CRUC1AL: "It's been a hell of a roller coaster, I've been trying to achieve this for many years"

The Dutch player's grind has paid off after years fighting to make it to a Major.

One of the stories of Into the Breach's qualification for the Major is that of AWPer Joey "⁠CRUC1AL⁠" Steusel, who has fought to make his way for years in Dutch, British, European, and even North American teams. It is at the last CS:GO Major, which will take place in Paris on May 8-21, that the 26-year-old will finally play on the game's biggest stage.

The AWPer's first CS:GO matches on HLTV's database date all the way back to 2013, when he was just 16, and his first LAN is a CPH Games in 2014, where his Avenue were brushed aside in two quick maps by countryman Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong's MOUZ.

Now CRUC1AL joins Dion "⁠FASHR⁠" Derksen as the second Dutch player to qualify for the Paris Major — the third player from The Netherlands when accounting for all CS:GO Majors, which also includes chrisJ. The 26-year-old took some time after the momentous occasion, Into the Breach's qualifying victory over B8, to talk about what it means for him to finally realize his dream.

You've been grinding this game forever. The first time I saw you playing live, on LAN, was in 2015, in Serbia, at TWC 2015 with The Netherlands. Ever since, you've been trying to make it here. What does it feel like to finally reach a Major, and the last one of the game?

It's been a hell of a roller coaster, I've been trying to achieve this goal for many, many years and I'm just so happy that it's finally happening and I'll finally play at a Major. I've been trying it for so long, it just feels really great to finally achieve that in the final CS:GO Major.

It's been 10 years of CS:GO, can you even believe that it happened now?

No, it's still unreal to me. I can't believe it. We were trying to go for it but we were always the underdogs coming into these events, so you don't really expect it. That's why it's just so great.

What about your run here? You said you maybe didn't expect to go through now, so how did you live the day by day, the road to qualification?

Well, first we had to play the open qualifier and we qualified just like a week or two after we created this team. Then we started practicing, we did a boot camp in Germany to try and up our game before this event. To be honest, I don't think anyone expected us to go through, it was very unlikely.

But if you play, there's always hope, you know? There's always belief. If you're in the server you always believe you can win the game, no matter who you're up against, and I think that really helped us get through. It's amazing that we did it in this fashion.

The only loss we had was against NAVI, and it was in OT. Now we had a map loss as well, but it was also OT, so it means that we can really play the game. It's not like we got shot out of the server, it's always close matches. It just feels great.

Talking about this match against B8, you lost several match points and they won the second map. What was it like when you stepped out before the decider?

Honestly, losing Mirage was devastating because we knew we had it. We had the game in the bag. I fucked up so many rounds, I was like 'Oh my God, this isn't happening,' but after the map you just have to reset, bring new energy going into the new map because it's not lost yet. We knew we could win the third map, we have a good Vertigo, so we just went in with a great mindset and we pulled through.

As you said, you qualified right after the creation of the team. How was the team created? What were those initial feelings and first moments putting the team together?

I was just looking for a team again and I reached out to Thomas when he was creating this team for Into the Breach, so then I was kind of speaking with him and we created the team with the UK guys. Everyone is just really good aimwise and I think we have some of the greatest aimers on this team. I think it helps us against top teams, it feels like we have a chance against any opponent we're facing.

You went to North America for a while, you've been in a bunch of different teams, you've been trying to make it everywhere. What is it about this team that was the one that could finally break through?

I'm not really sure exactly what the winning recipe or something is. At every event you have upset teams, there's always a team that upsets. I've been at three RMRs and the team I was in wasn't the one that was upsetting. Now finally it happened that my team is upsetting! It's just a great feeling. I don't exactly know what the winning recipe is or how you upset teams, we just made it work and we're at the Major!

You're in a British org with some British teammates, are you ready to hear 'it's coming home' every day for the next few weeks?

Yeah, of course! [laughs] I've been playing in the British scene for a very long time so when they say 'It's coming home,' it's also coming home to me a bit, it feels like!

You're an honorary Brit.

Haha, yeah!

But you also join a very select group of Dutch players that have made it to a Major, it's just chrisJ and FASHR. Now you as well!

Yeah, exactly! And I think D0cC is still alive in the Asia RMR, so there could be a lot of Dutch people at this Major, which is kind of exciting for such a small country.*

I'm very happy after seeing you grind all of these years, you always love the story of someone who didn't give up and finally made it. Especially at such at moment, the last CS:GO Major before a new chapter begins. Congratulations!

* The interview was conducted before D0cC's Twisted Minds were eliminated from the Asia RMR