NertZ: "Maybe it's delusional, but I believe we can be in Spodek"

The Israeli star believes that his team is growing with each game.

HEROIC got their IEM Katowice campaign off to a great start after beating Astralis 13-11 in a high-octane Mirage game. Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski's troops delivered a much-improved performance after a disappointing showing at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups, where they were trounced by Cloud9 before a close series against BIG.

After the match, Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz spoke with HLTV about the rivalry between HEROIC and Astralis and his team's recent improvements. The former ENCE star believes that there are positive signs that the team can make it to the playoff stages of the event. "From game to game, I believe we will be better and better," he said.

I know that, for you, Astralis wasn't such a big match-up as for the organization, where there's a lot of history. Tell me about your mindset heading into the match, especially after the BLAST Groups, where you struggled.

It's a bit sad to say it, but in BLAST I didn't feel tournament vibes, it was like a qualification for an event. When I came here to Katowice, I finally had this excitement. Obviously, when I saw that the Danish players in my team wanted to win it, I wanted to do everything to win it.

How was the match itself? You had good starts to both halves but then struggled in gun rounds. How did you turn it around from there?

I think we had a really good game plan. I feel like this is the third match in a booth that we are playing, and we didn't have a lot of control outside of the game, I would say, like TeamSpeak communication. But we learn from game to game.

How has it been going with Heroic so far? You were just saying that you've been bootcamping for a month. It's been such a big grind for you. You had to go from the open and the closed qualifiers. You had some issues there, but was that to be expected considering this is an entirely new team?

We didn't set goals for this IEM Katowice. We just wanted to make sure we aren't losing ourselves or our minds. We want to keep playing the same way we are playing in practice, and we are working on it. I see we are in a good direction. I would say, maybe it's delusional thinking, but I believe we can be in Spodek.

But I meant the start of the team. Was it to be expected that you were going to struggle in the online qualifiers?

I don't think we struggled in the online qualifiers. We bootcamped for over a month from the beginning of January, and it's really hard, let's be honest. When you're out and you don't see your family and friends, it's a bit hard, but we are working on it. The open qualifiers went smoothly, in my opinion, the closed qualifiers, too. BLAST was unfortunate. Here, I hope it will be good.

You've said that sAw was a big reason to make the move to Heroic. Why was he such a big factor for you?

The best part about him is that he's creative. There's no black and white. If we have a problem he will try to find a solution that no one will think about. The way he knows when to say something and how to say it. For me, he's the best coach I could ever have.

Tell me about the identity of this team. You have players coming from all over the place - the two original Heroic players are the closest you have to a core, everyone else came in from different teams. What's been the development like in finding your identity and how to play?

Right now, I would say we are struggling with communication. We are working on it, we always try to get a solution and talk about this kind of stuff, the small, mini communication, to be on the same page. Right now, we are struggling with it. In three months, I feel it will be better.

It is sjuush and TeSeS' first time playing in international lineups. Are there problems with getting them up to speed in terms of communication?

No, no. I feel like it is going really smoothly for the Danish players, TeSeS and sjuush. I feel like they've been on international teams for more than four years. It is going pretty well.

You already said you believe you can make it to the arena here. That is an ambitious goal for a team that has just started playing, especially considering you didn't have the best of starts on LAN in BLAST Groups. It looks like you have a poor floor, we saw that against Cloud9, but now you've managed to beat a team that many have high expectations for in Astralis. How do you find some consistency to get there?

I believe we are playing better and better with each game. The first game was against Cloud9, we just played badly, to be honest. Against BIG, you saw a little bit of good CS, but still not enough, and right now against Astralis, I think they are a really good team, and we played really well against them. From game to game, I believe we will be better and better. That's why I believe we can be in Spodek.