cadiaN: "We've shown that we belong on the big stage"

The Danish captain is focused on getting all-important wins to secure enough VRS points to make it straight into the Major.

BLAST Open Lisbon, which kicks off with the group stage at the BLAST Studios in Copenhagen, is just around the corner, and Astralis, who didn't attend ESL Pro League, are ready to get back in the server with the goal of securing more points in the Valve Regional Standings as they seek to qualify straight through to the BLAST.tv Austin Major.

Date	Matches
BLAST Open Lisbon 2025
19/03/2025	Vitality 17:15 Astralis	Match

It will be no walk in the park for the Danes as they're set to start their run on home soil against none other than the world's number one team, Vitality, who are on a hot streak after lifting trophies at the last two tournaments they played, IEM Katowice and ESL Pro League.

"All of them are carrying their weight," Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller says of their opening round opponents. "I'm very impressed with the way they're playing." But he doesn't get carried away by their good form just yet. "One of the best rosters of all time? We're not even close to that debate yet," he adds.

Read more about the Dane's thoughts on the tournament ahead, their first round rivals, where Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr is at in his development, and more in the interview below.

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You said in our interview in Cluj-Napoca that while you were far from your A-game, you still felt that the team was moving in the right direction. How big of a boost was it to get that third place in Romania after such a rough start to the year?

It was very nice, especially the way we handled the pressure of playing on stage. I think we managed to play a lot of good maps and a lot of good situations, and of course, our position on the world ranking, as well. The points accumulated from The MongolZ and FaZe wins meant a lot.

Also, when you look into getting into the top 10 in Europe for a direct spot at the Major, it's looking better now. So yeah, it was a boost of momentum and confidence, and that the things we've been working on are working.

Were you surprised with some of your results there? Because heading into the event, most people didn't have a lot of expectations for you, but you managed to beat FaZe and The MongolZ there, and two of the three teams you lost to ended up in the final. How would you rate your performance there?

It was pretty good. We expected playoffs. What teams we were hoping to beat and not beat? It's hard to say; it depends a lot on the day and the daily form. I think that what changed throughout Cluj was that our C-level or B minus-level raised a lot compared to some of the other tournaments.

In Katowice, we underperformed in some of the games we lost. I think that our top level is good, we've shown that with some of the wins we've had throughout our stint with this team, already. We beat The MongolZ, FaZe, NAVI, MOUZ, on LAN games, best-of-threes, so I think the potential is there, but we still need to be more stable.

You had a month to prepare for this event. What did you use that time for, and how confident are you heading into this tournament?

A month, really?

You skipped EPL, so roughly a month.

So, like three weeks.

Almost a month, yeah.

We had one week off after coming home. The start of the year was a bootcamp, BLAST Bounty, Katowice, and Cluj, so that was like 40 days on the road in a row. Then we had a week off and we were supposed to start, but a lot of people caught the flu in Denmark. I heard it also happened in Sweden for Pro League, so we had to cancel quite a few practices because of that.

Our preparation wasn't as clean as we hoped for, but we still managed to get the most out of it and the last couple of practice days looked good. But it was just updating the strat book, talking through the scenarios that we found ourselves in in Cluj, which situations we handled well and which we didn't. So yeah, it's pretty regular stuff, but always trying to find the percentages on how to improve.

With that in mind, the fact that you didn't have the best of preparations heading into this one, what goals have you set for this tournament?

It's a super tough group. The entire thing of not updating the seeding is... I think they changed it now.

Yeah, they have.

But yeah, I think it's a tough group with both Spirit, Vitality, and, I think, MOUZ. And FaZe, Falcons, VP... It's a very tough group, to be honest. I think playing Vitality in the first game is a great chance to beat the best team in the world. If you're trying to get a way around easy brackets and not playing the best teams, I think you're in the wrong business. If you're not playing to try to beat the best, there's no reason to put in all the hours and all the effort.

It's a great chance, but it's a bit of a tough bracket. Our expectations are very much to take one game at a time. It's an important tournament in terms of securing steady progress and securing the Major, but other than that, I think there are more important tournaments to come.

What are your thoughts on the way that Vitality are playing? They are, without a doubt, the number-one team in the world. Some people are saying they may be one of the best rosters we've ever seen in Counter-Strike. I guess you were watching the EPL final. What are your thoughts on the way that they play right now?

Yeah, I think they're playing really well. You can definitely feel, or see, all of the things ropz is adding in his position. You can see some of his small gimmicks and ideas implemented, as well, and they have a lot of momentum.

All of them are carrying their weight, and I also think that people don't talk enough about mezii and flameZ, in terms of how much they are contributing from their positions. I think they're excellent players. A lot of people call for mezii to be replaced, but I think he's been very steady in his anchor positions. I'm very impressed with the way they're playing.

One of the best rosters of all time? We're not even close to that debate yet, in my opinion. They've played one event with a crowd. If they can keep it up, of course, but if you look at the teams that are up there, like Astralis back then, fnatic, LG (later SK), teams that won back-to-back Majors... I mean, you can't compare two events with that yet.

Fair enough. Just this morning, it was announced that Staehr signed a new contract until 2027. In Cluj, he played a very important role in your getting that third place, and he was saying that he's getting more comfortable in his role. What can you say about his evolution as a player since you took over as captain of the team?

From learning a bit of the background story in his tenure in Astralis, it has been a lot of switching positions to accommodate other people coming in. So, of course, he needs some time. Also, he's played under some experienced players, but also under device and blameF as IGLs. I mean, device has an insane mind for CS, he's such a clever player, but he hadn't tried in-game leading before, so I think maybe it's good for him now to be under someone who has done it for 10+ years.

I like his work ethic and attitude. I think he brings a lot of good things to the table, and I think he's probably still the player on this roster who has the largest margin of growth possible. So yeah, we're trying to make sure that he keeps developing because I think when he's really good, you can see how much impact he has.

There's a big debate right now about whether teams need a true star player: a ZywOo, a donk, a m0NESY. You don't have that kind of player in your team right now, and there's this idea — even ropz was saying that in an interview with us — that nowadays, in the current meta, teams need that kind of player to be called elite teams. When you consider that, how do you look at your chances in the current meta?

I still think we have many players who can carry that role. Of course, maybe right now, there's a bit of a switch between who performs in specific matches, and we still need that stability, but I'm not really worried about the individual skill ceiling on this team.

Throughout time and more good results, we'll find the players who do it more often than not, but we're trying to accommodate as much as possible to make sure that they feel comfortable in their roles. I think you've seen glimpses of everyone doing those things.

jabbi was maybe a bit of an outlier in Cluj, he performed to more of what we saw in the old Heroic days, but I still think we've seen it in maps, or tournaments, from device, Staehr, and stavn.

Everyone looks at stavn as this star player, even though there's also this narrative that he doesn't perform well on the big stages. You know him super well, you've known him for years, so what are you doing to make sure that you can bring out the best in him?

Like, to keep reinforcing him and approving the things he does well. He's really good at communicating and having an overview. Calling the right things at the right times for the people next to him. He brings a lot of energy and mood to the team. He always prepares very thoroughly on the opponents, and he has a good idea of what's going on in the game.

He's still young, but he's still contributing a lot to the team in other ways than fragging, and I know that his desire to perform well is just as big as everyone else's pressure on him, and I think we've seen it in HEROIC, as well. Maybe he hasn't always had insane performances at every game, but he still had many maps where he won us games on big stages.

So it's not that he's not able to perform under pressure, but of course, I hope that with more stability around him, it will be easier for him to perform because there's no doubt that he has the mechanics and the mentality to do it.

You're very close to securing a spot at the Major, and there's also a chance that you get a spot in Stage 3 if you do well enough here. Is that on your mind, and how big of a relief would it be for the team to get a spot at the Major after all of the Majors that Astralis missed?

It would be great. Every team is now looking at the world ranking and how it pans out because there are many different scenarios. As you said, for us, we could be in Stage 3, Stage 2, or we could be in the MRQ depending on the results, so, of course, you're looking at the forecast, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is winning games in order to secure a spot.

It would mean a lot for Astralis to be back at the Majors, and of course, also now, with the MRQ being played online, there's even more risk of playing it, but just for me personally, I would love to be back.

I think the circumstances surrounding my last three chances of playing the Major have been bad. I had the switch between HEROIC and Liquid, where I was not on a team or a roster, then the Liquid situation — we all know how that roster fell out —, and then we had device calling in sick for the RMR last time, so I kind of feel like the last three Major chances were... I wouldn't say robbed, but it was definitely a disadvantageous situation for me.

But yeah, we would love to be back. I think we deserve it, and we've earned it with our placings. If you look at the games with this five and also the semi-final at the World Finals and the semi-final in Cluj, I think we've shown that we belong on the big stage.