sjuush: "We made many mistakes and we were playing too passively"

Day one of IEM Cologne 2023 playoffs closed with another 2-0 loss, this time it was Astralis who beat their Danish rivals, Heroic. Right after the game, Dust2.us' Gonçalo "GoncOak" Carvalho talked with Rasmus "sjuush" Beck about the Danish derby, the recent Cologne results, and the Ancient CT-side.

You guys lost 2-0 against Astralis in the Danish derby. Does it feel even worse being out of Cologne because of a loss against your rivals?

Yeah, I guess so. It sucks to lose against another Danish team, there's nothing more to say.

Since Cologne 2020, which was played online and you guys won, Heroic hasn't been able to do well in IEM Cologne. Is it just bad luck or is it starting to become a mental block?

I think the last time we played it, we played badly. The time before that we got jabbi on the team, he was new to the team so he had to get into the team as well. I think we got through the curse, we are getting into playoffs, but we weren't playing that well. We made many mistakes and we were playing too passively, too afraid of taking chances and playing like Heroic do.

Can we talk about the Ancient CT-side? What do you have to say, what happened there?

We gave them too much space. It was always like "Can they be here? Yes, they can be. Can they be over there, as well? Yes, they can be there", we gave them so much space to do pretty much everything they wanted, and usually we are way better at communicating what is possible for them to do, and also, us reacting accordingly to what happens in the map so that we can push mid or push B or just get some and having some better reads. We didn't do a lot.

Would you say that that happened because of the stage?

I just think it's bad CS. I don't think it has anything to do with the pressure or anything.

Heroic's next event is Gamers8 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, starting on the 16th of August.