jabbi on facing cadiaN: "I didn't feel like there was some added pressure"

The Danish rifler is enjoying life under device's leadership.

Astralis have been in a rut ever since their legendary roster slowly fell apart, but have finally hit a purple patch after removing Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer in favor of Alexander "⁠br0⁠" Bro and transferring IGL duties to Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz.

The team reached the semi-finals at their debut tournament, IEM Chengdu, and repeated the feat at ESL Pro League Season 19 after a quarter-final win against Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller's Liquid.

After their victory, Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard joined HLTV to discuss br0's contribution to the roster, the positive mood in the team, and replied to cadiaN's comments about similarities between the old HEROIC and the new Astralis.

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Congrats, it's your second semi-final in a row after Chengdu. How does it feel?

It feels good to make the playoffs two times in a row with the new roster. We've only been to two playoffs, so it's just a really nice feeling, especially when it feels so good to play in-game.

You guys haven't played a lot of Inferno so far, but it looked like you had their number on the T-side, you walked into an empty bombsite about five times. Did it feel like that for you as well?

I think it was good calling by device. We just need to play out the round and listen to him, and if the chaos is going on on B, I know I can lurk on A and try to see if there's anybody there. We just have a really good structure in what we want to do and what we need to do to win, and that's it.

I also wanted to ask about the eco round near the end of Inferno, where you got three spicy Deagle shots. Do you think that was the turning point of the game?

I think we won two rounds where they should have won 10 times out of 10, but I think that's also why we got a really good start on T when we won that round, because the economy for them was really bad then. It's also really tilting for them to lose another round where we only had pistols.

It was also your first matchup against cadiaN. Did you feel a bit different coming into this one compared to other games?

We prepared the same way as we always do. Of course, there were some kind of mind games, I would say, but I didn't feel like there was some added pressure or anything like that, because it's just like every other game. We do the same thing, prepare and warm up the same way, and do all the same things.

Since device took over as IGL, it looks like you are all much more comfortable in your roles, at least from the outside. Does that translate into your feelings as well?

Since he has been the in-game leader, everyone has got the roles they want on T-side and CT-side. There's just a good, I wouldn't say structure, but a really good feeling between everyone and just the chemistry in the team, it's nice.

We are good at listening to him and also making a nice game plan, so we know what to do and what not to do, and yeah, it's going really well at the moment.

How important is having someone like br0 on the team in terms of that? He's playing some of the less desirable roles, but he's still delivering.

He's just a really good player. You can rely on him when he's anchoring a bombsite, you know that he will kill someone. So when you rotate, you just know that he will get at least one or two, it's a nice feeling.

He's fitting really well in the positions and the amount of space that he wants in the team, which is perfect because we have some players that want a bit more space. It's just a perfect mix of everything, I would say.

You are a new team, so do you expect it to get harder to win in the future when teams adapt to your playstyle?

I don't think so, to be honest, because we played FaZe three times already and we've been to two tournaments. They should have been able to prepare when we played them, it's another feeling you get then. I think we have a big strat book, so it's really hard to know what we want to do in the round.

You said you played FaZe three times, you might play them again. Are you ready for them or Vitality?

If we play FaZe again, it's going to be the fourth time, two times in both tournaments we played. It's just weird when we play a team so much, but we won two out of three, so let's hope we can make it three out of four. Vitality is also a strong team, so it's just two strong teams we will go up against, either it's FaZe or it's ZywOo, so yeah, it's a tough matchup.

cadiaN spoke to HLTV in Chengdu about seeing some similarities between the old HEROIC and this new Astralis. You both have an AWP IGL, so similarities will occur, but did you and stavn bring some of that style, especially since device took over as IGL? Do you have more of a say on the game plan now?

Yeah, I would say so. We bring the things to the table that we think can work in the game, so he is right. There are a lot of things from HEROIC, but that's just the philosophy on how to play CS. I think he has the same philosophy as us.