cadiaN: "[Playing for Rogue] was truly a great time for my career"
After being knocked out of IEM Chicago by LDLC in the second round of the lower bracket, our very own Joe "tolkienfanatic" Cardali caught up with Casper "cadiaN" Møller about his transition back to a fully Danish team, his move away from the North American scene and Rogue, as well his future going forward in Europe.
You guys didn't have the result that you wanted here, but pretty much since you've joined, things have been going pretty smoothly. Walk me through that transition to North.
It's been a good transition, I think. It's been very hectic as well. There's been a lot of things since we qualified for ECS as well. North already had the Pro League spot, meaning a lot of online games for us. And, to my joy and excitement, both leagues have been going very well and we're going to the LAN finals of ECS and it also seems like we're doing that for Pro League, so that's super good.
Our LAN results: a little more shaky, maybe, but that's also to do with us just not having the same structure. Sometimes you can get away with a bit more of a loose style online than you can at LAN. I'm sure with our hard work and with the way we're currently evaluating our game style, we will be stronger in future events.
Walk me through the sequence of events that took you from leading Rogue on this kind of magical journey at the FACEIT Major to being knocked out by North and later being brought on by North afterwards.
I mean, I don't think it's a secret that playing for North or Astralis has been my dream for a long time. Obviously, they are the two Danish teams that you look at when you want to play for the best teams. It was not like I was not feeling very welcomed in Rogue, I was essentially not having any stress or feeling very hurried to go back to Denmark.
But I also knew that if the opportunity came from a team like North, it's something that I would have to say yes to because I would essentially regret it for the rest of my life if I didn't take this chance. Living in Copenhagen, closer to my family, and being back in Denmark on a team that's ranked top ten in the world is just too big of an opportunity to say no to.
So, everything went by smooth. They approached Rogue regarding a transfer and Rogue was open to it and in the end, they found a good negotiation and North sent MSL the other way, so I think it's something that both teams can be happy with.
How did you leave things with your former teammates on Rogue, because obviously before they got MSL, they were really struggling.
Basically, when the negotiations happened, I couldn't really say anything and I was playing in Denmark and then all of the sudden, there was a leak on the story and my teammates were like "Ah wait, is this true?" Then it ended up being not the best of situations, because you always want to be straight-forward with your teammates, but you also don't want to talk about hypothetical things like I could be transferred and stuff, because it's gonna kill the team chemistry. So, I think some of them were pretty sad with it, but in the end, they wished me good luck and they could see it make good sense for me to take this opportunity.
I'm happy with all the games that we played with them because it has truly been an insane journey, you said it yourself. When I transferred, we were like top 100 on HLTV and on the brink of being relegated from Pro League as the only league that we were in. In the end, we ended up being in both ECS and saving our spot in Pro League, qualifying for the Major, making the finals of DreamHack Atlanta, and it was truly a great time for my career. Probably the best before this.
Talk about how it has been to step into the shoes of MSL and also coming full circle back to the Danish scene, which you kind of were excommunicated from for some time.
It's good. If you look at the teammates standing next to me, it's all high-profile players. I think I have a lot of talent to work with in this team and I think that the mentality is super good as well. We seem to get connected on a social level and that's super important if you want to have a long journey. It was the same for Rogue; you need to be friends with everyone and you need to make sure that people respect each other. I feel like we all have a good respect for each other and this team, which is also why I think we'll succeed sooner or later. I can't tell you what time it'll be, but I'm 100% confident that it will happen.
It's good to be back in the Danish scene, playing along MVP Major-winning Kjaerbye. valde had been promising for a long while, aizy is a clutch king, and gade, who has been so promising in his recent games especially with us, is super great.
If you think back to ten months ago, we were standing in snowy New York, and you alluded to yourself that Rogue was on the brink of relegation and you guys managed to avoid that. So, ten months ago, you were there, and now you're here. What is the next ten months for cadiaN going to bring us?
I think it's kinda cliché to say, but like you said, if you look at me ten months ago and you look at me now, a lot of people would probably say that's impossible. I think it's a good sign that you just have to keep fighting for your dreams and you have to put in your everything because essentially if you do that and you give your all, that's a chance it's going to pay off like this. And, if I can develop the same way that I have in the last ten months, I'm sure we'll a world beater. It's probably hard to develop in the same way, but I'll try.
Would you encourage other people who maybe find themselves stymied in their domestic scenes to look farther and take that circuitous route?
Yeah, it's not for everyone I would say. Also, if you look at other people who've been trying it, I feel like I'm one of the few who's actually had good success as a Dane moving to the U.S. and playing. I was in a state of mind where I knew that this would be the best thing for my career, even though I was leaving people at home alone.
So, you have to really make up with yourself if you think it's going to be worth it, and because I knew already from going there that it was not going to be fun and that I was not going to go out a lot and meet a lot of new people and make friendships and so on; that it was going to be rough and that I would be dedicating all my time to Counter-Strike and to hopefully getting this offer that I'll finally be getting. I'd not advise everyone to do it, but if you're ready for a wild ride, you can try but you need to know that there might be consequences for your personal life and it's not going to pan out for everyone.
While cadiaN and North are still competing in the ESL Pro League regular season, they are set to appear in Dallas for the ECS Season 6 Finals after placing second in the ECS Season 6 regular season. cadiaN will later return to the Major circuit in the Europe Minor closed qualifier, where he will look to return to the Major with North.
