VPEsports caught up with Heroic in-game leader Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer at DreamHack Open Atlanta to discuss his history with the organization, the addition of cadiaN, strategy, roles, age, and more.

Heroic took home the title in Atlanta after defeated Sprout 2-0 in the finals to secure the trophy and a check for $50,000. This was largely possible thanks to a massive performance from Casper “cadiaN” Møller. The team’s star AWPer put up a combined 50-16 record across the two maps for a kill differential of +34 in the finals with a total of 90.7 average damage per round.

You can read the full and exclusive interview with Snappi below:

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VPEsports: Let’s talk about your history with Heroic – I think you’ve been through three logo changes on Heroic and also swapped to different teams during that time. What has been like to be a core member and in-game leader and then leave the team and then come back to the team? Any awkward moments between you and management?



Snappi: Not really because when I got sold to OpTic it was different management and we got sold for quite a high price so I think they were kind of happy with the sale, to be honest. Now that I’ve come back, it’s obviously new management so there are no hard feelings.



And even if it was the old management, we split on very good terms so there wouldn’t have been any bad blood either way.







VPEsports: Now that you’re back with Heroic, it’s a completely different team. When you joined you weren’t going to be the in-game leader, they had blameF. Then shortly after he left and now you’re taking up those reigns again. Were you happy about that or were you looking forward to not being the in-game leader?



Snappi: It doesn’t really matter to me, I’ll just play the role that’s needed. I think me and Casper together and the entire team, I think we were actually strengthened by getting some new leadership and some new eyes.



I don’t really think it hurt us in any way. For me personally, I didn’t really care whether I was going to be the in-game leader or not. I already had a lot of the natural roles in-game that an IGL usually has; buying nades, roles in certain strats. I mean I was kind of already in the role in regard to what I was doing in the game. It was more about me taking more of a leadership role than before. It was an easy transition.







VPEsports: Did you spend enough time under blameF that you picked up on some new stuff? Do you have new elements to your game plan now?



Snappi: Yes to both. I think the Heroic team obviously had some really good strats that we kept and a lot of them were probably implemented by blame. So I guess in a way he also effected how we play now, but I think we’re playing pretty different from before. Obviously, the best strats we’re going to keep because we have four players familiar with them so it was only cadiaN who needed to learn those things.







VPEsports: With cadiaN coming in having been an in-game leader, are there times where you bring him into the discussion because you don’t know what to do or do you utilize him a lot in that sense?



Snappi: I think it happens kind of naturally that Casper gives his input. I don’t think it’s anything that I need to ask for. We’re never really in a situation where we don’t know what to do because we have a lot of players that have a lot of ideas.



If anything we probably have an overflow of ideas rather than missing ideas which is a good thing. As long as we’re on the same page I think it’s really beneficial that we have a lot of guys with a lot of different views and ideas on the game. Especially in the long run when we get to know each other’s ideas and I understand their ideas better and they understand mine better.



It’s obviously a process but I think we’ve done pretty great so far and I only think it’s going to get better.







VPEsports: Recently there’s been a trend of bringing in some newer guys who weren’t on top teams before. FaZe brought in broky, b0rup and some of these other guys have been around but not on top organizations. Do you think it’s time for some of the “older generation” to get replaced with some of these newer guys getting their chance?



Snappi: Not really – I think age has a misconception that you can’t play into your 30’s. It’s just never been tested before. I think f0rest is kind of already proving it, he’s maybe the best player on NiP still and he’s 31. He doesn’t seem to be slowing down.



I think one of the main things is that the player base was smaller back then and players who didn’t have as much talent still got to be pro players but with a bigger player base, some of the older players are not good enough anymore, or not improving or having the motivation anymore.



I don’t really think it’s about age. There’s always going to be new talent coming in but I think in the next 10 years we’re going to see a transition of a lot of older players keeping up. I think f0rest could easily go until he’s 40, but that’s my perspective.

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