cadiaN: "I'm not here to be average. I'm here to be the best"
There was plenty of excitement when cadiaN signed for Liquid after his unceremonious departure from Heroic, but thus far things have failed to go they way the Danish IGL would have liked.
With Liquid heartbreakingly failing to reach the first CS2 Major and also the first Major in his home country, we caught up with cadiaN about how he's feeling about the team's development and future now that they have some LAN events in the pipeline.
"I expected there would be some struggles"
You've had three or four months in the team now, how is it feeling in the team following results that have been up and down?
I think that, of course, I expected there would be some struggles and that it would be difficult, but I think even I underestimated it and the boys have been a little bit surprised with some of the struggles we've been facing.
I think, looking at the other teams who made similar moves like Astralis, Falcons, the people who ripped up their core, it's shown that it isn't easy in the current Counter-Strike scene to get to where you want to be even if you have the individual prowess.
So, yeah, there's been some struggles, but I truly believe that we're getting better day by day. Could it be quicker? Yes, it could, but, I think we're still trying to get to know each other better.
For you as the IGL building the system, the only players on Liquid that you have now that are really comparable to anyone on Heroic would be maybe NAF and sjuush, so surely you've had to build an entirely new system, right? How's that challenge been?
I think there are a lot of different philosophies and play styles at play here. We're of course trying to take some of the things from how we played in Heroic, but I think we're not playing anywhere close to the same style.
I'm not saying that's a bad thing, either but yeah, it’s different players, different personalities and also for them a different kind of in-game leader. That apparently just takes a bit more than three months to get used to.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenWhat do you think the biggest issue is right now?
I think it's about making sure everyone feels more comfortable with each other and in the system, because I think that's the main thing right now, that we're not all aligned in how we want to play and we're not getting the most strength out of everyone. The biggest job is to try and figure out how we do that.
When your roster was formed you released the video of the retreat you went on. It was a very emotional video that looked like the mood in the team was really good and that you were building a real family relationship, is that still the case?
It's a good question, I'm not sure I have the perfect answer to that. I think the retreat was really good and the status was really good. I think everyone, myself included at times, just has high expectations, and I think expectations are good, but it can also really hinder you. When you then face some adversity and some losses, and you shouldn't have, it just hits you harder. There are a lot of good people, but there are also a lot of things that need to be changed in the upcoming months for us to succeed. I hope we'll get there together.
Let’s talk about skullz, there's a couple of analysts who may be a bit more critical of him, and he came in as this raw player. How has he developed?
I think he's learning a lot day by day still. I see a lot of the things that I and other players are telling him that he's picking up on it. I think there's also some key areas where he's sticking true to what he wants and showing what he's capable of. But of course, there's a difference between playing in tier two or three CS and then maybe every six months playing a big event to playing them all the time and playing with these names and stuff like that.
I think he definitely has a good heart. For me, it's all about him being willing to put in the extra time. If he does that, I'm sure he'll be rewarded, but he needs to do it.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenIn terms of yourself, it looks like sometimes maybe you're struggling a bit more on CS two than you were on CS:GO. How are you feeling about the game? Do you feel like you're struggling more?
Well, I'm definitely not a top twenty player in CS2 right now, like I was in the last year of CS:GO [laughs]. I think there are just a lot of small things, a new game, new teammates, new system philosophies, and all this.
At the end of the day, I'm responsible for trying to make the overall picture work. Sometimes when you are emphasising a lot on that, you forget yourself a little bit in the picture and that definitely happens once in a while.
I think with time and more structure, I will find my form. I'm definitely aiming to do that. I'm not here to be average. I'm here to be the best.
In terms of the results over the last few months, it's obvious which one's going to sting the most, so we don’t need to talk about that one, but at the other events, which one of the qualifier events was the most disappointing?
Well at BLAST [Spring Groups] we lost to G2 and FaZe who are both playing in the semi-finals of the major today. So what can you say?
At Chengdu, we lost to M80 in a close game and they were playing really well. That one hurt, but in the end, we've got the invite anyway.
So other than the obvious RMR one, more or less this season has been what you could expect. I think just the schedule and the lack of tournaments and starting with zero points, not entirely sure how and why and how other teams could keep points and we couldn't and all this, I'm not so too much of an expert in the rules, but it's definitely fucked us, having no Katowice and this and that.
Yeah, it's hard. Also, we had no seeding for the RMR and whatever, all these sorts of things.
Because you had no Katowice and presumably that would have given you more time to get used to being a team. How much do you think now having Chengdu is going to help you guys?
Time will tell. It depends on our performance, you know? It could mean a lot. It could also mean nothing.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenAre you excited for it though? Do you feel like it is going to be good?
Yeah, I hope so. We've been practising a lot these days when the Major has been going on, we’ve had long days, we’ve done what we can to be prepared.
People had to leave to go to their home countries, Canada and Brazil and so on to apply for visas, so we also lost at least one week of full practice. So conditions have been suboptimal, but we're not in a world right now where we can aim to have perfect conditions all the time.
So in terms of the qualifiers, you're up against the NA teams, are there any in particular that impressed you? You were there a while ago, but you were on one of the underdog teams that were the ones impressing people. Is there any that now the script has flipped that are impressing you?
I think that to be honest, a lot of the NA teams have actually played better than I expected. When analyzing the games, there's definitely some structure to some of it. Some ideas behind what they're doing. It's not just fully random.
They also have some people who are hitting some good shots. So I think the NA scene is definitely on the rise.
I'm not sure if there's one team in particular that has surprised me, but I think the NA scene is definitely in a more healthy place than it was a year or two ago.
Do you think there are any players that you'll see in tier one soon? Maybe the type of players that will make that European jump to get there?
I'm not sure. I'm not sure there's anyone who would, but I would just love to see some of the NA teams participate in more of the European competitions. Recently they have definitely been struggling a lot when coming. You know, when Nouns came back to EU and stuff like that, it didn't work out. But I would love to see if that has changed.
Finally, you've got the show match, are you looking forward to that?
Yeah, I think it's going to be fun, meeting the Danish fans on the stage. They're now at the signing session and they're all super intrigued and happy.
At least there are still two Danish players in the tournament, too. But of course, it's been a lacklustre Major for the Danish scene. And it's a shame because the Danish scene has been in such a good spot for so many years. And when we then finally get the Major, we are not able to put the heroes on the stage the way they deserve. But that's the name of the game. So the show match it will be.
Do you think the Danish crowd is still going to get to celebrate a Danish Major winner?
Highly likely, I would say. For me, both FaZe and the G2 are favourites in their semi-finals. In that case, two Danes would meet each other in the final and one of them would win.