Heroic’s incredible run at the PW Shanghai Major has come to an end in the Quarter-Finals after a tough loss to G2. The series started off looking like a sweep for Heroic, but quickly turned into a Stockholm 2021 flashback as NiKo’s monstrous CT-side on Nuke brought G2 back into the game.

Following the loss, we talked to Heroic’s AWPer degster about the team’s performance at the Major, their future ambitions, and how the player feels about his return to stage.

How did it feel to be back on the Major stage? It's your first playoffs since Antwerp back in 2022.

Thank you, first of all. Feels amazing honestly. I have one feeling that i wanna share. Professionally you shouldn't say that probably, but I'm a human, I am spending a lot of time to grind and to achieve something in this game. And the only thing I would like to say, I hope at one moment in my career, the crowd is cheering for me.

It doesn't affect me, for sure, because if it affects you, I think its bad. But the thing is, I already knew whatever happens, we're always gonna play against the people that will be cheered for, on the stage.

But if I need to say something about the crowd - Chinese fans you are amazing. I still love you, there is no bad feeling towards you. I like you guys, you are amazing, and I am happy that I was there. I have seen you guys cheering for the game and for your teams. I appreciate your support to the game. You guys are one of the best for sure, and I will always remember you in my life.

You guys had a tough run to get to the playoffs itself. In the playoffs you started with a win, and on Nuke the first half was looking pretty good too. Then NiKo starts to power up and slowly G2 gets going again. Could you talk about the feeling of the team in the server at that time?

I mean, there was no feeling that they are starting to play. But there was a force buy round that we lost, and I think that would have been really nice to win. The economy right now is not forgiving if you lose a force buy. That's how the game started to be much harder for us.

We had some rounds where we tried to use our strats, but in some rounds, there rotation was really fast. In one of them I'd like to see how they played the round, because it's hard to say from the server what they did. But they did a good job. They met us, probably where they shouldn't be. I'm not saying they shouldn't, but you don't expect three people to be on B.

I think they did a good job on Nuke CT side, it was nothing about them starting to play well, it was more about how they played and prepped.

Talking about Mirage now. Individually you had some incredible rounds, including the clutch on A. How do you feel about your own performance on Mirage and the series as a whole?

I mean, honestly, I did my best. Probably there could be some things I could do better, for sure. I will check it and I will find something. But I really wanted to win with my teammates, I love every one of them and I think we deserved to go through. Today G2 beat us, but there is no regrets. We did a good job and worked a lot during the season. The results didn't come, but that's the life. For me personally, I just did my best to help. That's how I think about it.

Looking forwards, you'll be heading into the break now and after that there's the packed 2025 calendar. What do you think Heroic can achieve in the upcoming year, taking the momentum from this year forwards?

If we look at the start of this season, there were some problems. I don't like that to be honest, but I would say Visa. When I joined, I couldn't get the US Visa because there were only 2-3 weeks till the tournament and that's why it was rough. Because when the guys came back from Dallas, we had a game the next day and they're fully jetlagged and playing 5 best of ones, where you don't get a chance to wake up if you had a bad first half for example. That was a really rough end of that season, and start of this season.

We got like a month to practice, then we go to BetBoom, then Rio Closed Qualifier, then Malta. Three tournaments in a row, we started to do good. We qualified for Rio, yeah we didn't do well at BetBoom, but then we fly to EPL and qualify to playoffs. I think we have 5-6 playoffs in a row, where we go to Semi-Finals or Grand Finals. Here we finish in Quarter-Finals, so the results are good. I think we are good as a team, but what I would like to achieve is winning a tier 1 tournament. I'll be really happy, you'll probably see me cry.

I expect us to win atleast one tournament next season, that would be nice. I don't want to put super high goals, because I think it's better to start step by step. And then if you achieve something, you can put another goal. But I think this should be one of our goals for next season, especially with so many tournaments.

Are we going to see the best of Degster in 2025?

I will do my best guys. Thanks to everyone who is cheering for the team and for me personally. I will keep my work up and do my best to show a better form than it was in this year. And honestly, I think we all will do better next season.

READ MORE: [Exclusive] Brollan on the match against Spirit in the Shanghai Major semifinals: "We played them many times and we won the majority of the games"

The Shanghai Major 2024 takes place from November 30th to December 15th in China. Teams are competing for a prize pool of $1.25 million. You can follow the news, schedule, and results of the CS2 Major at the link.