End of an era: cadiaN's time with Heroic reviewed

Even though it's now been two months since cadiaN was benched by Heroic, it's still hard to imagine the Danish team without him.

With Fall Final over, the IGL has played his last event with the organisation, and we want to look back at his time with them.

A truly unforgettable few years, Counter-Strike won't be the same without cadiaN's heroic.

The start

cadiaN joined Heroic in 2019 after five months inactive with North. Signed to be their AWPer while Snappi was still at the helm, it wasn't long before he took the reigns.

The move started off well as Heroic claimed victory at Dreamhack Open Atlanta, and they would maintain results capable of keeping them firmly in the top 20.

The next few months were strange, Heroic were signed by FunPlus Phoenix, although that move broke down a month later and both Snappi and es3tag were benched.

It was at this point that COVID-19 took over the globe and Counter-Strike was sent into its online era, but that only signalled the beginning of Heroic's rise to the top of the ranking.

Photo: Michal Konkol

The peak

While many teams were riddled with inconsistency during the online era, the same could not be said for cadiaN's Heroic.

The team won several smaller events, but their crowning moment came as they won ESL One: Cologne 2020 Europe, dominating Vitality 3-0 in the final.

That wasn't the only final they would win against Vitality in 2020 either. Heroic would later defeat the Frenchmen 3-2 in the final of Dreamhack Open Fall 2020.

For the remainder of 2020, Heroic remained a consistent playoff contender. Often finishing events within the quarter-finals, this improved to repeated semi-final contention in early 2021.

It didn't take long in 2021 for Heroic to claim another prize, this time at ESL Pro League Season 13. They took down Gambit in a thrilling 3-2 final, but there was no moment as great as when cadiaN pulled off his iconic 1v4 clutch at championship point.

The return to LAN

When Counter-Strike returned to LAN, Heroic remained one of the best teams in the world.

They are the only team to have made the playoffs at all four Majors since LAN returned, a run that started at PGL Stockholm 2021.

Heroic even made the final of one of those Majors, the IEM Rio Major. Sadly though, they fell to Outsiders as a different AWP IGL, Jame, claimed his first Major at the expense of cadiaN.

In the years since COVID, Heroic have remained a consistent force at the top of the HLTV rankings, but despite this, they had trouble winning trophies.

BLAST Premier Fall Final 2022 and BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023 were both won by the Danish squadron, but they fell at the final hurdle in Rio twice and at IEM Katowice 2023.

For all their successes, the time was ultimately overshadowed by their failure to convert deep runs into tournament victories at some of the most prestigious events, however, we consider this to be an unfair verdict.

In the past few years Heroic have had to come up against some of the best teams in recent memory. Considering their players in relation to the players on those teams, Heroic have overperformed, and a lot of that is down to cadiaN.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

cadiaN's style

cadiaN's Heroic could only overperform because of the style he implemented.

A form of controlled chaos, cadiaN's style is heavy metal and aggressive, it featured some of the greatest teamwork witnessed in the past few years. It was a style that meant that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts, and that style may be impossible to recreate with his new team.

In the international team meta, one of the positives of being in a national team is the greater level of communication that comes from five players talking in their native language. Communicating in Danish allowed Heroic to be something other teams couldn't be, and it allowed cadiaN to make incredible calls time and time again.

While we're sure cadiaN will succeed with his new team, the loss of speaking Danish may mean that compromises have to be made with style, and that will be a shame for the world of Counter-Strike.

It's the end of an era and cadiaN's Heroic will be sorely missed, but we can't wait to see what's next for both cadiaN and his former organisation.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren