This article is part of our Game Side series.
Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz led the charge for Astralis' win against SK Gaming in the semifinals of the ECS Season 2 Finals. Rotowire was able to get a few minutes of his time to talk about the match and look forward to the grand finals against OpTic Gaming.
First off, how are you feeling after that big win over SK Gaming just now?
"I feel like we've shown that we are right now a better team than them, [especially] since they've changed out [Lincoln "fnx" Lau]. I'm always happy to beat them because they've had a really good run against us the entire year. But what we are showing now is just awesome; that we are coming back to our old selves and maybe even better."
Speaking of the roster changes that SK have made in the last week, did you notice any big differences in their team now after these changes?
"What I noticed, it's a funny thing, they have a bit more team spirit, I'd say. They've always had the passion for the game, but it seemed like they lost [the spirit] a bit towards the end with fnx. I'm not sure what happened or why it happened. But it felt like they lost a little spark, which in my opinion, is why they were so critically good for a long period of time. So I feel like they've regained that, but obviously they still have missed some things. A little bit of firepower, and they also need to practice more."
Looking towards the finals here against OpTic Gaming, did you guys practice at all with a grand finals rematch in mind?
"Obviously I don't think anyone was expecting the same grand final. It's pretty cool in my opinion. We get to try to get revenge. It's really awesome for us. We get to show that we're capable of winning a tournament, and it's the last one [of the year]. But no, we didn't expect it. We did prepare for them because we had the best-of-one in the opening game [of the tournament]. So we feel prepared."
Did you guys look back at the tape versus OpTic in the ELEAGUE grand finals to make any adjustments coming into the ECS Finals?
"What we changed is probably in the veto process. Previously, in the ELEAGUE grand finals, we were going after our comfort zone, so we had Overpass and Train as our comfort maps in that best-of-three. Whereas now, Overpass wouldn't be there as a third map because that's also in their comfort zone. So now we are trying to play into the weaker maps like Dust 2, Nuke, etc. instead of letting them have two out of three of their best maps, they're only going to have one of them."
Finally, talk to me about that play towards the end where you got two knife kills on your way to an ace. How do you keep your composure in those kinds of moments?
"What happen was we were in a pistol round where they played defensive and I got a lot of kills. I used a lot of bullets, so I ran out. And when I ran out, I noticed that there was one guy, I knew where both people were. I looked closed to the ground and there was no pistols, and my teammates said 'Go!' so I said 'Yeah, okay sure. I'm going to go.' I figured at least if I didn't get the kills, at least I get their attention and my teammates can get them in the back. So it's just random, I don't know what to say. It made it possible for me to drop an M4 for another person and buy one for myself. So it was a little bit broken in some sense in how the game works."
