Astralis shocked the CS2 community as they beat Natus Vincere, the world’s #1 ranked team, in their opening match, something that people speculated to be one-sided the other way around. They also went onto beat MOUZ before eventually losing to Team Spirit in the semi-finals. Even though they lost 2-1, the match was clearly one-sided as the map that Team Spirit conceded was Vertigo where they had little to no experience playing previously.
What did cadiaN say?
After being eliminated from BLAST Premier World Final, cadiaN gave a long monologue to HLTV about his reflections on the team’s performance:
"We had a pretty good feeling of how we wanted to play, and I think most of the time we executed it well. It is really the small, narrow things where we made missteps, which you get punished for. I think we were on the right track, winning the pistol on the third map, and then we lost a pretty brutal force. Then we never really got going. They played good CS, called the right things in the right moments. They hit some good shots, and they were patient when we kind of did the re-aggression. Spirit is a good team. A tough opponent today. We didn't play our best, especially on maps one and three,” cadiaN commented on their game against Team Spirit.
"I think we saw that our game as a team has elevated in terms of structure and strategies. I think the two T sides on Vertigo are prime examples of how well we can play as a team when we know what's going on. Going home and working on equalizing and making that happen on more maps is something we're looking forward to. I think it's a big upside to see our level against No.1, 4 and 5 in the world like this. Ending the week with five map wins and two losses. I'll take that," cadiaN expresses optimism over the team’s performance at the tournament.
"I saw some people being a little bit angry about the headline that you did in the last interview about me saying that you're not going to see the best version of Astralis in 2024. But, I mean, by the end of the year, we will have played together for maybe two and a half months. If you expect the best out of any team at that point then you don't love CS the way I do, with kind of getting philosophies and strategies into detail. Because that takes time. That doesn't mean we can't perform like we did here. And I think that definitely also raises the ambition of what's possible for the RMR and the Major,” cadiaN concluded.
Astralis are now focusing on the the Europe RMR B tournament, where they will face 9 Pandas in the first round.
