Heroic Bench In-game Leader cadiaN

Heroic announced the benching of its long-time in-game leader Casper “cadiaN” Møller, who left the team due to differing visions of the future. It marks the end of the Danish player’s stint with the organization, which dates back to October 2019 when he joined Heroic from a rival Danish team, North.

CadiaN Leaves Heroic

On Wednesday, cadiaN was moved to Heroic’s bench and is officially no longer a part of Heroic’s active Counter-Strike roster. The shock move happened due to differing visions for the future of the team, as explained by the Danish esports organization, but hasn’t provided further details on the matter.

The roster change comes just weeks following Heroic’s abysmal performance at ESL Pro League Season 18, where the Danish squad crashed out in 21st-28th place, with just one victory against Rooster (2-0) and three straight losses against BIG (0-2), MOUZ (0-2), and Monte (1-2). It marked a new low for Heroic, who otherwise accomplished a lot this season.

The team won BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2023 and made the semifinals of BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2023, and Gamers8 2023 are among the other deep tournament runs.

The disappointing run in Malta, however, wasn’t that shocking. CadiaN spoke about issues within the team before ESL Pro League Season 18 started, expressing his concern about the squad not playing well as a unit and abandoning the values that made them one of the top squads in the world.

“We had talks on how to move forward and progress,” said cadiaN. “And I think, ultimately, we had different visions on how we would achieve our goals. I wanted some changes and some people wanted a different way.”

However, while cadiaN confirmed that the decision to leave the team was consensual, he didn’t go into many details.

CadiaN’s Concerns With The Future Of Heroic

CadiaN has not talked much about the exact reason for his departure from Heroic but has noted that he wanted to make some roster changes to make the team stronger. However, he wasn’t able to get his way, as some members of the team disagreed with his vision.

“I think they [roster changes] would have made us more competitive in the big tournaments and the big stages, and they [Heroic] saw it done in a different way. It would not have created the right fundamentals for the future if we met somewhere in the middle.”

While it seemed like it would never happen, Heroic and cadiaN have now decided to part ways, ending the Dane’s four-year-long stint with the team. And while he was just an in-game leader, many considered cadiaN the face of Heroic, with whom he went from a middle-of-the-pack team to one of the strongest and most consistent squads in the Counter-Strike scene.

“Many people see me as the face of not just the CS team of Heroic but more or less the organization, you know? I have been able to build a team and a brand more or less from nothing. We didn’t have the funds or the same opportunities as the other teams at the beginning, and we fought our way up, becoming better and better with each and every small change and the theory-crafting of how to play CS.”

What’s Next?

CadiaN has not shared whether he has already found a new team to join but has noted that he intends to continue competing in Counter-Strike 2 and that he is still very motivated to stay involved in the esports scene. It’ll, however, be interesting to see which team he ends up joining.

CadiaN has spent the last five years playing for Danish teams, and considering there are just two top-tier Danish teams around nowadays (Heroic and Astralis), a move to an international roster is not entirely out of the question.

“I have my ideas of which teams I could instantly make better and which teams could, or should, potentially consider involving me. But at the end of the day, it’s not up to me to decide which teams are interested in me.”

And while it’s uncertain who cadiaN will end up joining, it’s fair to say that he won’t have a hard time finding a new home as an in-game leader or in another role.