Bubzkji's pro career may have been short-lived, but he is quickly building a reputation for having one of the greatest minds in the game.
The Dane is returning as an analyst once more for BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2024 and in the run-up to the event we spoke to him about all things Danish CS.
Read on to hear his views on the development of Heroic, gla1ve's heroics with ENCE, Astralis' woes, and what it means to have ECSTATIC be the only full Danish team who will feature at the PGL Copenhagen Major.
Heroic have now qualified for the Major and had a decent run at IEM Katowice, are you surprised by how well this team is doing with such a short amount of time?
"I feel like I was one of the few who had some faith in the trio of kyxsan, NertZ and sjuush. Nertz has obviously exceeded many expectations. Everybody knew he was good, and rookie of the year speaks for itself. But at this stage in Heroic he’s taken over games - It almost felt like he won that crucial game vs Astralis by himself.
If you can get nicoodoz up and running against better teams on LAN, this team is definitely a consistent playoffs-contender team."
Previously, you said this about TeSeS: “TeSeS for me is strange, sometimes he has incredible aim and on his worst days he looks a bit lost. I would love to see TeSeS develop even further with an international roster” - how are you feeling about his development within this international roster so far?
"I do think he’s a bit one-dimensional in his ways of playing. Many people underestimate his aim, as on his good days he’s actually an incredible rifler. As this is also a completely new environment for TeSeS, I believe it will be great to have a lot of different perspectives from new voices in the likes of sAw, NertZ and kyxsan who can all bring feedback from former teams."
What are your general thoughts on ENCE with gla1ve? Are you surprised by how well he’s managing to lead the team despite being the only person on the team who isn't Polish?
"Whelp. I was one of the biggest doubters of ENCE, not necessarily because of the roster itself, but more because of the national combination of five Poles and one Dane. In my mind, it was a temporary solution, as getting a more international roster of players in the future seems inevitable.
It’s an amazing story for gla1ve and Polish CS, they seem to have something unique."
Was it unfair to him that people were doubting him because of how it ended with Astralis?
"Generally, I just think Astralis needed a change after 3-5 years in a weird period, and it seems like the right timing to try a new IGL. I also think the benching of Lukas gave him a spark to get back to his former strength. His motivation and feelings shine right through recent interviews."
Speaking of Astralis, what do you think the issues with the team have been so far?
"Well, from the outside it just seems like a mess once again. The extension of blameF 6 months ago is again questionable, as he’s now benched. Leadership was clearly lacking, and the tweet from device mid-tournament was an eye-opener to the outside. The second they lost that last RMR game, it felt like they lost hope in a relatively new line-up."
What are your thoughts on benching blameF and making dev1ce IGL? Do you see them being long-term?
"Well, I'm gonna be completely honest. I have no idea what to say that could be smart. From my own experiences of playing with device, he has never expressed a desire to be an IGL. Obviously, stuff changes over time, and it could be the right step in his career.
From the outside, it seems more like they needed to remove blameF instantly than device wanting to be an IGL right now."
What about br0 as blameF’s replacement, what are your thoughts on him and how he might fix potential role issues?
"He does fit in quite well on a scale of predetermined roles. The context is just how communication will flow with device being the leader. And who will take the responsibility for the tactical identity going forward, will it be more of a teamwork thing? Or will device and ruggah control most of the stuff? It will be interesting to find out."
Do stavn and jabbi need to step up in the wake of the loss of blameF’s firepower?
"I can’t see a world where they don’t improve. Even though blameF is a fantastic rifler in his raw duels, he does take quite a lot of space in a team. With his exit, there should be more room for stavn and jabbi to also be star players. It’s needed more than ever, stavn is supposed to be the next big star in Denmark."
Finally, how happy were you to see ECSTATIC make the Major? How do you expect them to do in Copenhagen?
"They had a good run at the RMR. It’s absolutely crazy that the first big event for many of these players is gonna be a Major on home soil. Talk about the stars aligning at the best possible time.
The teamplay and work of the roster is what we’re gonna have an eye for. They don’t have that superstar player, so they rely a lot on great fundamentals and communication. It will also be interesting to see how they handle pressure at the major, but in their mind, they already did the impossible. So nothing can really go too bad from here."
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