Interview with Gla1ve of Astralis (CSGO)

How would you describe more broadly speaking the attitude of the team with integrating Astralis and then specifically, how the roles had to adjust to suit him?

So, when kjaerbye left we were pretty sure we wanted to bring dupreeh into Kjaerbye’s role because dupreeh already told us he wanted that role but he gave it to kjaerbye when I joined. And it worked out, but as time goes on, he felt like he could do more damage in Kjaerbye’s role. I’m not sure if kjaerbye felt pressure in that way, then kjaerbye left and it was just logic to replace for kjaerbye for dupreeh.

Then we could bring in Magisk who could easily fit into Dupreeh’s old role.

Speaking of the conflict between dupreeh and kjaerbye in-terms of roles. Did that pressure between the two in any way impact Dupreeh’s decision to AWP at the Boston Major?

Yeah, I think it did actually. I’m not sure how it was whether dupreeh told us he wanted to be an AWPer or device wanted to be a rifler, because dupreeh did so well at BLAST series and device was ill. And yeah, device was ok to be a rifler because I think he missed that. So we tried that and I think it has something to do with the role clash.

At the end of last year when you were sort-of forced to experiment and change the way you approach the game, did you directly learn anything from that time that carries over into the current period?

I’m not sure. I don’t think so, this is a completely new team it feels like. Even though we only got one new player, we also were changing dupreeh’s role. So I feel like we are a new team so the motivation is really, confidence is high, device is back, still has his disease which we have to take care of.

Of course being at events like this in Sydney with the time difference affects him a lot. But yeah, I think we’re looking pretty good right now.

Coming into the big strings of LAN this Spring, one of the big narratives for your team was online form. Within the team how do you guys view online form? Do you put any weight on your results online?

I think when you look at a team playing online and they win a lot of matches and they do it because they have good individual skill but they also have good strategies and good synergy between each other, then I think it transfers. But, if you look at a team that is only good because of individual skill then I think that could affect in a negative way because it can be tough to only rely on individual skill. You sit in a different way, than you do at home and such.

What do you think is the main thing that you think separates and defines Astralis from other teams?

So yeah, the main things that defines Astralis and give us an edge above the other teams right now. I think it’s mainly tactics, teamplay, a good understanding of the game, of course, a lot of individual skill. It’s not like we just have one player going huge every game. WE have a lot of players doing good stuff. And of course, preparation.

What has been the push from Astralis to start veto’ing Mirage?

So I think on Mirage it was our second or most played map for the last three months and we have a win rate of like 70% or something. So it’s not like we are bad on it at all, but I feel like there are a lot of good teams on it like Mousesports, FaZe, Fnatic, just a lot of the top teams, a lot of teams are really good on Mirage. So it was good for us that cobble got removed because we can start removing other people’s strong map.

Do you think with the way things are going forward teams will look to specialise more in off-map picks or will we continue to see more innovation on the comfort maps of Inferno and Mirage?

I think after Dallas when teams have a bit more time to prepare, people are going to be playing Dust II a lot more at events. It was always a map that was played a lot before it got removed. So yeah, I think Inferno, Dust II will be the most played maps and probably Mirage as well.

Does Astralis plan to skip events like we saw you do last year?

We definitely plan to skip events this year. I can’t tell what events what we are skipping because we didn’t get an invite and such because we weren’t playing well two months ago. But yeah, we are still skipping events and we will do that more and more I think. It just affects a lot travelling, especially with Device and his disease. It’s just really stressful to go to many events and we just need to have lots of preparation if we go to an event.

So is the preparation the main factor in Astralis winning a tournament?

I think individual skill and preparation and teamplay. Teamplay comes from a lot of practice. Individual skill comes from not attending as many events as possible. Because it’s just too stressful and at some point you will burn out and if you burn out you have a lot of time where you will be unstable and we don’t want to hit that level.

What do you make of the new all-Danish Optic roster with JUGi and Snappi?

I think JUGi and K0nfig are going to be a great duo. They have one of the best skill levels in Denmark. Of course, we are playing really good so it’s hard to compare right now, but if we are not hitting the level we are right now. Then they are definitely going to be two of the best players. They are a scary team. But I’m not sure, I’m going to be interested in seeing how Cajunb and Snappi work together. If they can work together really great then Optic are going to have a good time.

If I said you could manage this Optic team, how would you manage their strengths and go about structuring them?

I think they need to having really good tactics and Snappi is good on doing that. It’s a tough question. But k0nfig definitely has to be the entry, no-doubt. That is one main thing. JUGi has to play with him and Snappi as well. Then we have to have Cajunb as a lurk and I don’t know anything about gade so he might be a semi-lurk and Cajunb a semi-lurk.

I think Cajunb has always been a really good player actually, for me he always has had a rough time fitting into the team, not socially, but is a little hard to play with because sometimes he could have little outburst when he went mad and - yeah. You could feel it you know? And some players have a tough time playing with that. But I have always believed that Cajunb was playing top level but I also think he has fixed some of that attitude in the last few years - I hope so, at least.

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