tarik: "We switched [IGL] to ptr"

CLG managed to go through both Gamers2 and Titan without a loss and secured a spot at ESL One Katowice after two last-round wins.

We've caught up with Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik to have a chat about the team's preparation before they arrived to Katowice, both of the matches here, predictions and the team's plan going towards the major. 

Let's start out with the basic question, how was your preparation going into the qualifier, how much time have you had, was there a bootcamp?

"Lately we've been dealing with our online matches so we haven't had much time to practice, we had a small bootcamp at the Clutch gaming arena for about two days a couple weeks ago. We also went to MLG and ClutchCon and got LAN experience there together. But lately, it's just been matches every night, so we've been pounding those out so honestly, we haven't had much practice because of the online matches."

You knew who your opponents will be a few days prior to the tournament, how much have you prepared specifically for some of those teams, specifically for Gamers2 and then Titan or some of the other teams from your group?

"I'm pretty sure FNS got to watch a few demos and we knew how the veto was gonna play out, we knew their weak maps, their strong maps, we expected to play either mirage or cache against Gamers2 and then for Titan, we were pretty prepared to play dust2. We know how they play dust2, we've watched demos of them, so we were pretty prepared for both teams."

You played both teams on their home maps really, Gamers2 are known for their cache, they even almost beat NiP on it at DHW, and then you played dust2, which is obviously their home map because of kennyS. Were you at all afraid to go against those teams on their maps?

"Honestly we just wanted to play our game and not focus on what they do, we wanted to stay calm, stay focused, we know how to play, we know what to do. We switched our strat caler to ptr a couple days ago, I think his strat calling is working out for us well, but it just came down to us playing our game and focusing on what we do and going from there really."

First match was against Gamers2 as we said, you won the first pistol, then lost three rounds in a row and eventually went up 11-4 as CT, what can you tell us about your CT side?

"That was one of our better CT sides really, we were worried about our CT side not being good, but it comes down to just playing the right setups, comms and rotations. Comms and rotations are huge for us, but yeah, we were down and came back at one point. We were happy about 11-4, and then T side, we were up about 14-6 and they came back to 15-14 before we closed out the game. It was close, which was unfortunate, but I'm glad we closed out the game."

What happened in the last round, as you said nothing worked out in the last ten of eleven rounds, what did you do differently there?

"We realized they were not playing middle at all, they were giving it to us for free, so we decided to do an A split from mid and main, we sent three highway and two from A as well. Them giving us mid control just made it so easy for us to go up highway and trade those kills. I think Cutler got two huge kills that round and then it came down to a 1v2, which we played together perfectly and we won that round. It was huge."

Going over to the Titan match, the first side went pretty smoothly for you, 10-5, what can you tell us about that? 

"We know how they play dust2, we know certain things about them, we know that kennyS goes for these long picks on T side. Our CT side just came to us getting picks, playing calm, passive and disciplined. We weren't forcing anything, sometimes we were going aggro B tunnels, exploiting their weaknesses, it just came down to us playing our game really."

tarik had a great performance in his first European experience

After that you even won the first round and it almost looked like it's over, but again, Titan started coming back and it was in the last possible round that you won. What I noticed is that you ran a default almost all the time and then you rushed long for the sixteenth round, whose call was that, was it something that you planned on, to do something unexpected?

"We talked it out as a team, you know, we thought about what are they doing, what we should do, and we figured out that we should take long and abuse that from there. Yeah, we noticed the default wasn't working, we were getting picked off, they were playing aggro. We realized we need to do something fast and punch them in the face."

How much of the win do you account to the duel between ptr and kennyS, how much do you think that affected the whole match?

"I think ptr played fine, I mean kennyS out-AWPed him a couple times, but ptr played his game, he was focused, he was keeping us in it, so I don't think ptr-kennyS battle really too big of an effect. I don't know if kennyS was doing that great, I didn't notice him that much. I think ptr played great."

What do you think about other teams in your group, who do you think will go through? 

"I think Titan's a really good team, they definitely have what it takes to advance, we caught them off guard on our CT side and brought that last round back, fortunately enough. But I think Titan will advance out of this group.

What about the other teams, is there some name that sticks out to you that you feel like will definitely go through?

"I think Liquid has a good chance of making it out, they're also an NA team, I think they look really good. I look forward to watching them play. 

Anyone from the other group, what about Cloud9 for example?

"KaBuM has a really good chance, Cloud9 might make it out but I feel like KaBuM's really good, we've played a lot against them lately. They have great teamwork, chemistry, their aim is insane, you know, they're a top level team and they definitely have what it takes to advance. Over Cloud9 even, to be honest."

Now you've qualified for the major obviously, in a month you're going to Katowice again, what's the plan in the next month, how will you prepare?

"Right now I think our main focus is to win our ESEA matches, we're doing bad on ESEA, we're 4-4 right now, we need to buckle down and start winning those matches and practice hard for that. Katowice is in about a month so we have time to practice for that, but right now our main focus is definitely our league matches online and qualifying for ESEA and CEVO LAN."

Are you going to go to Europe before the major to practice against European teams, is that a possibility at all?

"It's definitely a possibility, we'll talk it out with the team, but I think that would be good for us to bootcamp on their soil and play their teams more often, because we don't get to play those teams at all. This is my first time playing here, I think it's all of our first times playing in Europe, really. It's definitely different."

Anything else to add, shoutouts to fans, sponsors?

"Yeah, shoutouts to Cellucor, NZXT, LoLClass, SanDisk, iBUYPOWER, Razer and Twitch!"

Expect more text interviews like this as the tournament progresses, we will definitely get a hold of some of the teams from the later half of the day.