Staehr on semi-final curse: "The MongolZ game was kind of a choke"

The Danish rifler is enjoying life under device's leadership and says the team hopes to break the curse soon.

Astralis have been on an upward trajectory ever since Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz took over in-game leadership, but the Danes still have one more obstacle to overcome. While the improvement is visible in many facets of the game, the team has failed to make it past the semi-finals at their four events together.

Their latest heartbreak came at YaLLa Compass, where they were defeated by eventual champions The MongolZ in a close-fought three-map series, a result Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr branded as "a bit of a choke."

In an interview with HLTV at the BLAST Premier Spring Final media day, Staehr touched on their semi-final curse and the difference between device's and Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer's calling styles among a plethora of different topics.

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You got to a lot of semi-finals recently. Do you still see that as a positive because you have a new IGL and a new player, or are you getting to the point where you want to take the next step?

In general, it's a positive sign that we get to all the playoffs and get to the semi-finals, but as you said, it's kind of frustrating to always lose the semi-finals. We hope to make it further than that very soon, but you'll always be happy to reach the playoffs, right? Because sometimes you'll have some off tournaments and won't even make it to the playoffs. It's a mixed feeling because you also want to make it further, maybe to the finals, maybe win a tournament, something like that. So it's a good mix.

Is it a reset of expectations? I think ruggah mentioned you basically threw out the entire playbook. What's it been like trying to rebuild from your perspective?

It's like we're playing a very different game now. We have a different view of the game, and everyone wants to play the same way. And I think device knows how we want to play individually, so everyone gets the roles, positions, and situations they want. So it's more helpful now than before, I would say, you just feel better while playing. It's not even that hard because, as I said, we have the same view on the game, so it just comes naturally.

When you joined Astralis, you got a lot of your Sprout roles and then transitioned to a full supportive anchor. Now, you are aggressive on the T side but still kind of an anchor on CT. Are you okay with the more supportive CT side positions?

I'm okay with it. It's a little weird sometimes when you play CT, let's just say Ancient, you're standing on the site for 12 rounds, don't see anyone, and then you have to go T and have to go aggressive to try and get entries. So you have to switch up your pace in the game. In that sense, it could be a little rough in some games, to get in the game mode and mood to play aggressive when you just kind of camp the whole CT side, but I'm working on that.

Other than that, it's pretty natural for me to switch roles. In Sprout, I tried a lot of different roles because we had a lot of changes in the team, and I'm always ready to change a position if I think it will make the team or map better, it doesn't matter to me. If you focus and practice enough, you will get pretty good in your position, you just need to do the work.

You aren't quite HEROIC, but you are a very active CT side team that does a lot of mid-round pushes. Does that help on some maps? Because you're an anchor by position, but you do these double pushes everywhere.

Yeah, for sure, just being active in CT [helps a lot]. In some teams, the anchors just stand here and shoot them when they come, and they get no help. But in our team, as you say, we are pretty active and no one gets left alone, unless we are planning it on purpose, and then the guy knows it. You will get the help you need and play as you want.

It's not like they will tell me on A Mirage that I have to play this position every round. I will just do my thing and then, of course, we have some set rounds, but other than that, I can just do whatever I want, I'm not locked into anything. That helps a lot as well, so I can move freely.

I wanted to ask a little bit more about the T-sides. You say you see the game the same way now. Was blameF more individualistic? If you had to narrow it down, what is the main difference?

blameF is a guy that wants to set himself up, which is also fine. He's an insane player when he gets the support and the help he needs, but you can't have too many players that need to be set up and get help, you also need some individuals just doing stuff by themselves. The way he wanted to play was a little more structured and set, which meant you couldn't play the way you wanted all the time, which was a little frustrating.

Plus the role changes from stavn and jabbi made a huge difference. They had to play other positions because he also had some star positions in CT, so that's probably the main reason why it was so different.

I think device said the idea of a secondary caller is kind of outdated now. How much of a voice do you have now on those T-sides? Because you are in those map control positions.

As much as I want, I would say. device calls defaults, or if he has some set calls, he calls that. But whatever I want in my position, when I'm taking map control, I can just say whatever and get the smokes I want. And after we get the space that I need to take, he will make the call. If I feel like I have a call, then I can also go for it, but mostly it's me getting space, and then device making the call.

And then, of course, everyone on the team knows how to talk properly in mid-rounds and we can communicate very well. We're also pretty good at making plans without device, if he's dead or whatever, so everyone gets the talking time they need, which is just perfect for me.

stavn is also back in all his roles. What is the difference between having him around when you're taking map control compared to blameF? Do you notice a pace change? What's it actually like playing with stavn?

In mid-rounds, he's a very aggressive player, and he knows when to take risks. He knows in 50/50 situations that either he gets the chance and wins the round, or he just dies. He takes those risks and has very good timing in the game every time, which makes our mid-rounds a lot easier, and he also talks a lot while he does that.

blameF was more chill [and wanted to] make a plan together and then see what happens, but now we can also do a pace change and play a little faster, which also gains a lot of momentum and control in the mid-rounds. That's one of his strong sides, just being able to communicate fast and being aggressive.

What do you think is in these semi-finals? Because it's not an opposition thing, it's different teams. What do you think it is? Because people are going to be quick to point at HEROIC and say it's Danish choking, but does it feel like that to you?

I wouldn't say it's like we're choking mentally, but of course, it is a choke. If we take the MongolZ game, we went to overtime and lost a 5v3 and a 4v2 afterplant in two back-to-back rounds, which is extremely rough when it's also an intense game. That was kind of a choke, but in the other games, I wouldn't even say we were choking, we were just playing good teams.

We lost to Vitality, where ZywOo popped off, and we lost to FaZe in China, where they had an insane tournament. Then Liquid online was an off game for us, but they also played really well with Twistzz just 30-bombing every game. I feel like we also played good opposition, so I wouldn't say we're even choking, but when we're not playing at 100%, then the better teams will take advantage of that and win the games, which is what happens against us.

It might be some nerves on the stage that make the difference that we don't play 100%, we play 90% of our game, but again, I think that's how it's always been on the stage matches.

Is it a bit harder with a looser system because everyone has a voice and everything? When it is hectic on stage, maybe you can't hear everything as well, and comms get missed. Do you think having a more complicated way of calling contributes to it? Is it a bit harder on stage at all?

It could be. When it gets hectic, the voices get loud, and everyone talks at the same time, it will get harder for sure. I also feel like if you play more structured, and you do a lot of strats, then you have a lower high, because you can only do the strats and you just do your role, while when you play freely, you actually have to think, and you can outplay the opponent more.

It's not just rolling the dice and doing some strats, which I like a lot, and we have higher highs but also lower lows because if we don't take the initiative, it will be worse. And you could lose some initiative when you're nervous on stage, or you're having a bad game, whatever it is. I think it's better if we live up to the expectations, but it could also get worse if we are nervous or scared to do whatever we have to do.

For this event, it's only good teams here. There are a few weaker ones, but what would you treat as a success going into next season? As much as people want to look for more than the semi-finals, would you be happy with another semi-final finish? What's the goal?

It's hard to say. This tournament is the hardest there is, there are only top teams or close to only top teams. Of course, we would like to make the playoffs, make a semi-final again, but we also want to go further, and it's hard to expect to go further when you have to play Spirit or Vitality, who we will meet most likely if they make the playoffs. You can't expect to win against such a team when they have ZywOo or donk, but we know it's possible, and we know how good we are if we just play our game.

We hope to make it far, but it's not like we expect to win it all. We can't make sure of that, I would say, but we're pretty confident. We used a lot of energy now, we said to use it all because we have a vacation after this, a three-week break. Let's just give it all and see what happens, and I hope we can make it further than the semi-finals.