RUSH: "When you bring a fresh player in, who is also the IGL, you have to change a lot"

Cloud9 started out down 0-7, but were able to grind their way back and tie the match 10-10. They would go on to fall behind after a long technical pause but tied it once again at 15-15. After coming back from being against the wall once again in the first overtime, 15-18, William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba and co. eventually closed their opener out, 22-20.

RUSH is enjoying his new roles under FNS

Cloud9 now have the afternoon off before they return to Le Dome to play their winners' matches, but before leaving the venue, RUSH told us about the team's recent changes, how they tuned the new roster to be ready for DreamHack Masters Marseille, and the team's nailbiter against G2.

Before anything, tell me a bit about your preparation coming into this event.

We played with FNS as much as possible to tell him what we have strats-wise, setup-wise, etc. on every map because when you bring a fresh player in, who is also the IGL, you have to change a lot, and you have to see how his playstyle matches up with our playstyle and find a way to make it work, so you have to scrim a lot, too. Besides going in a server and grinding out executes and setups and stuff, you have to scrim a lot to get the chemistry down, so we did that as much as we could. We wished could have gotten FNS earlier than we did, because we were kind of in a limbo and had a week in which we could have practised with him, but I think we got enough practise in to do damage here, so I'm happy with it.

Talking about FNS coming in, especially being an IGL, how has his playstyle matched up with yours, and how has yours changed with him coming in?

He takes a lot of hits, individually. He'll always go first if he needs to, he'll drop AKs and use UMP or CZ on CT, so he's basically a support player and IGL, which is really hard. He gets a lot of flack and I'm not sure why because he's done his job pretty perfectly so far, I haven't had any complaints about him, honestly. It helps me a lot because I've said in previous interviews that I rely a lot on structure. I'm not saying Tarik's calling was bad, but it was more unstructured and based more on individual plays and fast hits. It was hard for me, honestly, and I was lurking a lot. Now I'm on more of an entry role and I have more opportunities. FNS makes calls for me to make plays, and that wasn't given to me before, so it reminds me a bit of playing for stanislaw, although I feel the calling here is a bit better, no offense to stanislaw. I'm really happy with how I'm playing and how he's setting me up.

Talking about the difference between FNS and Tarik, has FNS completely taken over, or are they sharing some duties?

It's not a dictatorship, FNS just makes the start of the round call and he usually makes the end of the round call, but mid-game, if anything happens that FNS isn't there to see, then Tarik or Tim [autimatic] are usually the second points to make the mid-round calling. So basically, it's three guys calling, FNS the main guy, and Tim and Tarik below him, and me and Skadoodle pretty much just do our job. FNS controls the game and micromanages a lot, too. He makes sure he knows where everyone is on the map and he tells us when to come back or not come back, and I think he's really good at that.

So you've been playing well lately, personally, and you showed it in the match against G2. Are you more comfortable back in this entry role? Is it something you've missed?

I don't think I necessarily missed it, but I'm definitely down to play it because in the previous team I was more of a support. Stewie is a guy that likes to make a lot of plays, and so is Tarik, and you can't have three guys making plays and going out first all the time. I think being a support player in the previous iteration of the roster was good for me, and I really liked it. I learned a lot from it, actually. How to support my teammates, and how to be a more passive player. I think now that I'm back to entrying I get the best of both worlds. I think it was good for me to be support.

The match against G2 was all about them getting ahead and you bringing it back, and then in overtime, they got ahead and you brought it back, and in the end, you were able to take it. Run me through the key points of the match in your eyes.

We were down 7-0 and at that point we won a CZ forcebuy on B. That was pretty big for our confidence, so at that point, we were like "OK, we got a round," and we got into it. We got three more rounds, and eventually to 10-5... not the greatest half, but from where we started it was pretty good. Then we won the pistol round. I had a triple kill round in a 2vs3, I won the round with Pujan [FNS] and that was important because the game would have probably been 13-5 had we not won that. So we got to 10-10 and that's when the pause came in and that really messed with everybody, I'm sure G2 as well as us. We were coming back, we were in the game, and then boom, thirty minutes or an hour of delays non-stop.

We got back into it, lost the first round, our money was screwed, and it got to a point where it was 15-12 for them and we were on the ropes. Our money wasn't the greatest, but we ended up coming back to 15-15. We just played our defaults and played really well. Then they won three rounds in a row, so it was 18-15, and then again we were on the ropes, but we clawed back to 18-18 and Pujan had a crucial round killing three while holding B. In the end, we just won it 22-20, but it was super close.

So taking it back to before DreamHack Marseille, the roster moves. Run me through the timeline. Skadoodle was supposed to leave, but then Stewie left and Skadoodle stayed. How did that happen?

We all agreed, and it was a pretty sure thing that Tyler [Skadoodle] was going to leave. He was going to stop playing, or retire, and at that point, Stewie2K was one of the people in agreeance. Maybe like a week after that, or less than a week after, Stewie told us he was leaving out of nowhere. For three or four days we still played without Tyler, I'm not sure why, but we tried out some players. We had a little meeting and decided we should keep him, that we couldn't make two changes, and we talked it over with Tyler. He was at home and relaxing and not under the impression he was going to be playing, but he knew it was for the best that he stayed and we got into a grind right away with him, and I'm really glad he stayed, honestly.

How's the atmosphere in the team now? Is everyone alright or did that create some tension?

The atmosphere is great actually, no one on this team ever talks down or gets toxic, and I'm really happy with that. No one attacks anyone personally, ever, and no one complains. Well, if anyone complains it's me, I am the worst with that. Sometimes I'll do it and I feel bad because no one else is doing it and I have no reason to do it. I'm happy and I think it's going to work well with Pujan.

There have been a lot of roster changes going on lately, has anyone caught your eye particularly?

The obvious ones are the ones that affected me. When Stewie left it was pretty surprising, I didn't think he'd join SK. I'm pretty sure they asked Tim and Stewie and Tim said no and Stew said yes, so I was like "woah, that's kind of random," but I don't fault him at all for it, I think it's a good opportunity for him and I will never blame him for it.

We were originally going to try and get TACO, but in the end, he chose Liquid. It kind of makes sense, in a way, because he has Wilton [zews] on the team, and they're old friends. Those roster changes are the biggest standouts for me. I think SK, given time, are going to be really good, actually.

You believe in the change?

Yeah, I think so if they can get over the communication issues and get back to their regular form because Stewie is an insane player. FalleN is going to know how to unlock him, for sure.

Finally, since the team is still figuring things out after the roster moves, did you have any particular goals for the tournament?

There was no team meeting in which we said: "we have to do this, or it's bad." My personal goal is that making it out of groups is good, although I think we can make top 4. I would be somewhat satisfied... somewhat satisfied... with top 8, but I would really like to make top 4 or even get into the final. It's going to be hard. Like I said, we haven't had much time to practice with FNS, and he's doing his best to get all the drills in with Soham [valens]. They do a lot of work outside of the game, looking at the teams we're playing, which I'm glad they're doing, so I'm hoping for top 4.