cadiaN: "Ending the week with five map wins and two losses; I'll take that"

The Danish captain focused on the positives after Astralis were sent packing in Singapore.

Astralis captain Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller believes that his team's semi-final run at the BLAST Premier World Final gives hope for what's left to play in the season.

The Danish outfit surpassed most people's expectations in Singapore as they topped a very tricky group by beating Natus Vincere and MOUZ before losing to Spirit 2-1 in the semi-finals.

Astralis won Vertigo — a map that Spirit barely play — convincingly but posed little threat on Dust2 and Ancient. After the match, cadiaN hailed the team's improvements since the Fall Final and IEM Rio and spoke of the need to raise their floor.

"We had a pretty good feeling of how we wanted to play, and I think most of the time we executed it well," he told HLTV after the series. "It is really the small, narrow things where we made missteps, which you get punished for.

"I think we were on the right track, winning the pistol on the third map, and then we lost a pretty brutal force. Then we never really got going. They played good CS, called the right things in the right moments. They hit some good shots, and they were patient when we kind of did the re-aggression."

"Spirit is a good team. A tough opponent today. We didn't play our best, especially on maps one and three."

It has been less than two months since cadiaN joined as a rifling IGL and took over the captaincy from Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz. Astralis' first two tournament appearances under his command were utterly forgettable, but the team seems to be going from strength to strength as device and Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr get more familiar with the new system.

"I think we saw that our game as a team has elevated in terms of structure and strategies," cadiaN said. "I think the two T sides on Vertigo are prime examples of how well we can play as a team when we know what's going on. Going home and working on equalizing and making that happen on more maps is something we're looking forward to."

"I think it's a big upside to see our level against No.1, 4 and 5 in the world like this. Ending the week with five map wins and two losses. I'll take that."

Astralis will now turn their attention to the Europe RMR B tournament, where they will face 9 Pandas in the first round.

Date	Matches
Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 Europe RMR B
21/11/2024	Astralis 07:25 9 Pandas	Match

cadiaN maintains that it will be some time before the team hits its peak level, but he agrees with the notion that the performances in Singapore are a timely boost ahead of the final events of the season.

"I saw some people being a little bit angry about the headline that you did in the last interview about me saying that you're not going to see the best version of Astralis in 2024," he said. "But, I mean, by the end of the year, we will have played together for maybe two and a half months."

"If you expect the best out of any team at that point then you don't love CS the way I do, with kind of getting philosophies and strategies into detail. Because that takes time."

"That doesn't mean we can't perform like we did here. And I think that definitely also raises the ambition of what's possible for the RMR and the Major."