"It will definitely be closer than last time "- b0RUP comments on Astralis' opening match vs NIP at CS:GO ESL Pro League Season 18 and CS2 [Exclusive]

The CS:GO ESL Pro League Season 18 is set to start today with a whopping thirty teams participating in the S-tier event running through the entirety of September. The best teams from around the world will take part in determining the champions of the tournament and take one step closer to the IEM Grand Slam cash prize of $1 million.

Astralis is one of the teams that are expected to make playoffs, given their recent form. The Danish team has enjoyed great success over the past few months with great performances in Blast Premier Fall Groups and IEM Cologne 2023. One of the team's two new additions in b0RUP has been instrumental to their success.

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b0RUP shares his thoughts on Astralis' current team environment and individual performance, CS:GO ESL Pro League Season 18 and CS2

In an interview with N Siddarth from Sportskeeda Esports ahead of the CS:GO ESL Pro League Season 18, Astralis' Johannes "b0RUP" Borup spoke about the team's goals and preparations heading into the event, his individual form and the upcoming changes and possible meta shifts with the transition from CS:GO to CS2.

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Q: How have you been doing, and how has the team prepared for an event of this size?

b0RUP: I think the preparation has been going great and the mood has been great. We have also had some good practice days ahead of this following event. We know what we have been working on to prepare for certain matchups, so I think the preparation has been pretty good.

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Q: Astralis have been in pretty good form recently at big events such as Blast Fall Groups and IEM Cologne. How has the team's environment been so far?

b0RUP: I think the atmosphere is amazing. I think it carries through into the game as well. Our friendship outside of the game brings a lot of mood to the in-game aspects which just makes us able to play in a certain way and come back in tough situations because we have such a good time.

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Q: When you were announced as one of the members of the roster, a lot of people had doubts surrounding your performance as you were in the tier-2 scene for quite a while. How did you react to that, and did coming back to the tier-1 scene boost your motivation?

b0RUP: I have not been focusing too much on the comments. I get a lot of positive feedback from the people that matter a lot to me. So, I do not really care too much about what people write about me on social media and the news sites and whatever because I do not usually gain anything from it. So, I focus on listening to people that matter to me.

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Q: Who are some opponents that you would like to face at this event? Do you also have any up-and-coming players in this tournament that fans will have to keep an eye out for?

b0RUP: Regarding any talents in this event, I am not so sure who to have an eye on. I think Martinez from Movistar Riders is pretty good with the AWP, but he has been playing with them for quite some time, so he is not that much of a rookie talent anymore. But I think he is quite good.

Regarding any opponents that we want to meet, I think there is not any particular opponent we would rather meet. We prepare the same way for all the opponents, and I do not think there is any opponent we will have an easier time against.

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Q: Speaking of opponents, your first match will be against Ninjas in Pyjamas, who have had their ups and downs recently. Since they are quite a highly inconsistent team, is there any special preparation that you have for them in particular, or is it just the same as all the other teams?

b0RUP: It is the exact same. Obviously, the map veto is going to be different, but we do not put less effort into any other team. We put the same effort in all the teams we meet. We work equally hard for all the opponents, and I think it is going to be quite a good matchup against Ninjas in Pyjamas, and it will definitely be closer than the last time.

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Q: Astralis most recently participated in the Pinnacle Cup and went against 00Nation. Unfortunately, you were not able to close out the series despite that incredible comeback on Overpass. Could this result be chalked up to the fact that you were slightly less prepared, and more of the preparation time went into ESL Pro League?

b0RUP: No, we put just as much effort into that game as anything else. I think they played some amazing CS:GO, and we did not play as well as we usually do. We learned a lot from that game, though, as we are still a very new team. Every time we prepare for a game, we still learn a lot of new things, like if we miss certain things and if there is anything we want to do differently. I think from that particular game, we learned quite a lot on how to approach online games in the near future.

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Q: As an individual, how happy have you been with your performance so far back into the tier-1 scene with a reputed team like Astralis?

b0RUP: Well, the results for the team have been amazing, and I could not have hoped for anything more, but I am never satisfied with my performance. I always think I can do better, and I always want to do better for my team. So yeah, I play for the team, and I'm very happy. For my individual form, I can do a lot more, and I will always strive to do more.

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Q: Speaking of your team, how has it been working with relatively less experienced players in the tier-1 scene, such as Staehr and Buzz? Could your experience along with dev1ce, blameF, and casle be attributed to their rapid success in the Astralis system?

b0RUP: I do not necessarily think they are less experienced. Staehr comes from Sprout, which played a lot of online tier-two CS:GO at a very high level and caused a lot of upsets and even went to a few LANs, so I think he has quite a lot of experience in his role. Buzz has been playing with Astralis for a bit more than half a year, so I think he does have a lot of experience and has learned from gla1ve, blameF, and dev1ce for quite some time now.

So, I do think they have quite a lot of experience and probably even more tier-one experience than I have had in tier-two, I would say. Obviously, I had previous tier-one experience with Heroic, but I think it's amazing working with Staehr and Buzz, and I learn a lot of things all the time.

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Q: What are your general goals and expectations at this event since you had a really good performance at IEM Cologne and exceeded many expectations? Do you aim to achieve higher at ESL Pro League Season 18?

b0RUP: We do not really have a general goal, I would say. We take every game as it comes, and we want to be able to prepare as much as we can for every game. When we are done with the game, we want to be able to sit with the feeling that we just did whatever we could and we played to our best.

Obviously, some teams are going to be playing better than us, and that's just how it's going to be sometimes, but we want to leave the server knowing that we put the most effort that we could and did everything we could to win that game. If we approach every game with that thought, I think we will go very far again.

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Q: Coming into more of a trending topic here, CS2. What are your general expectations as CS:GO is transitioning into CS2, and how do you think Astralis is going to adapt to this new playing field?

b0RUP: I am not sure. I think that is a very hard question to answer, but I think we will get to play the game as soon as it comes out, if that makes sense. Obviously, we can't start practicing when we are at a tournament that does not have CS2, but whenever it comes out, I think we will start practicing. I think that is the correct way to approach it as quickly as possible.

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Q: Are you pretty excited about the transition from CS:GO to CS2?

b0RUP: Yeah, I think it's going to be great. It's going to be bringing a lot of new things to the game, and it's going to create a lot of space for tier-two players and teams to come forward a bit and get a bit of a headstart as they are not going to have as many tournaments and they will have a lot of time to practice. A lot of metas and stuff like that is going to be very new with the smokes and how the grenade works, so I think it's going to be very good for the CS environment.

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Q: Any final thoughts that you would like to share with the fans supporting Astralis and you around the world?

b0RUP: I want to say thank you to the fans for the insane support. Whether we win or lose, it's always incredible on social media, and it feels amazing to see the support.