Astralis Head Coach AoD: “ Personally, I’ve never felt like we were bad”

Astralis are currently in 10th place in the LEC 2022 spring’s regular season with a 2-11 record. However, things have been looking up with their recent form so far, taking big upset wins over Rogue and Fnatic. While their playoff chances still look very slim, it will be up to them to see if another ‘miracle run’ situation occurs in the final two weeks of the LEC.

First and foremost, thank you so much for accepting this interview, let’s take it from the top and let’s talk about Astralis’ Week 6 performances. You guys went 1-1 and looked competitive against Excel too despite the loss. Talk to me about the week in general and your thoughts on it.

AoD: Thank you for having me. I think we can start off with the week of practice first, and I don’t really think it was our best, so to speak. We had maybe only one day that was productive but it seems to follow the same pattern as we had in last summer, where usually in the bad weeks or towards the bad weeks, we actually have better showings in official games.

Also, as a team, it seems we’ve always done better on stage than we have online. So we got that going for us.Of course we have two new people here but obviously Kobbe is a proven veteran, and the only one that was a first timer on stage was Dajor. He actually performed really well. So we’re all very happy to see that he wasn’t really afraid to make plays, as you saw in the first game especially. I think overall, it was a net positive.

For Astralis then, most people have put you out of the playoffs already. However when I did some checking and if I remember correctly, Rogue and Team Vitality qualified to playoffs with 7-11 scores in Summer of 2019. Do you still believe in the Astralis miracle run?

AoD: I’m more of a realistic person and I don’t really think too much about fairytale scenarios and stuff. If the chance is low then the chance is low, right? So what I do instead is just flip it around and set new goals. I think in our current situation the goal is just to bring your best performances, don’t think too much about the scoreline and stuff because that’s not what defines us, and then just build up for summer.

If I see improvement from week to week, then I’m actually happy. For me, that’s what matters the most. I think so far we’ve been doing it, so hopefully we can keep it up.

I interviewed your mid laner, Dajor, and I asked him about his personal goals and what he would like to achieve in spring. He told me, “I just want to improve for summer and I don’t really mind getting last place for spring”. What do you think of that?

AoD: (Laughs) I mean, I think by now everyone is aware of the situation we are in right now, and I think it’s just important to keep some positivity and just look forward to the good things that can come our way, and just not sink into the situation we are in. Because if you do that and you’re not performing well, you’re also not learning during this period, and then you’re just gonna be worse later as well.

I think it’s very important to shift our perspective towards the positive and just try to take what you can in the moment.

When you talk about positives and you say that the chances for playoffs are low, if that’s the case, will we see any crazy drafts in the coming weeks from Astralis?

AoD: (Laughs) I’m not sure. Yes, technically in this position you can try to cheese some wins or whatever but I think the goal for us is to build on what we have, to be stable and consistently getting better. I think you’re kind of also cheating yourself because then it’s not something you’re building towards, so we’re not really looking for that kind of stuff, I think.

I followed you from your EU Masters and ERL days, and I recall that you guys drafted a very interesting composition when you were on Team Atlantis and you had a very good explanation on why you did that. So we won’t see Kobbe on Ziggs and for you to run that crazy strategy again?

AoD: Ziggs is not exactly that fringe nowadays, you know? Back then it was more controversial, I guess.Back then we also had the pieces to do it because in every team you have different views on the game, and I think in Atlantis it was very loose back then. So everyone was just down to try something really crazy and we practiced it for two weeks. Of course, everyone hated us after the scrims! But it worked out so I kept doing it and that’s why we did it. You do need to have the pieces around as well, it’s not for every team.

I’d like to walk back a little bit to the early weeks of spring, because you and a lot of players have spoken publicly of the difficulties that Astralis is facing. In my opinion at least, in recent weeks, I think Astralis have been playing quite a lot better. I’d like to get your thoughts on what were the biggest difficulties the team were facing, and what changed recently to enable this change of form for Astralis?

AoD: I just think we had to basically understand that this is where we’re at and we have two choices: One is of course seeing the situation and kind of giving up, which is obviously really bad. Or, you can rise to the occasion and make a fresh start, change perspectives from the bad to the good, and just see what you can do when there’s no pressure on.

Personally, I’ve never felt like we were bad. We had, certainly in the first part of the season, at least three games that I really think could have been ours. Yet one thing or two things go wrong and suddenly it’s no longer yours, even though you were in control completely.

That’s just how it is. The thing is, as a player, you take this a lot worse, because when the score continuously stacks up against you negatively it kind of hits harder and harder, to the point where you’re losing faith in the team. However if you have that one win or two wins when it matters then suddenly the blows that you take after are kind of softer, then you have more confidence to bounce back. Of course, when you are 0-9 it’s kinda rock bottom and you just really need to swap perspectives. I think people have actually snapped out of it and that’s why we are seeing Astralis how they should be.

I also think having no pressure on us makes us play much better. Especially compared to how we were in the first half where there’s actually everything to lose, like playoffs spots. So it’s just a matter of understanding what we have right now and just accepting it, basically.

Perhaps a bit of a controversial question: One figure that has been constantly talked about in Astralis by the public is promisq. I just wanted to get your thoughts on promisq, because you’ve worked with him for some time now. What do you think he brings to the team that perhaps people on the outside are not seeing?

AoD: Playmaking, creativity, and a lot of leadership in games. I think we see him shine the most on stage really and last week he kind of proved it once again. I knew it from summer but this is just a refresher, right?

He’s able to take charge of the team in clutch moments, he’s able to throw ideas and bring us back in the game. When people are lost, he’s kind of the one showing the way. Also, he’s not afraid to die for a play, and I think that’s really important in the support and jungle mentality. Otherwise, you’re in games where you’re just not doing anything and every opportunity just slips by.

I think it’s just an important skill that he brings and I think his recent performances probably makes people reconsider flaming and putting him down at every opportunity.

Moving on to Week 7, where Astralis will face both MAD Lions and Team BDS. What do you expect from those matches and which one are you excited to play?

AoD: Personally, I’m actually excited for every single game. I just take it one game at a time, but I expect us to contest in the same way we’ve done in the last two weekends, so hopefully we keep up that level and actually improve even more. There is a lot of work to be done but I’m confident we are able to continue trending upwards.

The LEC is approaching the playoffs, and I know this question might be a little bit hurtful, perhaps. On the potential playoff teams right now, tell me one surprising team you think will definitely make the playoffs and one team you think won’t.

AoD: I think it’s hard to say because, people expect MAD Lions not to be the ones that don’t make it. I think Excel is drafting really stably, they execute what they have, they like to scale, they like to play it slow and I think they’re getting a lot of wins, and rightfully so.

Team Vitality is kinda stumbling here and there, but I think that they’re figuring themselves out more than MAD Lions, especially based on recent performances. I have to say that MAD Lions are probably going to be left out.

SK Gaming have done a bit better but I also think some of the wins they got, weren’t necessarily theirs. That’s just how it is sometimes with the best-of-one format. So I wouldn’t say they’re gonna take Vitality or Excel’s spot.

Before we end, I cover the ERLs a lot so I’d like to ask you about your academy team, Astralis Talent. How closely do you work with Astralis Talent and do you keep up with their games in the NLC?

AoD: All the recent ones, not really, but I definitely have watched some of their games alongside my other coach. We were actually curious considering we’ve been scrimming them every now and then, just looking forward to a new structure as well where we can be involved more in scrimming with each other before the games and stuff like that, just kind of like a warm up before the actual scrim block begins.

We have a few plans in order to use them more. I think it’s very useful to have an academy team to exchange ideas and target practice stuff with your academy as an LEC team. I definitely am a believer in that kind of structure. I was really interested in how they play as well in NLC, so I’ll probably be catching up with their performances soon.

We’ve come to the end of the interview. Do you have any final thoughts? Any shoutouts you’d like to give?

AoD: Thanks everyone for their support, because I saw there was a lot more positivity on our Twitter lately, so obviously we all appreciate that.

Thank you AoD and best of luck till the end of spring.

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