Heroic failed to reach the final of IEM Rio, suffering a 2-1 defeat in the semifinals to Natus Vincere. Damjan "kyxsan" Stoilkovski's team controlled the game on Ancient and the first half of Dust2, but NAVI managed an incredible comeback and confidently closed out the series on Mirage.
The defeat was especially painful for Heroic, but Rasmus "sjuush" Beck found positives in their tournament performance. "We beat Vitality, beat G2, and then faced NAVI, who are reaching the final for the sixth time in a row. We can be proud of this, even though it f**king hurts," sjuush said in an interview with HLTV.
Tough schedule ahead of next tournaments
Heroic won't have time to rest as they will be heading to the Elisa Masters Espoo in just a few days. sjuush admitted that the packed tournament schedule is tough for the team, especially considering that Heroic doesn't often reach the late stages of tournaments. "It can be tough, and next year looks even harder, but... (laughs) hopefully, we'll figure something out," he noted.
Match retrospective with NAVI
Commenting on their performance, sjuush noted that on Dust2, the team lost confidence and couldn't play strategically. "Once they started winning rounds, we lost that spark we had at the start, where one player gets the contact and hides while the other covers. We just started dying, opening paths for them," he explained. On Mirage, the situation was similar, but this time sjuush lost many one-on-one duels, which he believes could have changed the outcome of the game.
Fan support and future plans
Despite the loss, sjuush expressed surprise at the fan support following degster's performance in Portuguese. "Everyone just loved us, it was an incredible feeling," he said. Now Heroic will participate in the Elisa Masters Espoo, and sjuush noted that the team plans to take positive elements, such as confidence and teamwork on the server, which they showed in Rio.
Source: HLTV
Comments