Xizt on Heroic being villains: "In the beginning it was really hard"

Heroic come into the Major playoffs as one of the best teams in the world, not only by ranking, but by form. The Danish team have gone from strength to strength throughout the competition, with a clean 3-0 run in the Legends stage. They faced off against a FaZe side who needed to reverse sweep the Legends stage in order to progress, and have not looked their best.

The match started off well for the Danes with the team taking a a massive lead on map one, Nuke, before FaZe clawed it back. After getting over the line in the first map Heroic slipped up on map two, meaning they had to go to the decider Mirage. Mirage was a one-sided affair as the Danes took it 16-6.

The result means Heroic progress to their second consecutive Major semi-final, after they placed second in IEM Rio, and will face the winner of GamerLegion and Monte. The team's Coach Richard "Xizt" Landström spoke to Dust2.us' Arnie Petty about Heroic's tendency to be the stage villains, the result and their potential semi-final opponents.

Firstly Xizt gave his initial thoughts on the game, and in particular Overpass which the Danish side lost 16-12 after FaZe used some of the Heroic trademark CT-side aggression on the Danes.

Obviously super happy, that we managed to win. I think overpass we started to play our game, information on CT too late. Credit to FaZe they had some really good pushes when they were CT on Overpass they caught us in the flank a few times when we didn't expect it, well played to them. Obviously super happy with the result.

Despite nearly dropping their massive advantage on Nuke and losing the second map, Xizt says the team were never worried about losing control of the game. The key for the Swedish Coach was the team reverting back to more default rounds and not relying so heavily on set rounds.

I wouldn't say scared, I think we had things pretty much under control, we lost a few set rounds where they stacked correctly because of information. We could have played it a bit faster but then we did some defaults and they worked pretty well. I don't think we were super nervous, we played pretty good.

The team showed some mental toughness to not let the momentum swing all the way in favor of FaZe, especially after the Overpass loss. As a Coach Xizt has the responsibility of calling timeouts and ensuring his team's heads don't drop. However, Xizt believes the key is in the preparation rather than trying to stop his team losing control in the moment.

It's really hard, if they are all stressed and losing it a bit it's hard to stop. It's more about preparation before the game, and what we can do to prevent it from happening, that's our focus point for this event is to be prepared as possible for having a bad map or bad side.

Another big talking point around the Heroic side is how they always seem to end up villains in the Arenas. With the team being young it could be a hard propposition to deal with, to have thousands of fans booing you. Xizt explains how at the start it was a tricky thing to deal with, but the team know that the cause of the jeers is often not to do with them but their previous contrevsial Coach Nicolai "HUNDEN" Petersen.

In the beginning, it was really hard for us to deal with, we are a pretty young team, and as you said it's the first time I have tried it. We just have to accept it, we had a good win in Denmark when the crowd was with us. It's sad, it's most likely because of the previous coach, a lot of teams or fans hate us because of that.

With Heroic progressing it means they will face either GamerLegion or Monte in the semi-final, in theory a much easier match up than the FaZe team they have just beaten. However, both teams looked good on their Major campaign so far and Xizt is not taking either of them lightly, ensuring they will to their proper prep regardless of what team they face.

Both teams look really good, Monte we played against them in the RMR, it was a really tight game if I recall. We are going to do all the prep we need to do regardless of who we are playing. Especially in the semi-finals of the Major there are no bad teams.

Heroic finished second at IEM Rio, the last Major, losing to Outsiders (Virtus.pro). Now they have a very strong chance of taking themselves back in a Major Grand Final and this time around they will be looking to not finish second best. The key in the Swedish legends eyes is for the team to focus on their own game and not worry about the team.

That's the tournament goal, our plan is to not change things up too much. no matter who we are playing, whether it's a final or a semi-final, do the things we normally do and we will be fine.

Heroic will find out their semi-final opponent tomorrow after GamerLegion and Monte have faced off in their Quarter-final match.