Casper “cadiaN” Møller has been benched from Heroic’s active Counter-Strike roster. This is, apparently, due to differing visions for the team’s future and how they plan on progressing into CS2.
cadiaN has been a part of Heroic since 2019 and is considered one of the top in-game leaders in all of professional CS.
cadiaN has led Heroic to many impressive results. Including to the very top of online rankings during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 as well as some strong finishes in major tournaments. However, lately they have struggled a bit more with results against lower tier teams. This includes losses to teams such as Monte, MOUZ and BIG in ESL Pro League Season 18. All of this happening shortly before the release of Counter-Strike 2.
What will happen next for Heroic and cadiaN?
cadiaN has already expressed his desire to continue competing at a professional level. He has an immense amount of experience and success behind him, so there is no doubt that he will find a position in a top team. However, this might force him to be flexible regarding his role. Perhaps he will have to consider dropping the use of the AWP. There is speculation that he might move over from Heroic to Astralis, although that raises questions as to who will use the AWP – cadiaN or Device.
As for Heroic, there have been rumours that Lukas “gla1ve” Egholm Rossander. Part of the original disagreement was whether jabbi and stavn from Heroic should get replaced or whether cadiaN was to be replaced by gla1ve. This raises serious questions as to how competitive Heroic can be without cadiaN. He was their top performer and comfortably the most consistent. How is a team meant to progress without their in-game leader?
This is reminiscent of when Aleksib was IGL of ENCE and then was removed from the squad. After this happened it took a very long time for ENCE to return to form, and this didn’t happen till after a full roster change.
Will Heroic be good in Counter-Strike 2?
Only time will tell whether this is the case. Many teams need to adapt to the game. There is a chance that with a fresh squad that is highly motivated that they can do well. But here, at EsportsCompare.net, we believe that the team will struggle to return to their heights straight away. They are most recently ranked number 4 in the world on HLTV. The last time they were outside the top 4 was 7th November 2022 just before they took 2nd place at the IEM Rio Major.
Unfortunately we will not see Heroic at IEM Sydney, so we will not know still for a bit of time what form they will bring in CS2 without cadiaN. There is a further rumour floating around that Heroic might soon be bought out by 1xBet. This could stir the pot further and potentially push more players to shuffle in and out of the team.
