After a disappointing loss to G2 in the Group A Lower Bracket semi-final, our Main team was eliminated from the prestigious LAN tournament and missed the chance to compete on the grand stage of the iconic Lanxess Arena.
Following a dominant win over 9z, our lineup struggled to keep up with the world's top teams ruling in Group A. First, we fell to Natus Vincere, currently the number-one team in the world, and then to G2, leading to an early and bitter exit from Cologne.
ruggah: "We had opportunities to put more rounds on the board, but G2 was great at disrupting our play, and we didn't capitalize on the moments when we had control."
Our CT sides were particularly weak, resulting in a poor win rate throughout the tournament. The commanding victory over 9z in the opening round showcased our strength on the T side. However, against G2, things quickly went downhill on Dust 2, where the Danes managed to secure just one round in a crushing 13-1 defeat, with Nikola "NiKo" Kovač adding insult to injury with a few knife kills.
We fought back on Mirage, securing a 13-10 win, but were hit hard once again on Ancient, suffering a 13-3 loss on a map where we had previously shown dominance.
Upon returning to Denmark, we caught up with our head coach, Casper "ruggah" Due, to get his thoughts on failing to reach Lanxess Arena—a significant goal he had emphasized heading into Fall Groups 2024 in Copenhagen.
"We're, of course, super disappointed, mostly with how we performed on the maps we lost. From a broader perspective, losing to G2 and NAVI isn't the end of the world, but what hurts is how far off we were in those matches. That's why this exit stings. On the other hand, we've learned a lot about ourselves as a team and gained valuable insights that we can use in training to make us even more competitive against the best," Ruggah states.
"We need to raise our baseline level to have more options to rely on when things aren't going our way. If we can achieve that, I have no doubt we'll be back in the playoffs shortly," he adds.
ruggah and his team are still determined to make it to the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 this December.
"The goal is still to peak at the Major, which means we must use time to build an even stronger foundation. So when we enter the Major cycle, we'll be as sharp as possible."
After the G2 match, dev1ce shared with HLTV.org:
"They outclassed us today. No excuses, just not good enough. A lot of responsibility is on me to put the guys in better situations and to find the right path forward. I don't have all the answers right now, but we need to change something in our approach to the game," dev1ce stated.
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