The Danish IGL talked with Esports.gg right before facing the Russian squad.
The second day of the IEM Rio Major's playoffs will bring a Heroic vs Spirit faceoff in the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the other match of their bracket, FURIA and Natus Vincere will duel, with the winners of both matches facing each other. But, for Casper "cadiaN" Møller, first things first.
In a quick conversation with Esports.gg the Heroic In-Game Leadertalked about their game against the young Russian squad. cadiaN knows they will have the crowd on their side, but also know that the Spirit have already proven they can handle some pressure in the Liquid game.
"They were for sure cheering loud against Spirit (for Liquid), and I think there were some situations that their mental coach, (or someone) taunted the crowd a bit. But we had this connection with the Brazilian crowd. So, they (Spirit) were able to hand (a crowd of) four thousand, but will they handle 18 thousand? I'm not sure"
The danish AWPer said that they were trying to concentrate on how the crowd and the cheering will help them, not how they will get in the way of the other team. Above all things, cadiaN shared that he wants to use the crowd's energy to win the game.
"No matter what, I think they're going to give us a boost. And I'm focusing more on what they can give to us than what it takes from the others, to be honest. We just can't wait to feel the energy. It' is going to be so freaking awesome," he said excitedly.
No easy way out for Heroic and cadiaN
Even though cadiaN told us that he wanted to focus on Spirit first, the IGL gave us a little taste of his process as a leader. He shared that he couldn't help but think on the next team they will face if Heroic wins today's match. There is no easy way out, he says.
"I don't know [who I would prefer to play], because I thought about it a bit, but I thinks it's two different obstacles. Because the crowd will be a different kind of pressure. We've may have experienced something like that once before, when we played against Astralis in the Royal Arena. It was kind of similar, but not as crazy as this is definitely going to be."
The crowd will be a tough opponent in case Heroic faces FURIA, but cadiaN also pointed out that won't be easy going against Yuri "yuurih" Boian and Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato. The other option is to face Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev's NAVI.
"Against NAVI, s1mple can always turn up and beat the game, but I also think that FURIA have players like yuurih and KSCERATO," cadiaN said on the NAVI rematch. "That's a duo that've shown how good they are for a long time and even more in this tournament, but I'm not thinking too much in this match, because we still have Spirit to beat."
Semifinals next
Today, the final two IEM Rio Major semifinalists will be decided. Outsiders and MOUZ will face each other in one of the semifinals. Outsiders took down Fnatic 2-1 while MOUZ had a close victory over Cloud9 in the quarterfinal.
Today, Herioc faces Team Spirit in the first match of the day. On the other hand, the second match is probably the more popular one with FURIA facing the tournament favorite NAVI. NAVI may have the odds stacked in their favor, but FURIA have a sixth man - the Brazilian crowd.
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