nicoodoz: "When you get benched, all the pressure is off your shoulders"

On the last day of the group stage, HEROIC knocked out the reigning Major champions NAVI from the American tournament, eliminating the top-five team with fervor. Part of the HEROIC constellation which so brilliantly shone was their benched AWPer, Nico "nicoodoz" Tamjidi, off the bench for one final event with the international team.

After the match, Dust2.us' Daniel "Scoobster" Khurgin spoke with nicoodoz about his performance, the game, and his future plans off of HEROIC.

The full transcription is available underneath, or you can watch the YouTube video below.

What went right in that matchup that allowed you to defeat the reigning Major champions?

Before the game we had some prep, we saw the way they played and knew we had a really good chance to beat their playstyle. It was pretty simple to play against and we were confident that we were gonna know what they were gonna do and we had plans against that. We just executed well and won the game.

You personally, you've had a pretty good individual performance this event so far, is there anything you can attribute that to?

Mainly being benched, honesty. When you get benched, all the pressure is off your shoulders. I have nothing to lose at this point, I just have to show my highest level of performance so I have chances of getting another good team after this one. I'm just doing my best for the team. I still appreciate all of them, I enjoy playing with them, so there's no bad blood.

Speaking of being benched, do you consider this event as a sort of advertisement for yourself?

In some way, yeah, but I'm also here just to do my job. Before I even got benched, I knew that I was gonna play this event nearly no matter what due to visa issues. I was always mentally prepared to come here and play.

Because degster has been with the team for a couple weeks, have there been any issues with the team already developing their stratbook with him leaving you behind, or potentially keeping you in the dark about plays they've developed with him?

I'm really confident in my memory, so we didn't practice for three weeks with me but I still remember all the rounds we have and stuff like that. They've only had five practice days with degster because they've been at events, so they haven't added a lot of new stuff. There was a couple new rounds, mainly on Dust2 which we haven't played yet thankfully, but they haven't changed too much yet. I know they most likely will change some stuff, but for now, I know everything that we do.

And they're integrating you in the plans they made with degster?

I mean, yeah. They show me some stuff he came with and I'm still doing some of my old stuff, so it's been a good learning experience as well, learning from another AWPer, seeing what kind of moves he has in some rounds. It's pretty good.

After this win over NAVI, you're one match away from playing in the arena, what would it mean for you to play in front of a crowd?

It would be an amazing feeling to end it with a crowd game with this team. We've had a few good runs in tournaments but never made it to arena games, so for me, honestly, it would be a perfect ending.

Speaking about that matchup, you're playing Virtus.Pro or BIG, do you have any thoughts on that game?

I think we're really confident in both matchups. We lost in the opening game to VP and we watched the game back and knew a lot of the stuff we have to work on. There may have been some jitters or rustiness cause we haven't played with me for three weeks, but I think we're really confident in both matchups.

After HEROIC, do you have any thoughts about returning to the Danish scene or is this experience in an international team leaving you more open to that type of opportunity?

I'm open to all kind of offers, international, national, I'll see what feels best for me. I'll go with what feels most comfortable.

Have you had any offers to be an AWPer or part-time AWPer on another team?

I've had different offers as a rifler and as an AWPer. I'm still kind of figuring out what I want to do in the future. I would say I'm leaning more towards being an AWPer because I think I need that freedom as a player to really perform.

Can you talk a bit about your playstyle on why you sometimes pick up the rifle instead of an AWP?

I just think it brings a lot of flexibility to CT and T-sides where you can move around the map a lot more without making noise and faster. Sometimes with the AWP, you're more limited in a way, like you want to search angles but it's gonna take so long, so having a rifle sometimes can speed up the game and be more flexible.