n0thing: "shroud played really well"

Earlier today Cloud9 secured the first spot at ESL One Katowice from the main qualifier's group B with two back-to-back wins over INSHOCK and mousesports.

We sat down with Jordan "⁠n0thing⁠" Gilbert, whose de_dust2 performance pushed Cloud9 over the top, to see what he has to say about the qualifier and the upcoming major.

First question, as always, how has the team's preparation been leading towards the main qualifier at Katowice?

"Our preparation was really just a transition from the last couple of events, this last week we actually probably only scrimmed eight times in total in the whole week. Our preparation could've been better but we just had matches, so we weren't able to play as many of the teams, because everyone was very busy."

How well have you prepared for each of your group's teams specifically, especially INSHOCK and KaBuM/mousesports?

"Well, we only knew we were playing INSHOCK first and we don't know anything about them. We weren't able to find much match history or anything, we asked a few teams, but they couldn't tell us much. KaBuM and mousesports we both knew a bit about, but we didn't know who we were going to play, so we didn't really over-analyze it. We just let it happen, kind of."

Let's talk a little bit about your first match, you didn't know much about them, but it was still pretty easy, talk us through the match, was there something that stood out for you?

"shroud played really well. Getting that CT pistol and getting momentum early against somebody who probably thinks they're not as good as us was important, because then you kinda deplete any momentum they could get early. That's really all it was, we had a strong CT side on inferno and we shut them down."

The next match was a lot closer, what did you expect from the match, did you expect dust2 coming out?

"We expected probably like a dust2 or inferno. We know about their dust2 and how they like to play and they seemed to know us a little bit as well. I think we read them pretty well, we lost some matches, chrisJ was playing well in those. Yeah, in the end we just had a stronger defence."

Like you said, in those two matches shroud was playing really well, you had a good performance in the second match, so who stood out for you the most?

"shroud the first map for sure, I had a great second map, maybe not as good as shroud's first map, but it doesn't really mater, it's all about the win. I mean, ShahZaM normally dominates dust2 if he's hitting his shots, and he wasn't getting as many opportunities, he was missing some of his shots, not a big deal, we were able to recover. Two quick matches, that's it."

I think we can both agree that you're not big fans of BO1s, you went out because of them a few times in a row, so what do you think about the system here overall? Some of the teams also have to wait a few hours before they play for a spot...

"I've always not been a fan of BO1, but the unfortunate thing is that a lot of times the event is restricted to time. If the event organizer had more time, I would love to see a BO3 round robin, I think that would be a lot of fun. It's just up to how much time the organizer has. As you said, it's very lame to wait around between matches, sometimes you play a team who just finished and you've been waiting for three hours, that is always sucky, but there's not much you can do about that sometimes."

Now you're qualified for the major, you have one month to prepare, how are you going to use that time? Will there be any bootcamp in Europe?

"I think we will definitely try to show up at least a week early and be there, in Sweden, Germany or Poland, depending on if we could find a good place in Poland. We're gonna try to get a short bootcamp, and not too long of a bootcamp, that seems to not be good for us."

There were some upsets, some that didn't happen in the end - quadruple overtime from PiTER against Titan - what do you make of the results overall?

"I think it was unfortunate for Liquid yesterday, I think they could've won on mirage versus Flipsid3. Otherwise, PiTER surprised me a little bit, and I didn't know much about them. Otherwise I wasn't too surprised, KaBuM/mouz I didn't know what to expect really, KaBuM's actually pretty good, they've been beating a lot of North American teams pretty bad."

What about the other three teams that will come out from your group later today, who do you think will make it through?

"3DMAX and maybe dignitas, right here probably mouz if KaBuM doesn't step it up, I'd like to see the Australians surprise some people. Otherwise, honestly I don't know."

Any last words, shoutouts to sponsors, anything?

"Thanks to our fans, everyone abroad who still thinks we're throwing for skins, cos we would never do that. All of the supporters who support us through our wins and losses and of course all our sponsors."

We will try to get a hold of some of group A's teams we haven't interviewed yet, as well as more teams from group B once they're available.