In our final interview from the media day at BLAST Pro Series Global Final, Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander reflected on Astralis' uncharacteristic loss to mousesports in Odense and previewed the upcoming match with Liquid.

Astralis' in-game leader partially blamed himself for throwing the 14-8 lead on Dust2 against mousesports, which cost the Danes a place in the grand final last week, also noting the team's tough schedule leading up to the tournament as well as during it.

gla1ve commented on his frustration after the mouz loss

We also asked gla1ve about his frustrated response, which has been circulating social media ever since the match ended, before moving on to other topics, such as Astralis' back-and-forth with Liquid in 2019, which will continue at the Global Final as the two sides are about to meet again later on Thursday.

We naturally have to first go back to the way you were eliminated from Pro League in such an uncharacteristic way, with mousesports coming back from 8-14 on the decider. What happened at the end there?

It's easiest to speak for myself, I think I threw some of the rounds, I think I could have won some of them on my own. But I guess it has something to do with being pretty tired after a really long game, your brain isn't working and you aren't making the right decisions in the right moments, and that is what cost us the game, in the end, I think. I'm actually blaming myself, pretty much, even though if you look at the statistics I had a pretty good best-of-three series. It was alright, but I'm still blaming myself because having a 14-8 lead and losing so many rounds in a row and me being so much in them, I think it was pretty much my fault.

I'm still blaming myself because having a 14-8 lead and losing so many rounds in a row and me being so much in them, I think it was pretty much my fault. Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander

Is that what caused your frustrated response? Was it difficult to recover from that?

Right after the game, I almost never rage and I have almost never raged in my whole career. When I rage it's because I have been doing something really, really bad. So yeah, that last part of Dust2 was really tough for me personally and I was just sad that I made so many mistakes that cost us the game, and it came out with me hitting the table a few times. Of course, it's not something I'm proud of, but it can happen to every player if they get really mad. Sometimes you just have so much frustration built up that you have to get it out somehow and, of course, you should never hit tables, but it happened and that's how it is.

There were other uncharacteristic hiccups in that series, with the most obvious one being that device tried to go for a knife on Overpass that almost cost you a round, which was something that people looked at and saw that it's not something Astralis normally do.

I just think Astralis should never go for knife kills, it always f**ks up. (laughs) Myself, I never go for knife kills because I know that right when I press the 3 button and I take the knife out, he turns around and hits me in the head, and then we lose the round because of it. Yeah, you have to be JW to do that kind of stuff. Yeah, it was an uncharacteristic best-of-three and device had a really bad game on Train, as well, which isn't something he's used to. It wasn't the best BO3 from us, but we should have won, and that's what matters to us. For us, it's really nice to see that even when we don't play our best and play a little bit poorly, we're still able to win the matches against really good teams.

A lot of breaks, being tired makes your decision making pretty poor. But I actually think we played alright in the match, it was just a few small hiccups that cost us the game. Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander

Did it have anything at all to do with the pressure of the Danish crowd?

Nah, I don't think so. I think the loss in Odense was mainly about the rough schedule we had going from ECS to Odense, not getting enough sleep, and the less sleep you have the more it builds up. Then you have a long match on top of that, a really good mousesports team playing against you, as well, woxic going insane. But a lot of breaks, being tired, and stuff like that makes your decision making pretty poor. But I actually think we played alright in the match, I don't think we played badly, it was just a few small hiccups that cost us the game.

Back after you won ECS, device said that if you managed to win the last two events of the year it would undoubtedly be your year. Meanwhile, I talked to NAF earlier today and even he was saying 2019 is Astralis' again no matter what. How do you see that discussion? Is BLAST going to change anything?

I don't think BLAST is going to be decisive in whose year it was, if it was us or if it was Liquid. Liquid was the better team in the first half of the year even though we won almost two Majors in that part. I think they have been doing really well, but I do believe that Majors have a big influence on people and on the players, as well, and I think that's why NAF is also saying Astralis had the best year in 2019. I believe so, too, but I think it's with really small margins because I didn't feel that we deserved to have the best year. I'm just happy that there wasn't another team on top of us because that could have easily happened with how we played in the first half of the year. Astralis probably was the best team in 2019, but not like 2018.

I'm looking forward to see if Liquid are going to ban Nuke this time around and actually play Train against us. The problem for them is that our Train is looking really good. Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander

Speaking of 2018, you've picked up the advantage over Liquid once again in the last few months with five consecutive wins. How do you manage to stay on top of them, playing them so much and even having another encounter against them to close the year?

I think we just perform really well when we play against Liquid. It's kind of weird and I don't really know why. I'm not sure if it's them performing worse when they are playing against us, maybe they still have something in the back of their minds playing against us. We have been winning Nuke twice in a row against them and I'm looking forward to see if they're going to ban Nuke this time around and actually play Train against us. The problem for them is that our Train is looking really good, as well, and one of the best maps in our pool right now. Back in 2018 when they started banning Nuke and let Train in it wasn't a good map for us, not the same as it is now. I think they're pretty confused about what to do in the veto process.

Well, what about what they're going to pick? Although with really close results, they won both Vertigo and Inferno when they alternated the picks in the last two series, how are you going to prepare for that?