Taras Bortnik

Special to VPEsports

Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye, the former Astralis rifler, knows what winning feels like. During his time with Astralis he has won a Major an ESL One event, and numerous other titles. Now with his talent at North, Kjaerbye will be looking to reinvent those results with his new teammates. However, that would not come to pass at ESL One: Cologne 2018 as he and his Danish teammates failed to make it out of group play finishing 9th/12th.

Well-liked and soft-spoken, Kjaerbye talked with VPEsports about how he thinks North is doing thus far and how leaving Astralis has affected him.

Let’s begin from the start. What are the reasons you lost against mibr?

“I think we lost the last match because we couldn’t cover our CT side. It was like a miracle that we had a very good T-sides this tournament, but we struggled with CT-sides. It’s been our problem for a while. We just lost all confidence and get really sad because this event meant lot to us, but now we know what we have to fix.”

If you do not count the results of ESL One: Cologne, you seem to be doing well as of late. You play better, the results also improve. Do not you think you overestimated yourself a little?

“I don’t think so. As for me, we haven’t got good results so we are not happy or satisfied at all. I played to reach the Arena and sadly it didn’t work out. It was disappointing.”

Many have said that ESL One: Cologne is a talented warm up tournament on which they try new features, styles for upcoming events such as the ELEAGUE Premier and the FACEIT Major. So maybe it’s better to lose in Cologne and win in Atlanta and London?

“The Major is always most important, it’s so much bigger than everything else and teams come prepared right after the player break, so it’s gonna be intense practice for teams. Obviously, it’s better to lose here and get some more experience and learn from your mistakes, but there is nothing worse than losing. It’s awful and it’s hard to twist around to something positive when you are not satisfied.”

Some teams are hardened in defeats, players become closer to each other. Some teams can not stand defeats. What about North right now? Is it crushed or united?

“We are united, man. We are working hard to be a better team. We are in top eight right now, but we feel far from what we can become someday. We have still a long way to go.”

From your perspective, how much time do you need to be a top five team in the world?

“I think we need this next three-month and a little more. We are still learning and there are some problems within the team that we have to fix. So as I said, we have still a long way to go, but understand I think we had some good results. We just need to appreciate the success we do have and not dwell on the tough loses. Recently, we have depressed a bit. We still can become so much better.”

How many times did you think about or regret leaving Astralis these past six months?

“There were days that were quite difficult to be honest. You have to man up and respect and deal with your decision. Life goes on and all I can say is that I happy for them. I will say, tt’s the worst case scenario for me that they became the world best team again without me. It’s not funny and I would be lying if I said it was easy.”

Which team surprised you the most in Cologne during this tournament?

“I think ENCE surprised me most. It’s good to see Finnish CS:GO with such a young team. I don’t even know all of the players, but I know they are very talented.”

In general, there is some sort of “meta” among the teams for making international squads like such as MIBR, Liquid, mouz, and FaZe Clan. What do you think is the reason for this trend?

“I think that main advantage is that international teams can get some of the best players in the world regardless of geography. Obviously, when you all from same country it’s really limited how many talented players you have. It’s coming more and more, and international teams will be a part of the future. We’ll see them doing very well.”

Didn’t you want to try yourself in the international mix?

“I’ve been on teams since I’m 16. I was never without a team, so I haven’t thought about it yet, but someday i will.”