Analysis: What happened with Heroic?
Just five months ago, Heroic were celebrating victory at BLAST Premier Spring Final in Washington D.C.
Now, less than half a year later, the Danish team find themselves with just two permanent players on their active roster, and the saga that led to that has been one of the craziest in Counter-Strike history.
Let's take a look at the last couple of months for Heroic - and identify where it went wild.
The first rumblings
You could argue that Heroic haven't been the same since the BLAST.tv Paris Major. The team gave it all to overcome FaZe in the quarter-finals, and the subsequent loss against GamerLegion was soul-destroying for fans.
That being said, Heroic then went on to win their very next event at BLAST Premier Spring Final, so you couldn't think that's where the problems started to occur.
Photo: Michal KonkolInstead, we think you should look further ahead to ESL Pro League Season 18, where the team bombed out in 21st-28th place after losses to BIG, MOUZ, and Monte.
With just one win at the event against Australian minnows Rooster, it was an unacceptable result for a team we are used to seeing at the top.
This was especially true when it came just weeks after losing a Danish Derby game to Astralis at IEM Cologne.
The captain doesn't go down with the ship
Weeks later, the Counter-Strike world was rocked as the first domino fell, and Heroic's talismanic leader, cadiaN, was benched.
A massive shock, given everything cadiaN had done for the team.
It's a decision that fans and experts are still struggling to wrap their heads around, even with everything that has come afterwards.
As Heroic climbed to the top of the rankings in the past few years, cadiaN had been central to it all. Originally signed as the team's AWPer when Snappi was still IGL, it wasn't long before the 28-year-old took over the captaincy.
What followed for Heroic was a massive surge of growth during the online era, including wins at both IEM Cologne and ESL Pro League Season 13.
sjuush and TeSeS joined this time, and the roster looked set to continue their strong run into the return to LAN.
Although Heroic would struggle to convert deep runs into tournament victories when Counter-Strike did return to LAN gameplay, they remained a top team, and they only got better when jabbi arrived in place of refrezh.
Photo: Michal KonkolIn fact, outside of that blip at Pro League and their loss to Astralis (which was still in a playoff game), Heroic have never faltered in the past two years.
This year alone, they have been runners-up at IEM Katowice, winners at BLAST Premier Spring Final, and semi-finalists at the BLAST.tv Paris Major.
Their form in 2023 was hardly conducive to a team that needed to change as drastic as their IGL, so something else must have been at play.
cadiaN said as much during an interview with Luis Mira of Dexerto, saying: "We had talks on how to move forward and progress, and I think, ultimately, we had different visions on how we would achieve our goals. I wanted some changes and some people wanted a different way.”
At the time, this was confusing, but all would soon be revealed in one of the most shocking moments in recent Counter-Strike memory.
“I feel a lot of pride. Many people see me as the face of not just the CS team of Heroic but more or less the organization, you know? I have been able to build a team and a brand more or less from nothing. We didn’t have the funds or the same opportunities as the other teams at the beginning, and we fought our way up, becoming better and better with each and every small change, and the theory-crafting of how to play CS." - cadiaN, via ESL and BB Studio's "Game and Glory"
The trials of Jabbi
As cadiaN's interview with Dexerto continues, the Danish AWPer goes on to say this about his departure from Heroic:
“The main thing that fills my heart is pride, and I’m happy that I have spent so much of my career with such great players and amazing friends. There’s no grudge, we separate as friends." - cadiaN, via Dexerto
One could argue, that it's a line prototypical of the kind of PR that always gets spun after a big change like this. With cadiaN, it actually felt like there was truth to it.
The Heroic team had been through everything together, the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, but given the next roster update from Heroic, it seems that all mattered for very little in the end.
Even more shocking than the news of cadiaN's benching, stavn and jabbing both also being benched was impossible to comprehend, especially when it seemingly also involves them going behind their organisation's back to hold talks with national rivals, Astralis.
A toxic tale that no one would have ever expected to see come from a team that presented themselves as a family as much as Heroic did.
It feels like many chapters are yet to be told in this story.
Heroic to use stand-ins for Fall Final
With just two players remaining on their roster for BLAST Premier Fall Final 2023, Heroic had to turn to stand-ins in order to complete their roster for the event.
The first player to be announced was five-time CS:GO Major winner dupreeh, who has been without a team since being benched by Vitality earlier this year.
Former Copenhagen Flames player Zyphon will also stand in for Heroic at the event. Zyphon has been in good form for his current team, Sprout, in recent months, and with this opportunity to play in tier-one again, he'll be looking to make a statement.
The biggest story, however, is that cadiaN will return for what Heroic are calling his 'last dance'.
Victorious at BLAST Premier Fall Final 2022, can cadiaN lead his team to victory one last time at Fall Final 2023? Find out when the event takes place between November 22nd-26th, and catch all the action right here on BLAST.tv.