stavn: "I've had trouble finding my peak form"

The Danish rifler stated he was on good terms with cadiaN following their dramatic split at the end of the leader's time on HEROIC.

After months of employing star AWPer Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz as the team's in-game leader, Astralis shocked the Counter-Strike world with the signing of Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller to take up the mantle as captain while rifling for the team.

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Astralis sign cadiaN as rifling IGL

cadiaN, known for his over three-year-long tenure with HEROIC, had previously played alongside current teammates Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund and Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard, parting with the two on controversial terms after it was alleged that the pair initiated the push for his removal before leaving for Astralis.

After a last-place exit in their debut on home soil at the BLAST Premier Fall Final, Astralis quickly packed their bags to attend IEM Rio, where the Danes bagged an opening win over Eternal Fire before faltering to HEROIC in the upper-bracket semi-finals.

Shortly after the loss to his former team, stavn spoke with HLTV regarding his feelings after losing to two ex-teammates, his relationship with cadiaN since parting ways on HEROIC, and how long the decision to move his former captain into Astralis had been in the works.

If you cannot see the SoundCloud embed above, you can listen to the interview here.

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Commiserations on the loss, it must have been a little hard losing to two of your old teammates. Can you tell me about that?

For sure, losing to old teammates is always hard, especially with all the things considered, but they are a decent team as well. We had the chance to win today to be honest, but we didn't.

Can you tell me about what was going wrong from your perspective?

On MIrage we had a really good start on the CT side, and then on the T side we didn't manage to find the solution. I think they pushed us a lot on the side and we got caught by it. Our communication was just not good enough on the T side.

On Ancient, I feel like we had a decent T side but it's kind of the same thing again, we get caught off-guard from their plays and then it's over. It's so fast in CS2, it's GG.

The last two events have been hard with those T sides, like obviously that Vitality game at Fall Final but also the T sides you've been playing now, like the Mirage ones for example. What's going wrong in general on those?

In general, I think it's the communication and the protocols we do mid-round. Like taking a teammate with you, doing small communications and stuff like that, but it's hard to say, to be honest.

What has it been like being under cadiaN? There was this whole fracture and now this reunion, what has that been like?

Yeah, I think it's great to be playing with Casper again. We've had our controversies of course, but we have also known each other for six years or something like that and played so much CS together, had ups and downs together, but we have always enjoyed playing together and I'm happy to playing alongside him again.

A lot of people didn't see that reunion coming. How long was this in the works, was there any relationship-mending that happened before the move happened or how did that come about?

I don't think it's been in the works for that long. Me and Casper, we have talked a lot after we parted ways in HEROIC and we've still been on good terms after that. Then the option was to get him in and I think it's a good change, we just need more practice.

device was leading before cadiaN came back in now there has been this swap. What has the difference been like so far other than what we talked about with communication issues?

Our playstyle is a lot more... loose, I would say, and it requires that everyone is on point with communication and stuff like that, which we've been lacking in these games.

The main difference between Casper and device's in-game leading style is that Casper can call stuff on the fly, and you have to be... it's a new style and you have to be ready to adapt in high-pressure moments in games to be able to do something you haven't done before, and I think we just need more time.

One of the things with this roster was the rough start you had at Fall Final with all of the controversy around the roster move. How much pressure did that add for you personally and what was that like for this new roster?

The beginning of the team, the debut at BLAST Fall Final, wasn't as expected, you know? I can't say too much about the rules and whatnot, I just want to be able to play with my team and.. yeah.

Another point this whole period with device and since you joined the team has been a bit of a performance dip for you, can you speak to that with your own form and now trying to move forward?

I've had trouble finding my peak form as I had in CS:GO. I've showed it at times in CS2 as well, right now I think everyone is maybe lacking confidence, me included. We just need more time and then the confidence will come again.

Any reason you might be lacking that confidence?

Changing in-game leaders is always hard, and going into a new team and stuff like that. it's a personal feeling for me, that you just need to... I've tried it many times in my career, when you have a hard time you just need to find your way back and hopefully I'll be able to do that.

Not eliminated from the tournament yet, lower bracket. What are you feelings going into tomorrow and about your chance to make the playoffs?

We're facing VP tomorrow. It's going to be a good game and it's always different playing them compared to other teams, they always have a very slow style and stuff like that. They are a good team, but if we show up tomorrow we should be able to beat them.