CaliberJacob: We're talking with Forrest from Astralis after -- I don't even know if that was a game! Again, against Oxygen Esports in the semifinals of the Six Charlotte Major, that thing was over before it started. I tweeted, saying, this looks like a show match, I can't wait for the actual match later, how did you guys manage to pull that off so fast?
Forrest: Uh, we prepped good, we prepped well, we didn't try to change anything too much, just played our game. We knew they were stagnant, so we kinda just exploited like some of their slowness and held them at their entry points basically.
CaliberJacob: It felt like that one time you played in the NAL was before you were on that crazy hot streak, it felt like they were getting into a little bit more of a groove, was anything from that previous game in the North American League in Stage 1 something that helped you in preparation for this one, or was it mostly down to VOD review and figuring out what their consistencies were?
Forrest: I think Oxygen beating us gave us a wake-up call for the rest of the stage. It was like, we had the potential to do really good, and after we lost it was like ... usually there's like a win factor, that was a losing factor, and we recognized it. And we knew, like, if that doesn't happen again in any other games, we will always win no matter what.
CaliberJacob: So a bit of a revenge tour game for you here?
Forrest: The OXG game was a wake-up call, early in the season, it humbled us really fast after the Soniqs game, and ever since then, they've helped us get better, even if they don't even know it.
CaliberJacob: We keep on talking about [Seth "Callout" Mik] and his role after stepping onto the squad, but I feel like some of the focus does get lost a bit because you're also on the team for this stage, and you've had the crazy journey: five months ago, you were in Challenger League, didn't know if there was a spot for you, but now you're part of the bright lights. Is it a bit of a shock to kinda come from a place in CL to the bright stars this quickly or does it kinda feel natural for you.
Forrest: It feels natural. I've had to change the way I play. It kind of just, is the same.
CaliberJacob: Business as usual?
Forrest: Yeah, business as usual. I don't hype anything up really, I'm kind of just going with the flow.
CaliberJacob: You got DarkZero tomorrow, but aside from the opponent, you've also got a best of five. Which is another ground unto itself. Anything particular about that combo of factors stand out to you as something that's going to be tough to tackle tomorrow or just anything that comes to mind that you want to talk about?
Forrest: Tomorrow should be handling business as usual. We scrim a lot, we have the endurance, it's just about our microplays and setting ourselves up for success, and eliminating the lose factor. That's all.
CaliberJacob: Anything you wanna say to the Astralis fans before I let you go?
Forrest: To the fuckin' stars.