yxngstxr on facing Falcons for an IEM Dallas playoff spot: "We're here to prove hard work beats money"

HEROIC are one of the youngest teams attending IEM Dallas 2025, and they're already off to a good start, having beaten Aurora in the opening round.

Things will get even harder for Eetu "sAw" Saha's boys as they play Falcons, a top-three team in the world, today for a spot in the playoffs. But, it turns out that HEROIC aren't scared about this matchup at all, according to their rifler Simon "yxngstxr" Boije. The young Swede spoke to Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore right after HEROIC defeated Aurora, and told us that they won't respect Falcons too much.

The full interview can be found below on YouTube, with key snippets underneath. All questions and answers below have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

It was overall a strong showing from you in your IEM Dallas debut, especially on the latter two maps. How are you feeling about your own individual form as we approach your first Major?

I can say I was very nervous in the first game, I was shaking a bit. But after I talked with my coach and the team, I gained much more confidence, and I think I stepped up for the last two games.

Compared to a lot of players here, you have relatively little LAN experience as you've only played a handful of LANs at this point. How's that transition to LAN play been for you?

It has a bit more pressure, maybe because of the trash talk or whatever. But I feel as long as you're confident in yourself and your mental is in the right place, it's almost the same.

You're a Swedish player who largely came up through the international scene with Sangal and then straight into HEROIC. But you started in the Norwegian scene, which is quite odd. Why did you end up there?

So, basically, I was kind of hated in the Swedish scene because everyone thought I was toxic back then when I was younger. So, I started to play with Norwegians, and the Norwegian organization Bitfix was actually the organization that gave me the offer to try to play full-time. It wasn't a full-time salary, but full-time. When I got the offer, I took it instantly.

And from there, you went to Sangal and came up with the trio that would end up going to HEROIC, who also signed SunPayus and tN1R. SunPayus is the most experienced player on this team. What's it been like working with him as the veteran on this really young roster?

I came in with almost no experience at all, and tN1R doesn't have the best experience as well. SunPayus is helping with everything, he's showing how we should work, and how many hours we should put in. He's a good leader.

Now that you've beaten Aurora, you're playing Falcons for a spot in the playoffs in a sort of young vs. old, expensive vs. rookies matchup. How are you feeling about the match going up against such an expensive squad?

Our team is hungry as always. We're here to prove that hard work beats money, so we're very motivated. We're not giving too much respect to them because we'd lose confidence, so we're treating every opponent equally.

Stay tuned to Dust2.us in the coming days, as we'll have plenty of interviews coming out during IEM Dallas 2025!