Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth is Astralis' support player and a backbone of the Danish squad. They are going into DreamHack Masters Malmö after a Top 4 performance at the last Major, a strong performance but a bitter pill just the same.

Xyp9x took some time to talk to theScore esports to discuss Astralis' future as an organization and the upset potential at DreamHack Masters Malmö.

Let’s start by talking a bit about Astralis. It’s been almost three months since you guys formed the organization. How do you feel about it now that the honeymoon period is over?

We are obviously still in the very early stages, however it’s going great. How the organization is run is how we expected and planned it to be.

We players don’t do much other than being on-board in big decisions (sponsors, partners and what we think about the ideas of making our brand(s) stronger) and that’s exactly how we wanted it to be.

I can’t talk about which things we have in the pipeline, but it’ll be great.

Astralis’ website has been updated frequently and the team's YouTube account is filled with a lot of compelling mini-docs. How important is this for the team?

It’s important our fans know who we are and know where to follow us. Phillip Rasmussen is our social media and content creator and Matthew Truelove is our creative director doing the videos you are talking about. They are both perfect for what we wanted exactly, to promote us players.

We are indeed doing a documentary about our past three months (starting from Katowice, ending in Malmö) which should be released soon.

What’s next for the organization? Will it expand into other games, or pick up a second CS:GO squad?

We are still very early in it, but we are looking at many things. We are looking to expand, but the right timing has to be there.

Let’s talk about the team in 2016. Danny “zonic” Sørensen was a fairly recent addition to the lineup. What has he brought to the team as far as coaching goes? How does he compare to the team’s previous coach, Steffen "3k2" Markussen?

To put one word on it, it would be structure. We have become more methodical, not in terms of our game style, but in terms of how we prepare, how we practice and stuff like that.

Communication has also been improving since we picked him up. Taking him on the team as a coach was a great decision by us.

Since forming Astralis, the team has placed consistently well, in the Top 3-4, but have yet to secure a title. What do you think is preventing that final push?

Well I think for the most part it is teams who have really improved, where we haven’t improved as much. Luminosity, Fnatic and Na`Vi are all teams we have had it hard with during the last six months.

We beat Fnatic at MLG Columbus, and I think we are starting to fix those issues we have and getting back on track.

Talking specifically about the recent Major, what went wrong there for the team?

I’m not taking anything away from Na`Vi, because they played amazing in that series, but we didn’t show the same game as we did against Fnatic.

We didn’t feel much pressure going into the Fnatic match, since we were clear underdogs. However, going into the Na`Vi match we weren’t underdogs and putting that onto us while we are in a semifinal gives us a lot of pressure.

We are working on fixing high pressured situations with a sports psychologist.

It seemed like Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz took the loss quite hard, or he at least showed it the most. How has the team recovered from that loss? How much of a concern will morale be ahead of DreamHack Masters Malmö?

It was tough for all of us, putting all the work in we did prior to the Major, to fall short again at the semifinal when beating Fnatic in quarters was very hard for us. But we are confident that we have the potential, and we are also confident that we can solve the issues; we have to become the number one team.

What kind of preparations are being made for DreamHack Masters Malmö? Are you guys maybe taking it a bit easier since it’s so close to the end of the Major?

We are not taking it lightly, of course the Major took a lot of focus away from DreamHack Masters and I’d say we won’t see the full potential of many teams at this tournament.

Fnatic missing out and Na`Vi missing out on GuardiaN is obvious, but also most teams haven’t been putting that much effort in since they wanted to catch a break after the Major.

We have been trying to work on the mistakes we saw at the Major from our game play and used all the time we could. We feel okay prepared for Masters.

Your first matchup will be against Lounge Gaming, how do you feel about matchup? How do you feel about the rest of the group (NiP, Dignitas)?

We are expecting Lounge to be prepared for us and for what we do. However a team like Lounge is typically a good matchup for us, and we always perform against underdogs.

I’m interested in seeing which new things Dignitas is coming with and how they will fare in the tournament. And NiP has been looking promising the last couple of months online and I’m sure they will give us a problem if we meet them in the group stage.

What are your expectations overall for DreamHack Masters Malmö? Are there any teams you’re looking out for?

I’m looking forward to face NiP, it seems like it’s a whole new NiP. And I hope we get a chance to meet Luminosity. They seem so strong at the moment.

I think we will see a lot of upsets though. The underdogs teams coming to this event are really eager to win, while some teams might be fatigued because of the Major.

I’ve asked about future plans for Astralis, but what are your own personal plans or goals for the future? Any final thoughts?

Personally I’m looking into improving myself by finding the right way of practice individually. Also with all the wrist, arm, neck, and shoulder pains players are getting I’m looking into the possibilities of training myself to protect myself from damaging, so that’s some exercising I’m looking forward to doing.

My goal is always to fulfill my role on the team to the best.

This article has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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