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The how is eroticism different from euphoriaDanish skipper says his team could maybe have good runs now, but he believes the team will truly start to shine in 2025.

Astralis are yet to tally a best-of-three victory ever since Casper "?cadiaN?" M?ller joined the team, with only a 13-11 against Eternal Fire in their victories column. The Danish in-game leader isn't particularly worried, however, stating the caliber of teams they have faced so far.

The skipper, who has a 0.77 rating so far with his new team, where he took up the role of rifling in-game leader to not disturb Nicolai "?device?" Reedtz's AWPing, also isn't too worried about his personal level, as he chalks the poor rating to the team's defeats

Astralis are now tasked with another hard matchup, against Natus Vincere, in their BLAST Premier World Final opener. "It's going to be a tough matchup," cadiaN says, "but I'm expecting us to do our best, and I think it's also possible to beat them, but of course they're big favorites and they should be so."

You can listen to the interview on the widget above or by clicking here.

This is your third event since joining Astralis. Many teams, when there's a roster change, there's a bit of a honeymoon period. This has not been the case for you guys, are you a bit worried that you haven't had that uptick in form after a roster change?

I think that the fact that the roster change happened in the middle of the season means that you don't have the same time to adjust to each other and get a decent understanding of your map pool and kind of set up the strat book a bit.

You're thrown into everything with one week of practice and with Astralis struggling a little bit prior to me joining, we had some pretty tough draws. It is against the teams we want to compete against and face off with and we want to compete with, so in that sense everything is fine, but of course the circumstances surrounding everything have been a bit tough.

I'm not sure, of course you always hope for a good start, but you can feel that everyone is on the same page and we're learning day by day. The main goal was also not to be the best from one week or two weeks in, it was to have longevity, and I think we're aiming towards that.

Do you think it's just a matter of time? The team doesn't seem to be gelling, are you still trying to make all of the pieces fit?

I'm not sure if I agree that the team doesn't seem to be gelling. I think that, of course, we've had losses, but to good teams. I don't think we lost to any teams that are bad.

It's more the way you've lost some of the games.

Yeah, but, other than the Vitality game, there aren't any maps that have been clear cut. If you look at the games, they're all close. The VP one, the HEROIC one, the Spirit one, and if you look at our pistol stats, and I'm usually not the guy bringing this up, but if you look at the pistol stats I think that they definitely aren't going in our favor.

We won two out of ten in Rio and with how CS2 is currently, with MR12 and the economy, pistol rounds are super vital and something we tried to look at when we got home. Again, it's not the only reason we lost the games, but it could have played a part in some of the map losses.

the level device has shown in practice isn't something that has shown to the same extent in officials yet Casper "?cadiaN?" M?ller

In a recent interview device said that your system is still something that needs time to get used to. Have you been working with him to make him more comfortable in the game?

Yeah, of course. I think he is one of the primary factors to unlocking the key to success, so we're having a lot of dialogue and I'm trying to make him as comfortable as possible.

He is allowing a lot of space to be taken, so I think it's also up to the rest of the players to enable him to get into good situations by creating space in the rounds because I think that device also has aggressive moves and is good at making them, but he's also known for being a really good turret on the CT positions. That means that the rest of us should search for information, play a bit aggressively, and allow him to have that role because he has a lot of impact.

Also, I think that the level he has shown in practice isn't something that has shown to the same extent in officials yet, but that's just a matter of time because this guy and his resume, it has nothing to do with practice and official, it's just about getting more reps and giving him more time to get used to the system.

if you look at my POV of all of the games, my aim and the way I play is more than up to the level of a rifling in-game leader Casper "?cadiaN?" M?ller

With your move to Astralis also came a role change for you. You're now a rifling IGL, you've averaged a .77 rating since joining the team. Has it been harder for you than expected to have this new role?

Yes and no. I think there are some positions that have been difficult. Sometimes it has also been on the T side, kind of getting used to... I mean, I've been in the map control [pack], but I'm in a different position in the map control [pack] now, running in first and understanding the timings of some of those situations.

I think that if you look at my POV of all of the games, my aim and the way I play is more than up to the level of a rifling in-game leader. We had some tough draws and we have way more losses than wins, and that's always going to show in the statistics. The teams that have the best statistics are the teams that are winning, so of course that's going to change when the wins start to come our way.

With a lot of things to fix and not a lot of time until the Major, what have you prioritized since Rio?

First and foremost there have been many details added to the structure of rounds, there have been way more names and setups, which is not just on-the-fly things, but more categories and boxes. We talked a lot about philosophies on different maps, as well. That's something that has been a priority, and I think that kind of closing out man advantage situations and post-plants.

We try to do as much as possible with little time, but to be completely honest I think that the best version of Astralis is not going to happen in 2024, it'll happen on the other side of next year. That doesn't mean we can't have a good performance here, or that we can't have a good run at the Major, but in terms of the estimate of how long it takes a team to become good, it is under tough circumstances to expect it to be now. Even with me having a history with stavn and jabbi, I still need to adjust to ruggah, Staerh, and device.

We see the highs and we see the lows also in practice, but throughout the last one-and-a-half weeks before coming here we've seen way more highs Casper "?cadiaN?" M?ller

You're now going up against NAVI in the first round, which is hardly the easiest matchup, given they're the number one team in the world. What are your thoughts on this matchup?

Nobody is expecting us to do much against them. They've shown to be the best team of 2024. A lot of noise, a lot of circumstance regarding their Major win, with everyone calling them a fluke, but they've proven that their system works. The entire debate about not having a star player is exactly the same debate we had when we played in HEROIC and were the world's number one. People were saying the same thing, but you can see how much impact each of them is able to have in their position. So, of course, it's going to be a tough matchup, but I'm expecting us to do our best, and I think it's also possible to beat them, but of course they're big favorites and they should be so.

What goals have you set for this tournament? Make it out of the group stage and reach the arena? Or are you more worried about showing some positives and showing improvement before the RMR and the Major?

In both my time in HEROIC and now here in Astralis, we don't make result-oriented goals at a tournament. We look at the process and things that will help us achieve the results that we talk about internally. So we've set goals both inside the server and outside the server on how we want to behave and act as a team, how we want to be playing the game, and we hope to fulfill as many of those goals as possible. But again, I think that coming into this tournament, nobody is going to expect us to do much.

For us it's way more about learning how to activate ourselves in the best way possible. We see it often in practice, I think it's still a bit of a rollercoaster, like we see the highs and we see the lows also in practice, but throughout the last one-and-a-half weeks before coming here we've seen way more highs so I think we're trending in the right way.

Lastly, one of the biggest talking points about Astralis is whether you're able to lead this team to the Major. Astralis has missed the last three Majors, which is obviously a very big deal for an organization like yours. This also puts a lot of pressure on the team and we saw at the last RMR the impact that all of this pressure can have on the team. Is the team and the staff already discussing a way to deal with all of this pressure when the RMR kicks off?

Of course, it's something we've been debating, and we know the importance. Financially, for the organization, but also for the players individually. However, I think that as a professional player and at the level we're at and that we've all played at, pressure is something you're facing at every tournament.

I've played many RMRs with stavn, I know what it takes to qualify, I know how other teams behave and handle the pressure, and how we set ourselves up the best way possible. So it's not something I'm worried about.

It's going to be tough, there's no denying that, but then again, looking at the amount of teams qualifying through Europe, if you can't qualify then it's too bad. What are you even going to do at the actual tournament? I have high hopes for how our preparation will go here. We'll play here in Singapore, we'll learn, and then we'll have a small bootcamp, so the RMR is something I'm very confident going into.