sjuush: "The biggest thing is the mental side"

Heroic started the Elimination Stage by beating FaZe, but crumbled to a 1-3 finish on home soil.

Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck and HEROIC are out of the Major after a crushing 2-0 defeat to paiN. The Danish-Majority squad saved face by recovering map two from 0-12 to 9-13, but were understandably crushed by the manner of their defeat.

It had started so well, too, with a win over FaZe on day one before a bruising overtime defeat to an Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski-inspired Complexity knocked them off-track.

sjuush did point to improvements both in-game and mentally compared to IEM Katowice, but there is still lots to do, he tells HLTV.

"René "⁠TeSeS⁠" Madsen and I have a lot of solutions for [the mental side], because we've been through pretty much everything there is in CS, mentally. But it's also up to the [other] players if they want to keep learning or if they want to take it in."

The new team will now have a few weeks off, before IEM Chengdu kicks off on April 8.

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How are you feeling?

Disappointed. But I don't really know what to think, to be honest. We had some good plans, we knew how to read them, especially on Nuke. Our T side was awful, we were close in some rounds but didn't manage to close them. On Nuke, we had a 4v2, we knew what the plan was, but we were too afraid of acting on the plan, of taking that extra step, or just taking some chances now and then, pushing together. There were so many things we could have done, but we just stood still and let them take the space they wanted.

Do you think it was a bit of a pressure thing, coming in as favorites. Is that harder to deal with?

I don't know if it was pressure, I didn't feel like it was pressure compared to some of the other games we played. But I guess it was pressure, in the end.

That 12-0 start, what was going on? Did it feel like they completely changed what you prepped for, or something?

I felt like they did what we knew they would do, from anti-strat. We had some afterplants that were really good for us but we gave them too much space, or peeked too much, and then gave that opening frag that could start the retake. It's hard to say, I have so many thoughts in my head.

Do you think it was that Complexity game? You can kind of draw a line, before and after, where it seemed like a different Heroic. What do you think?

I definitely think it affected us a little. In my head, we should have won that game 10/10 times. I don't know what went wrong. In general, we lack... the ability to listen to each other, and acting on those things. There have been a bunch of times where something is open and they don't hear it, or don't react to it, and get punished by it. It's the smallest details, where we're saying it but not listening to it or reacting to it.

Is that a case of just, new team, new partnerships, you and TeSeS speaking English now? What's that down to?

I don't think we have the best experience in those kinds of matches. Also, we are a new team, there have been tournaments pretty much every single week. It's a lack of practice as well. Also, being a new team without much practice, it's hard to know exactly what your teammate is thinking. If he's not 100% clear, it's hard to react to it.

Just on the makeup of the team. It's kind of set up around NertZ and nicoodoz in-game, but how do you see your role? It seems like there is a bit more of an onus on you than in the last Heroic.

Yeah, TeSeS and I are way more vocal now. We've taught the other guys so much already. Compared to the team before, there were so many voices that there wasn't really space for us to talk as well. We have way more space here, way more impact, and I think we've taught them way more things about how to react, how to think of the game from a new perspective, and how to be as a team outside of the server as well. We have a lot of experience in that way, but it's going to take time. Pretty much all of them — NertZ, kyxsan, nicoodoz, —haven't been to as many LANs, haven't played against as many good teams as TeSeS and I. We have a big responsibility to teach them.

How has that fusion of styles gone? sAw gets a lot of praise, as does kyxsan, but there is a lot from you two as well. It was going so well, but when the going gets tough, is it hard with so many different schools of CS at work?

The biggest thing, I think, is the mental side when we go into a match. TeSeS and I have a lot of solutions for that, [laughs], because we've been through pretty much everything there is in CS, mentally. We have a lot of problem-solving in that way, but it's also up to the players if they want to keep learning or if they want to take it in, so they have a responsibility themselves.

Overall, it's hard to say in the moment, but will you be able to look back on this positively? Looking at some of the results you did get, can you see a building block for a really good team in the future?

There has definitely been a lot of progress. If I think back on Katowice, the way we lost, it was crazy the way we lost. From then, to here, it's a completely different roster. Especially mentally, we're way better. In-game wise, we're way better too, at reacting to things, helping each other, and coming up with solutions. When we look back, there is a lot of positives to look back on. But, [laughs], it's really hard to be positive right now.