yxngstxr wants to play FaZe in Stage 2: "Since s1mple said we are bots, I need to talk shit back"

There's a bit of beef going on between HEROIC and FaZe, and the teams will have the chance to play one another in the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 Stage 2.

After HEROIC qualified for Stage 2, Dust2.us' Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore talked to Simon "yxngstxr" Boije in the mixed zone, and asked him what's going on between them and Oleksandr " s1mple " Kostyljev, what HEROIC's expectations are for the rest of the tournament, and their metheoric rise since the roster was put together in January.

The full interview can be found below on YouTube or in text form below. All questions and answers below have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

HEROIC are the first team to make Stage 2 from Stage 1. How are you feeling coming out of this match versus FlyQuest?

This match was harder than the other ones, but it's a relief that we closed it out in the end.

And how do you feel about your run in Stage 1 overall? Do you guys feel that you struggled at all outside of this FlyQuest match, or did you expect that you would cruise through Stage 2?

Everyone expected us to go through, and I feel [that in the first] two games, they weren't the strongest opponents. We played fine, and we just closed out the match. In this match, we underestimated FlyQuest a bit. They hit some good clutches, some good rounds, but we played well.

Since IEM Dallas you went from being a top 20 team to a team that, I think, people expect to challenge some of the stronger teams at this Major. How does it feel from going from being underdogs to being top 10 [in VRS]?

It's super funny, because one year we were top 100, top 200. We were top 30 and now we're top 7 or whatever. It's definitely been a journey, but I don't feel the mentality has changed a lot. I still see it as we're getting better and better, but I'm not underestimating the opponent, still. It's not a big change.

How are you feeling heading into Stage 2? We're going to see a slight bump in competition. Are there any teams you're looking to face in Stage 2?

FaZe, of course. We have the beef with FaZe, so we've got to beat them.

You guys beat them in Dallas, and s1mple called you bots. He said that he loved tN1R and SunPayus, but called the rest 'fucking bots'. What's going on?

Back in ESL Pro League, xfl0ud was a bit BM to karrigan. So, I think there's a bit of funny drama there. I don't know if karrigan hates xfl0ud or what, but with s1mple... I don't know really. Since he said we are bots, I need to talk shit back. I think it's a funny banter, but it's nothing too serious.

So you pretty much inherited karrigan and xfl0ud's beef, and now you and s1mple are fighting a war that you don't even know what's all about.

[chuckles] Yeah, exactly. I've never even spoken to him personally or in the server, or whatever. It's just over some fun internet drama.

So, the first time you two are going to talk is going to be some shit talk on the server sometime this week? I bet you're looking forward to that match. I think the expectation for you guys is to make Stage 3 really confidently. Is that something within reach for HEROIC?

Of course, we're showing some good CS, and we showed in Dallas that we can compete. If we fix the minor mistakes, who knows what we can do right? So, I feel confident that we can compete against the good teams.