Given the historical success of Astralis in Counter-Strike and the recent strengthening to their roster with the signings of Martin “stavn” Lund and Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard, it was a surprise to see them fail to make the Major, however, that didn’t mean that Denmark was without representation at the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024.
Instead, it was a far lesser-known team that flew the flag of one of Counter-Strike’s greatest nations at the event, ECSTATIC. A young team who first appeared on the CS radar by attending a couple of ESL Challenger events in 2023, they impressed again during the Major cycle by making it all the way from the Open Qualifiers to the Elimination Stage of the first CS2 Major.
Following their appearance in the Showmatch, we spoke to ECSTATIC AWPer Jason “salazar” Salazar about the experience playing in front of the Danish crowd, his time standing in for Heroic, and the future of his team.
Bo3: How was the Showmatch? Was it a good experience to play in front of the Danish crowd?
salazar: Yeah, it was fun. It was a little, not nerve-racking, but there was excitement in my body walking out onto the stage and just looking out at the packed arena.
Bo3: Is it the type of thing that gives you more motivation for the future?
salazar: Yeah, of course. Just playing in front of a crowd on the big stage at a very big tournament gives me more motivation.
Bo3: Let's talk about the Major itself; ECSTATIC was the only full Danish team in attendance, was that a surprise to you?
salazar: Yeah, I would say so. I'm not sure if you'd count Heroic when they still have a Danish core, but it was quite surprising to be the only full Danish team. I think we all expected Astralis to make it, but in the end we were the only team and we came as a surprise as well from the Open Qualifier all the way to the top 16 at the Major.
Bo3: What about the actual experience of playing the Major, what was that like?
salazar: It was amazing. It's always great to play on LAN, it's a lot more fun than playing online just meeting all the people and meeting all the pros, talking to them, meeting the talent team, et cetera. It's fun, I like it.
Bo3: How are you summing up the games you had?
salazar: We haven't really talked about the tournament as a team yet because when we got knocked out the Major was still on so nobody was home, but to sum it all up, it was probably one of the best scenarios there could be other than winning the Major or playing in the arena. Coming all the way from the Open Qualifier to the top 16 is a dream come true for all of us, just playing the Major would be, but top 16 is probably the best scenario.
Bo3: Now you guys have played the Major, hopefully other TOs will be thinking about you more, what are you hoping it will be doing for you as a team for the rest of the year?
salazar: The future will tell, I guess. I don't really know which tournaments we will end up playing, but I think that we will get more invites, we have the HLTV and Valve rankings on our side so I guess we'll get more invites to ESL tournaments. Hopefully there'll be a lot more LAN matches this year.
Bo3: Individually then, you stood in for Heroic at the end of last year as well as playing a couple of ESL Challengers with ECSTATIC, what did you learn from that time playing in tier one that was different to playing at the Major or prepared you for the Major?
salazar: I think factoring in those ESL Challengers, at those two events I was much more nervous. Coming into the tournament with Heroic at BLAST World Final I think I just got along with them all very well and they have all the mental coaches and I think he helped me a lot, and so did the players themselves to go away from the nervousness and just go with the excitement.
I think I took a lot of that with me to both the Open and Closed Qualifiers for the Major, and also the RMR in Bucharest and the Major itself. I think I learned a lot from all those LAN events to not be so nervous and think about my performance and the result and just be excited to play at LAN and do my best and enjoy what I'm doing.
Bo3: There's not actually too many AWPers from Denmark, do you think that's something that could help you in your career because it makes you stand out more?
salazar: Yeah, I think so. I think everyone, the whole community, knows that Denmark is very good at communicating and with nades and I think that also helps me a lot when I'm also the only AWPer in Denmark.
Bo3: cadiaN recently told BLAST that Denmark has had a great history in Counter-Strike but that many of the heroes didn't make it to the Major or didn't perform at the Major; ECSTATIC is such a young team, do you think you guys are the team that can help put it back on top?
salazar: Yeah, I hope so, for the whole team even if we are together or not. I hope that we can all play at the tier one events and meet each other even if we are on other teams. I know everyone on the team has the capability and the mindset to do it, so of course, I hope that we can be the new Danish players.
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