Dupreeh reveals why Astralis chose Vertigo vs Liquid at CSGO Berlin Major

After a 2-0 victory over the world’s best CS:GO team in Team Liquid, Astralis’ Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen spoke with Frankie Ward and Dexerto about their surprising map pick, their desire to win another major, and the secret to becoming the best team.

The former kings of Counter-Strike, the Danish dynasty in Astralis are back on their top form, winning a statement series against Team Liquid, who have been dominating 2019 while Astralis struggled.

• Read more: How to watch StarLadder Berlin New Champions stage

In the quarterfinals of the StarLadder Berlin major, Astralis’ aggressive tactics were displayed before the games even began, with a surprising selection of Vertigo for their map pick. Somewhat flustered, Team Liquid opted to pick Overpass, a map that Astralis is quite proficient on.

Even dupreeh admitted that was a surprise, as he expected them to select Dust 2. Unfortunately fans didn’t get the third game on Inferno that they wanted, but they got to see a masterclass on Vertigo.

When speaking to Frankie and Dexerto, dupreeh acknowledged that Vertigo was a map where they previously struggled, believing they shouldn’t have lost to Liquid on it when they faced each other at the ESL Pro League finals in July.

“We felt we should have won it, we had a really good idea of how to play against them, we just didn’t execute in France.”

But he also mentioned that they wanted to play it more after it was changed, that they were feeling good on it in practice, and that they knew it would surprise Liquid.

Astralis preparing for a match.

Frankie asked about the extensive smoke and flash usage on Vertigo, and dupreeh ended up giving away the secret to becoming the best Counter-Strike team:

“That’s just how Counter-Strike is, you copy each other’s [strats], and the team that does it the most and the most well is obviously the better team. Coming up with new things and always keeping your opponents guessing is really important.”

But even by keeping to a simple strategy like that, Astralis isn’t the same juggernaut they were in 2018, and dupreeh is well aware of it.

During their slide in play earlier this year, dupreeh said that the most obvious sign of issues was at the ECS Finals when they lost to FURIA Esports. According to him, that was the lowest point for the team, and when they realized something’s not working.

Astralis after a victory.

He spoke at length about the importance of the player break, as it gave the players time to “recharge their batteries” and isolate the issues that were affecting them.

He also highlighted how big the break between stages was, as Astralis had plenty of time to prepare for Team Liquid, and could recharge after playing two different absurdly long overtime games in the New Legends stage.

• Read more: NRG and Astralis tie CSGO majors record for longest map at Major

If there’s one thing that should worry teams the most, it’s that dupreeh said that playing at majors is “like playing at home” for Astralis. NRG Esports will have to kick the legends out of their own house if they want to hoist that major trophy.