Interview with Buzz from Astralis: “We don’t want to lose because we played badly, but because the other team played really well.”

Ahead of the playoffs of ESL Pro League S18, we spoke to Buzz from Astralis and asked him a few questions. Here’s the interview:

Astralis managed to climb 20 positions in the global rankings in the last 4 months, and for the first time in the last few years, you’re back to being a top 5 team. Can you tell me a little bit about what’s going on internally and how you’ve managed to achieve this result?

Right now, we’re all playing the roles we’re supposed to play. And internally, we have really good chemistry. We’re having a lot of fun no matter what we do.

Is that the key? If you guys have fun being around each other, does that make you naturally much better, or have you changed your training routines, mentality, and so on?

We changed a lot of things. We have a new IGL, so a lot of stuff changed, from training routines to how we approach the game. We tried to find the best solution that fits this team.

We’re thrilled to announce that our in-game leader @blameFFFFF has extended his contract with us 🤩

Sports Director @kasperstraube: Benjamin has proven his potential and is becoming a strong, modern leader.

Get blameF’s reaction below 👇

— Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) September 21, 2023

You’ve been part of Astralis for 10 months. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned while competing alongside device and blameF? Do they coach you in any way?

Of course. They help me with everything. They have a lot of experience that I can learn from. Every day, I can learn something new, which makes my progress much easier.

What are your team’s objectives in the playoffs of this tournament?

We’re going to talk about that later, amongst ourselves. The ultimate goal would be to win the tournament. But our focus is simply to keep playing in official matches as we do in practice. When you’re under pressure, you can forget some of the things that you’ve agreed to do with your teammates.

We don’t want to lose because we played badly, but because the other team played really well. At this tournament, the pressure isn’t as big as usual because we’re not competing in a typical arena environment. So we’re trying to just have fun and do what we usually do in practice.

Your next opponent, Eternal Fire, defeated 9INE, Cloud9, and Team Liquid. Are you scared of them, or are you confident going into this match?

I wouldn’t say we’re scared of them. I think we’re pretty confident but of course, we also respect them. As they’ve already shown, they can play good CS. It won’t be an easy match, that’s for sure. But if we play according to our own plan, we’re gonna take the match.

Ok. Buzz, thank you for the interview, and good luck at the tournament!

Thank you!

Header: Astralis