Boombl4: "My plan is to be the best team in the world."
Following a mild leadership crisis within the team and the departure of sh1ro, Cloud9 turned to Boombl4 to lead them into the new era.
Things have been slightly rocky thus far without a dedicated AWPer, but the Major-winning IGL is confident that new BLAST partners Cloud9 can do some serious damage in 2024.
Interview with Boombl4
You've been with Cloud9 for a little while now, how are you settling in?
Of course it's good emotions. The motivation and level of skill is high. We've only had three tournaments and not a lot of days to practice, but we want to show our best in these times and go into next year and qualify for the Major, that's the main thing we're thinking about.
Is it nice to be reunited with electroNic and Perfecto?
Of course, we've got the old vibes and we have really good friendship. I'm really happy with them and we feel the chemistry from NAVI, it's really good. Ax1Le and HObbit are new players for me, but we have a great mood in the team and we're all already friends.
Ax1Le has been playing much better recently, how have you been working with him to help this?
We're trying to build a new structure right now, and I think the main reason why he wasn't performing as well in the last few months is because of CS2 and how much he hated it. But, after some updates, he's growing in confidence and he likes it. We spoke with him and said he needs to be focused on the game and not think about updates or bugs because Valve are working 24/7 and the game will be great so we need to just focus on our team.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenYou mentioned the structure of the team, you're playing without a dedicated AWPer in the team, how are you feeling about that and the future of the role?
It's a little bit hard to build this new structure because we don't have a main AWPer, but we're trying some setups and we're testing new players on the AWP on some maps, but we need more time. In CS2, a lot of people are saying the AWP is harder. When I was in NAVI I was the second AWP and when I was playing in 1WIN sometimes deko would just tell me "fuck the AWP, I don't want to play with it" so I was AWPing then and I think it's not very hard for me and I like it, but maybe for some players in the team it's hard.
In terms of yourself, you left NAVI after the Antwerp Major and then went to 1WIN, but it's been a while since you've been in tier one CS; did you begin to think you might never make it back here?
My main motivation was to get back to tier one because of the fans and flying to other countries and, of course, the tournaments. It was my life. Then when I left NAVI and I didn't have any offers from tier one, I was only talking to Ocelote and he was telling me to join the team [G2] but it didn't work for me. After I went back to tier three I was really sad because I knew I needed to do the road to tier one again, but now everything is happening and I'm really happy and it's time to show the results and build this new team.
What's the long-term plan then? How long do you think it will take to build this new structure and where do you want to be in six months time?
I think our team is already focussing on next year because then we will have had more days to practice and of course, it's also the Major. My plan is to be the best team in the world.