The revitalisation of electroNic is one that is welcome to all viewers, but very few of Cloud9's opponents. Ever since being released from the shackles of IGLing, he has been a complete revelation - just like he was when he first joined NAVI.
Boombl4's signing is one that he has welcomed to Cloud9. Having worked with - and won with - the guy back on NAVI, electroNic had plenty of lovely things to say about his old friend, and backed him to be the best IGL in the world when he sat down with BLAST.tv ahead of tomorrow's opening game against ENCE.
You've been in pretty good form recently; do you think that's perhaps because you're no longer IGLing or is something with CS2 just clicking for you?
I'm just focusing much more on myself. I want to prove to myself that I'm still capable of being one of the best players in the world. I want to be this guy and win with my team. In the future I will do everything I can to make my game even better. It's kind of hard to practice here in the middle east because there's no FACEIT, it's kind of hard.
What did you learn from your time as an IGL that might be helping you now?
I learnt more about what you can do in some situations, what you have to say for your teammates or what you can say about what to do on the map. I just got much more understanding of how important it is to be calm and now I understand the coach even more than I did as just a player.
What's it like having Boombl4 back as an IGL?
It's always nice to have him back, he's a good player. His understanding of the game is one of the best. When he's trying his best, he's the best IGL, I think.
In the world?
Yeah, why not? When he's doing it all, when he's putting everything in the game, his charisma, his mentality, his understanding of the game... when I stopped playing with him as IGL, I saw that he had fast calls. When you need to be calm, he is doing these fast calls. Now he has fixed it, I can see a different Boombl4 to what I saw on NAVI. 100% he did a good job on 1WIN, he worked a lot on his own game, on his ability to be one of the best IGLs. Now, he wants to be the best IGL, and I think if he does the same, he will.
People used to say that it wasn't necessarily him behind NAVI's success and it was actually B1ad3. Is that not true, and Boombl4 was always a good IGL?
I will say every player in that team had impact, good things. I will never say it's only about B1ad3, I don't like when people say it's only about B1ad3, B1ad3 is a genius. Yes, B1ad3 is a genius but at the same time, Boombl4 was. We could not win tournaments, this many tournaments [otherwise]. I think everybody put work into the system, we're building this system and I think B1ad3 was only building the system, I will say that, but it was Boombl4 also, and every piece of the team. Even the manager, and the psychologist, everybody.
So we've talked about NAVI a lot, but let's instead talk about the Cloud9 system. You're playing without an AWPer - do you think you can be successful without an AWPer?
Yeah, in this game, it's not that easy to play without an AWPer but at least you can try. In CSGO it's kinda impossible to play without an AWP. We will kind of just try our best to be one of the best teams even without an AWPer.
So is that the plan long-term, to stick to this team without an AWPer?
Yeah for now, we're just playing and growing together and trying to be good.
People have been saying that this Cloud9 team is the Russian superteam and maybe results have been disappointing so far - do you think that's ready to change now with how you and Ax1Le are playing?
People say that this is the superteam, yeah, probably from the names we are looking strong, but this is two different systems around us. Now Boombl4 came and now we are trying to build their system as well as Boombl4's system and they're still trying to get to know each other better. So we will see how it works in the future.
You said there was some issues with the amount of voices on the team, has Boombl4 said anything similar, or is that not an issue any more?
I don't think it's an issue any more. We are just doing what we were doing before. We are just fixing our stuff. Now there is not that many voices on the team, of course everybody can say anything to Boombl4 or to me or to Groove, but Boombl4 is the main caller, and I'm the guy who helps him from the second perspective.
Finally, what's the hopes and expectations for this tournament?
We just want to show the best version of ourselves, so let's see how we perform through this tournament because we had a disppointing result at BetBoom Dacha. Let's see, and let's hope that we show a good version.
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