device: "Today is not the biggest bummer"

Astralis couldn't capitalize on their opening day victory and are 1-1 after the second day of play in Bucharest.

Astralis are 1-1 after the second day of play in Bucharest, having opened with a victory over FaZe, one of the goals the Danish team had set coming into this event, but then failing to make it to the 2-0 pool against 3DMAX.

Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz isn't too scared just yet, though. "We're 1-1 in the Swiss stage, it's probably still fine," he says. "Some of the other teams here are probably feeling a little bit worse."

After an opening day addled with upsets, and Falcons, Liquid, paiN, and The MongolZ in the 0-2 pool after the second day, he makes a good point.

device shares some of his thoughts on where Astralis currently stand as a team, what separates them from the current best teams in the world, and more in the interview below.

You can listen to the interview here.

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You guys are in this group of teams below the elite teams, where you can get some wins off of some good teams, but then lose against teams you think may be beneath you. Where do you see Astralis in this constellation of teams right now?

I think what you said is approximately the same thing I think, at least. The teams around 8-12 in Europe in the VRS ranking are quite close, same with 3DMAX, us, and Falcons, and those guys, VP as well, so I mean, today it was against an opponent around our ability. They want to beat us, and we want to beat them to be the team in the top ten, and they play a style of Counter-Strike that's very dynamic, as well, but yeah, I think you hit the nail on the coffin with how the strength levels are.

I think the teams in our tier, or whatever you want to call it, can also beat some of the best teams in the world, but sometimes the floor is not high enough, and then you lose to some of the teams below, as well. But I think we and 3DMAX are quite close.

I think it was the last time we spoke with cadiaN, he said that things seem to be going in the right direction, or that things are moving the right way. How do you see this evolution? Do you see things moving along? Are there growing pains? Struggles?

It has been a bit back-and-forth this year, for sure. I think the highlight of the year was the last time we were here, at PGL, and we finished third. With the different pracc periods we've had, we've shown that we're capable of trending upwards, and I think that the period we had leading up to this event is one of our good periods, so we're quite confident going into this tournament.

Also, today is not the biggest bummer, we're 1-1 in the Swiss stage, it's probably still fine, some of the other teams here are probably feeling a little bit worse, but yeah, I think it's a pretty good period for us right now to try and get as many games before the MRQ. Playing a lot of games always gives you... Not experience, but like, just match flow that doesn't compare to practice.

You spoke about the previous PGL event, which I was going to bring up as well. It does feel like this sort of event is maybe good for a team still finding its footing because you don't have those super good teams that can eliminate you in two games and you're out, and you can go to three, four, five games in the Swiss system even before the playoffs. Do you see this as an important tournament for you guys?

We decided to play all three PGLs this season, we're also playing in Astana, so for sure. I like the format, personally, I think that we didn't quite cut it to some other tournaments, like Pro League, for instance, or BLAST Rivals, but as you said, when you're around our spot, and you go to BLAST in Copenhagen, you get the opening game against like seed one or two, and I think those teams, especially Vitality, are a bit ahead — if not a lot ahead — at the moment.

So yeah, you can play your way into the tournament, but one of our goals was to win the opening game. We haven't really done that this year, and we did that yesterday against FaZe to get a good start to the tournament. And yeah, the tournament is long and the first goal is always winning three games and going to the playoffs.

You've had a back-and-forth with FaZe, beating each other as a part of that group we were speaking of earlier. What would you say the team needs now to try and find that edge over the teams you're going neck and neck with now?

In my opinion, the biggest difference between the teams that are executing their game better is that, if you take a team like Spirit, they minimize mistakes a lot. They don't make macro or micro errors, almost, and then you have Vitality, that try to create an atmosphere where the opponent makes more mistakes, so for the teams in our tier, it's maybe to minimize your own mistakes as a player and a team, make the right decisions and have the right reactions, and keeping up with the tempo — being the team that makes the right decision.

If you look at 3DMAX, for instance, they constantly make decisions on a team level to try to be on the move or playing the ball first, or whatever you want to call it, and I think the elite teams can play multiple styles. They can play without making big mistakes, crunch the map, and play slowly, and they can also up the tempo and steamroll you. I think that is kind of what separates them, and when you make mistakes in MR12 it goes really fast. You have more ecos and one half can spiral really quickly, and that's probably my opinion on what separates the top teams from the teams below that.

When you say that there are teams that can up the tempo, or play the ball first, do you think this is something that is particular to the meta coming after CS2, is it something particular to the game now, compared to CS:GO, or do you think it's something that also existed back then?

I think it also existed back then, especially on CT side, but of course angles are not as strong as they were before and, for me, it's also about creating the movement. Then you kind of know what you want.

Being reactive means that you're constantly working with the signals that the opponents are sending you, so it's like finding the balance where you're not only making a decision based on what you're seeing, but also kind of like making a decision as a team off of a read or just doing something proactively because either you make the right play or you gather some information.

But you need to play both tempos, and I think that's the most important part. If you play a game reactively in CS2, only playing reactively, I don't think you'll have as much success as you could beforehand.

We're ramping up towards the Major as the months go by, and we have the MRQ coming up. Are you starting to feel pressure that you need to start getting those results? There's a lot of firepower on the team, and all of the players on the team have gotten results at different moments. Is there pressure for it all to come together so you'll reach some of that potential as we get into the peak for the season?

In regards to the pressure, I think the pressure of the MRQ is obviously in the back of the head, but it's also a week or two away. I think you could feel it a bit when we played in Copenhagen. We lost to FaZe and played really badly in that game, and then we beat them in this tournament, so it definitely shows that there was some difference in mentality or something like that.

I think that playing on Astralis you will have some sort of pressure. It's been a few years since we created the history of winning, but the name just carries some expectations — especially in Denmark. So yeah, I think that it correlates a little bit, and it's also a part of the season for every team, either you qualify this time or you need to play the MRQ, and this time the MRQ, or previously the RMRs, don't carry the top ten in Europe, so it's also a different tournament than it was before, and it's played online.