Philip "aizy" Aistrup is the lurker for North, a team which has experienced an upward trajectory recently, looking particularly strong going into the ELEAGUE Premier Quarterfinals against Heroic.

Ahead of his match, aizy took the time to answer questions from theScore esports, talking about the progression of his team and being in the spotlight.

With 2017 ending soon, I’d like to ask about your look back on the year. What has been your experience on North, both as a roster and an organization?

I think our best experience as a roster has probably been since adding valde [Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså].

We went to the finals of DH Malmö, won DH Montreal and we're now playing quarterfinals at ELEAGUE. We feel like we are more confident than ever and it only helps with having North behind us, which has been a really great organization for us.

DH Montreal Champions! The circumstances weren't optimal but happy that we won! A post shared by Philip Aistrup (@aizylife) on Sep 10, 2017 at 2:21pm PDT

In our previous interview with you, we spoke a bit about your adjustment coming into the team. What’s your comfort level nowadays in your role?

I'm now playing as a lurker, which I've never tried before. I usually was the guy running around with MSL [Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen], like k0nfig [Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke] is now, but we felt like we had to try some new things and so far it's working out great.

Obviously, as I never tried playing as a lurker, for me, I still have a lot to learn and I'm still in a learning process but I feel more and more comfortable as we play.

You’re often the focus for analysts and many have made their interpretations on the inner workings of your teams or your intentions as a player. What’s your take on your apparent superstar storyline?

I feel like analysts don't always see the details and that's fine, it's not easy from the outside. As long as your team knows what's happening, that's all that matters.

Even players who probably have way more knowledge about the game in detail can't know what's going on within a team and I feel like this both goes for a "support" player and a superstar.

valde seemed to be a missing piece to the North puzzle as you guys look better than ever. How would you describe him as a person?

valde is a really calm guy both outside the game and inside and I think that's very useful for the team to help with more stressed situations. He's a great teamplayer and you can't have too many of them.

You guys have been working with a mental coach lately. What has that experience been like?

Yes, we've been working with a mental coach that will try to help us both as a team and individuals to overcome as many mental problems within the game [and] can help us with improving as a team and as players.

The Danish Rivalry (North, Astralis, Heroic and partially FaZe) has been a big storyline of the year and looks to continue into 2018. cajunb told us that he still thinks Astralis is number one, but North are catching up. What’s your take on the matter?

Danish rivalry is always fun, more pressure because we want to beat each other so bad.

I think it's hard to rate who is number one since everyone beats everyone right now. But I would probably rate Astralis as number one as well just because of results.

Your opening match in the EL Premier playoffs is a Danish derby with Heroic. How will you guys approach that set? What does former Heroic player valde bring to the table?

We will just approach the game like we approach any game, doesn't matter who we play. Our coach and MSL will try to narrow down the maps in the veto and look into them, pretty much.

Hopefully valde will go crazy in-game and carry us since it's his former team, haha.

What do you think of Valve’s changes so far to the pistols and reduction in unarmored aim punch? How does this affect the overall meta or your gameplay?

To be honest I haven't really paid that much attention to it. I don't think the changes had such a big impact.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.