above, the audio version of the interview can be found here.

---

A 2-0 defeat was probably not the way in which you wanted your Heroic tenure to end. But, all things considered, it was still a pretty decent showing from your team, don’t you think?

Yeah. I’m still proud of the boys. I think these last three or four months, however long it has been, have been hard for everyone, kind of being in the unknown about what’s going to happen and just trying to repair everything that has happened, right? I’m still proud that we put up a good fight against FaZe yesterday. And yeah, it was rough.

Can you reflect a little bit on your last two years with Heroic? You joined the organization as an analyst, then transitioned to a coaching role, first as a temporary coach and then on a temporary basis. Can you walk me through those years, with some ups and downs and also some good title wins?

First of all, it was very difficult, from being a player to being a coach. I didn’t expect it to be that hard, but I got really good help from the performance staff at Heroic, primarily Troels [Robl], who is now with NIP, and Kasper Straube as well. We built a really good relationship, and I think I kind of grew into the role more and more and became more comfortable. The last 12 months have been much more comfortable for me, compared to my first few events. I’m really proud of the CS that we have shown these past 12, 18 months, since jabbi joined the team. I think we really took another step.

It’s, of course, unfortunate that we could only win two out of five finals. I really would have loved to win that Major final, but, as I said, I’m really proud of the guys. They have developed into star players who can perform on stage, which was an issue for us at the start. Super proud of what we have achieved with Heroic.

Talking about your decision to leave Heroic. Did you think that your time with the team and the organization had run its course after two years? Especially considering that the team is going to change a lot, maybe it was time for you to try something new and for the team to do the same?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, you could kind of feel that, after we lost Casper [cadiaN] and then we lost stavn and jabbi as well, it was not going to be the same team, no matter how we tried to repair it. So it kind of felt right to move on.

There are a lot of rumors about Heroic going international and picking up some players from ENCE. Considering the current state of the Danish scene, do you think that going international is a good move on Heroic’s part?

I mean, I think there is a lot of Danish talent out there, for sure, if you wanted to go that way. But I also know that Heroic probably want to win now, considering how good we were the last 18 months, going top 4 all the time. So I think they want to continue that. And if it’s true that they want to pick up the ENCE core, I think that’s a good move. They were very consistent before Snappi left, I think they played four finals or something like that, which is very impressive. I think SunPayus and NertZ are elite players.

About your own future: Have you already had any offers? What kind of project and team do you see yourself joining?

I really want to continue coaching. I haven’t really looked that much into my options. I think most of the top teams have already locked in their rosters for the upcoming Major. If I don’t get something that I feel is right, I will just wait until maybe after the Major. I also think a passion project, to work with a Swedish team, [would be interesting], if that’s a possibility. I think it could be hard to get that done, so let’s see what happens.