Staehr: "You can never underestimate TYLOO"

"It is for sure harder to beat the same team twice," the Danish rifler shared ahead of Astralis' impending rematch with TYLOO.

After suffering a shocking loss to a Dongkai "⁠Jee⁠" Ji-less TYLOO in the group stage of FISSURE Playground 1, Astralis have since rebounded. The Danes qualified for playoffs over Brazilian side MIBR, and have now scored straightforward victories on stage against Lynn Vision and BetBoom.

Now, Astralis are headed to their second grand final in a row in their second event with Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen at the helm. Standing in the way of a potential trophy hoist is a best-of-five final against TYLOO, who are now back in full force following the late arrival of Jee.

Date	Matches
FISSURE Playground 1
20/07/2025	TYLOO 15:05 Astralis	Match

Despite fumbling against a TYLOO squad making use of coach WeiJie "⁠zhokiNg⁠" Zhong as a stand-in, Astralis rifler Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr remains undeterred heading into the grand finals.

"They used all their tricks against us the first time, so now we're prepared for that," the Danish rifler shared after his team's victory over BetBoom. "They have to figure out a new solution to beat us."

In addition to the looming grand final against TYLOO, Staehr also took time to discuss the team's semi-final against BetBoom, his transition to a more active role in the team following the off-season, the differences between Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller and HooXi's calling, and the importance of a potential LAN victory tomorrow.

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Congratulations on reaching the final. Second tournament with HooXi, second final. Give me your thoughts on the series. It felt like you guys were in control for most of the game.

Yeah, I believe so. Our CT-side on Mirage, we [were] very much [in] control, I would say. We should have maybe gotten nine rounds in the half, but then we went into a wall on the start of T-side. Personally, I had some rough rounds, and it was rough to get going, but HooXi made some good calls, and the boys had some good shots, and that made Mirage go through.

Then the same on Nuke; I think we had pretty decent control over the whole game, we knew how they were playing, and some of the rounds we lost were unfortunate, and some they just played better. But I think we had good control, as you said. We had a very good game plan against them

You've played nine games on Nuke with HooXi, and you've won eight of them, only losing against Spirit. It feels like when you have a strong map like Nuke, which not many teams ban, it really plays in your favor, don't you think?

Of course it does. You take something people permaban like Train, then it's a little bit tougher. It's the same, like Spirit that have permabanned Inferno; that's tough for them because everyone plays Inferno and they have to ban it no matter what opponent they meet. No one has the same permaban as them.

It's an advantage to have a good map where no one bans it, like they have to ban Inferno unless they play seven maps. It just feels good because it's always a safe pick unless there's another pick which is a punish pick, then you can go for that. It's good to have a map that you feel really confident in that you can always pick.

After not playing the game for two months, you come here, and some things have changed. You have swapped positions, you have more responsibilities on the CT-side, you're more active, you have a bit more freedom. Was it hard for everyone to adapt, considering that you didn't have a bootcamp prior to this tournament? How are these changes impacting you in the game?

I think it has been very tough actually, because we only had one week of practice, because we had a long vacation since there was some pre-planned stuff, so we couldn't really practice more, sadly. It's been very rough in practice but it has been a lot better in officials, I would say, which is a good thing.

I would say starting [out] practice was very rough, because I had to get used to talking more and playing more actively, while jabbi has to be less active and be more standing still, killing those people on the sites, and anchoring. stavn has also been getting new positions; still active roles but just the second roles. I do believe it was very rough in the start, but when we play officials, everyone gives 110%, and it's for the better, for now at least, it feels like it for sure.

device had an amazing performance on Nuke, but I wanted to ask about stavn. He is someone who has been criticized in the past for not stepping up when it comes to arena matches. He played well yesterday and played well today. How do you rate his performance?

He's getting criticized, of course. When he delivers good games every time, well not every time of course, but it's almost only possible to go down from there. Then also in arena matches you meet a little tougher opponents than in group stage matches, so everyone drops in rating. It's just because people want to use him as a scapegoat, I feel like. I think he does the same performance on TeamSpeak and in-game and everything, it's just people wanting to have an excuse on why we lose.

Of course, I think that's bad; everyone's rating will drop if you lose in playoffs compared to if you win in group stage with big 13-5 wins, then of course it's easier to have good stats. I think it's something people just want to say because they need an excuse for Astralis losing, and I think that's weird.

This is your second tournament under HooXi, and I wanted to get your thoughts on the differences between him and cadiaN, and do you think this new style of calling suits you better?

Yeah, I think so. On T-side, HooXi knows what he wants, with coach ruggah of course, but he really knows what he wants and what he wants to call and when he wants to do it while still giving freedom, which is good. On CT-sides, I think it's more up to the players, like the active players like me, stavn, and device the most, to actually figure out how we want to play the CT-sides.

By that, I think it's actually very nice compared to cadiaN, who wanted to control a lot of the CT-sides, which is a little rough playing some special rounds where it should be the players in the most active positions to choose what's best for them, because they have the best overview on the map. I think it suits me and just everyone in general a lot better. But cadiaN also had very good calling, it's just a different style. At least for now, it looks like HooXi fits better for everyone, at least with the results.

You're playing against TYLOO now; you played against them in the group stage and lost to them. I spoke to device and he said TYLOO were shooting very hard and you guys also made some misplays during the series. Now you'll be playing them in different circumstances; they have Jee, and it will also be a BO5. What do you expect from the match, and will you be better prepared tomorrow?

Yeah, it's easier to prepare, of course, because we can go back to all the matches and see the way they play with Jee compared to when they play with a coach. Some of the time, they didn't even play AWP, so it's hard to look at those previous matches. We did a lot of mistakes last time we met them, and JamYoung is also a very good player, I respect him a lot, he does insane shots a lot of the time. You can never underestimate TYLOO, they have some good aimers. I think it's going to be a close and good final.

I said in my interview when we beat MIBR the second time, that it is for sure harder to beat the same team twice, because they used all their tricks against us the first time, so now we're prepared for that, and they have to figure out a new solution to beat us. I believe that we're more experienced, and maybe even the better team, hopefully, we'll see in the final, to beat them and overcome that and get a better plan than the first time.

And you're going for revenge.

I mean, I hope we get it.

It's been a rough few years for Astralis; the team has not won a LAN trophy since 2019. What would it mean for Astralis and the Danish scene as a whole for you guys to win a trophy like this tomorrow?

It would mean everything. I mean, I haven't personally won a big LAN before, only smaller LANs. I think it's an invaluable experience, and I think device, he tried before, and of course it would be so extremely emotional to win and be back, even though it's not a tier-one tournament where all the tier-one teams are.

The tier-two teams right now are very strong still, which just means that it's not because it's a bad tournament at all; people are actually playing very good, and I think these teams doing good here will also do good at Cologne or the next tier-one tournaments. I think it's very important, also for Astralis as an organization, showing that we're maybe back with HooXi and we're playing a lot better than we were last year and the year before that.