In February, Valve announced a $1 Million prize pool for each of their CS:GO Major Championships, a huge boost from their previous $250,000 purse. The first of these events is MLG: Columbus, the first ever Major to be held in North America and the largest Counter-Strike tournament of all time. Playing host to 16 of the best teams on the planet, the event is arguably one of the most talent-loaded we've ever seen. We spoke with Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth, co-owner and support player of Astralis, on what motivates him to play the game, his most recent performance at CounterPit, and competing at MLG: Columbus.
You recently took second place at CounterPit. What went wrong in the last map on Mirage? There is a lot of discussion about how Astralis will typically prevail over lower ranked teams and fall just short of advancing or winning against other top teams. Is there something to this, or is it simply the way things happen to fall?
It's right that we [deliver] against underdog teams, but struggle against higher class teams. In general, you could say we struggle in late tournament playoffs. Semifinals must be the prime example of where the road stops for us in most tournaments. However, finals do occur and it's a pretty even split between being champions or becoming second. The competition is so high now and we see teams like Navi and Luminosity jumping the rankings, while other teams still manage to play at their high level.
We talked about the third map, and we could all agree that Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács was a beast the whole series. But it seemed like we shut down completely and we didn't really play our own game, mostly individually. It's something we are working on fixing.
What is communication like in game? When you're behind, does your focus shift to one particular thing? How do you keep a positive mentality under pressure?
Our communication in-game is also something we are working on improving, not only when we get into pressured situations, but also just in general. It's an area we are lacking a bit in. Obviously communication will be more stressful when the pressure is on, but you can try and optimize, which is something we are working on doing.
Keeping a positive mentality during pressured situations comes with experience. Learning how to deal with it yourself is something you learn over time!
What do you do together as a team in your downtime? Do you have any hobbies outside of the game?
Usually people play other games such as The Division, Overwatch, League of Legends and other type of games with each other. We live apart from each other, so we don't get to spend time in real life, only when we are at events. But usually we are so busy looking at opponents and other stuff. In general we don't really have much downtime. But going to the gym at events is also something we do very often.
What is your biggest motivation to play and compete in CS:GO? Is it a love of the game, or something else?
Well it's been my hobby since 1.6 and I've been playing since 2006. I became professional in 2013 (professional = getting salary for playing), and I've enjoyed it the whole time. The moment I stop enjoying it, which will probably be never, I will stop playing. Obviously it's great with all the money, fans and being some of the best in the world among millions. However, enjoying the game is always going to be my priority when thinking about keeping my motivation high.
With MLG: Columbus just around the corner, how is the team preparing? What is a typical day for you?
We have been bootcamping for five days in Copenhagen prior to the event. We have been focusing on renewing ourselves in terms of strategies. Usually a day for us at the bootcamp would be wake up at 10-11 a.m. and eat breakfast. The ones who wants to go gym goes there, and the rest will go warm up. When the clock hits 2 p.m. we go over strats for 2-3 hours and things we can improve on. Then we play practice games until 7 p.m., then we have a food break and people can rest a bit, and then we play again at 8 p.m. until 12 p.m.. Then we go back to the hotel and sleep around 1-2 a.m. So a quite busy schedule we have had, and I hope it shows in our play.
Not felt the same excitement for the previous majors as I do for this one! Damn I just wanna play! Cant wait😊
— Andreas Højsleth (@Xyp9x) March 29, 2016
With this being the largest prize pool of any Major so far, is there an additional motivation to win, or is the trophy your ultimate goal?
It's not about the money for us. It's about winning our first major. We never won one, and we really need to show, that we can perform in the biggest tournaments. Winning other events means nothing if we can't deliver the same in the majors.
This is the first time a Major has been held in North America. What are you looking forward to most about travelling here?
I've been in North America a couple of times, always enjoyed it. People are nice, food is great, I've never been in Columbus, so will be great to visit that for the first time, and check it off the list of visited places in the world.
What has been your favorite event so far? What is your most memorable moment competing?
Must be ESL One Cologne 2015. But to be honest I think MLG will top it in Columbus. I care that there is a lot of fans, everything is run smooth and meeting my secret expectations such as setup for players, hotel, flights, food and other stuff.
There are some who consider this to be the most stacked event in terms of teams and talent. What do you think? Are there any teams you'd like to see competing that aren't?
I agree that this is the most stacked event to date. You could make a case for changing one or two teams from teams that have been left out. But I think the qualification process for the majors is starting to become something really worthy. Remember when teams had to qualify, while being DDoSed, and losing a major spot because of that? Rarely happens anymore. However I'd like to see as much movement towards offline matches as possible, and I'm sure that time is soon to come.
Heading into the event, Fnatic is a heavy favorite to win. In the past, you've been able to take them down a fair share of times, though more recently they have seemingly broke ahead of the rest of the pack. What makes them such a threat, and what's it like playing against their current form?
After they changed out Markus "pronax" Wallsten they almost seem unbeatable. However I think their success comes from them being superior at the game. All five of them are very skilled individuals and they all assist in each other weaknesses. It seems like they have a hard time playing against Luminosity, and maybe their playstyle is the answer to beating Fnatic.
You were placed into a group with EnVyUs, Gambit Gaming, and CLG. How do you feel about the strength of your group and can we expect you to come out on top?
I expect we go through this group, just like I have done with all my teams at all majors. EnVyUs doesn't seem to be at their peak at the moment. We are of course never going to underestimate any of them, there is a reason why they are there. And that's for us to beat them.