electroNic: "I've never seen a guy who works as much as sh1ro"

The Russian in-game leader swung by HLTV's microphone ahead of Cloud9's upcoming IEM Cologne playoff campaign.

Cloud9 made waves over the tournament break with the blockbuster signings of Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov and Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy, a duo whose addition has led to the team being one of the most feared rosters heading into the fall season.

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Ax1Le to miss IEM Cologne group stage

A spanner was immediately thrown into the works, however. Sergey "⁠Ax1Le⁠" Rykhtorov, the star rifler of the Russian-majority roster, was forced to miss the IEM Cologne group stage due to visa issues, with Timur "⁠buster⁠" Tulepov being brought in as a last-minute replacement.

Cloud9 performed more than admirable despite having to utilize a stand-in, recovering from an opening 1-2 loss to fnatic with wins over 9INE, Monte, and finally GamerLegion to complete a lower bracket run earn a coveted place in the Lanxess Arena.

Date	Matches
IEM Cologne 2023
04/08/2023	Vitality 15:30 Cloud9	Match

HLTV was able to sit down with electroNic, Cloud9's new in-game leader, as the team gear up for their quarter-final matchup versus Vitality. The 24-year-old spoke about his decision to leave Natus Vincere after over five years with the organization, the makeup of the new squad and how it's developing, electroNic's goals for the remainder of IEM Cologne, and how far he thinks Cloud9 can go in the future.

Tell me about the decision to leave NAVI. What brought you to that point?

It was a hard decision, 100%. But I have to move forward, I need this change for my career. This time, for both NAVI and I, was the perfect time.

Were you always going to be the captain in this new chapter? Was there a chance of keeping nafany and being a fragger again?

I wanted to be in-game leader in Cloud9, there was no chance of keeping nafany and being a fragger. It was my thoughts that I wanted to be an in-game leader only in that team, except NAVI.

How much of a philosophy do you have already? In NAVI, with B1ad3, it's more of a combination; is it fair to say you're more on your own now?

From my side, we built the NAVI system together with B1ad3, everyone in the team. We put a lot of work into it as a team, everybody did. I've worked with good in-game leaders, Zeus, Boombl4, B1ad3, and good coaches also. I just take a bit from each of them, and I'm working with groove and [our analyst] F_1N and talking a lot about CS, I think we can build a good system here in Cloud9 with my knowledge of the other systems.

Who is the secondary caller on the team? HObbit and sh1ro are both quite vocal, how much of a say do they get?

The second caller will be sh1ro, because he wants to make those calls. He has a lot of ideas. But we don't need a lot of voices. When you have a lot of voices, it can be hard for the team because you don't know who you need to listen to.

On style, are you trying to play a bit looser than the old Cloud9? Do you give the players a lot of freedom?

I'm trying to give as much freedom as I can. Sometimes it doesn't work like that, they have to ask me if they can do some moves. If I don't agree, they don't do their things.

You and HObbit are taking map control on most maps. How does that dynamic work? A lot of teams have a weaker in-game leader than you fragging wise, so who is the guy that has to sacrifice frags and go in first a lot?

It's me and HObbit. We played a lot of tournaments, we are ready to do that. The others are still young, they want to make stats, so it's me and HObbit. It does depend on map, sometimes Ax1Le goes first, sometimes Perfecto, even sh1ro, but most of the time it's me or HObbit.

What's it like to play with sh1ro? You've played with s1mple for a long time, that was the old duo, but can this be a new one?

They're too different, you cannot compare them to each other. But sh1ro is a really talented player, I like him a lot as a person and a player. He has a bright future if he keeps working hard, I've never seen a guy who works as much as he does.

Is there a hierarchy within the team in terms of star roles? Is there emphasis on sh1ro and Ax1Le or are frags going to be spread out, a bit like Heroic used to?

I like systems which don't have star players. Anyway, we still have them, in Ax1Le and sh1ro, but our system will be about the team and not the star players. Everyone on our team can make a play, could win themselves as a star player and it's not that fair for the others to make sh1ro and Ax1Le as star players and other support for them. No, it's not like that in our team I think.

Will Ax1Le come back for playoffs?

We still don't know, but there is a chance he makes it.

How proud of buster are you for stepping into those roles, he barely played any of those roles on the old Cloud9? If he does play, are you still confident?

He did a really good job over the whole tournament, from the first day until the playoffs. If we keep him he will put even more work in, and I'm really grateful that he helps us. He did a really good job, he had to play really hard positions. It's difficult for him to play under my calling, it's totally new, so yeah.

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Perfecto: "I believe that we can compete well, even create some kind of era for Counter-Strike"

I talked to Perfecto the other day and he was very clear, this team was assembled to win trophies, to be as good as NAVI were in 2021. Is it the same for you?

We are here to make our own era. We will do our best to make it, to reach that goal.

Do you see Cloud9 as a superteam? How high are you on these five players?

Everybody from the team is a really great player, they can make their own individual moves on the maps, even in the clutches. For us it will be a bit easier, a lot of skill potential, so I think we could have a really good era if we can find the best solution for how it should work.

What's your initial thoughts on Vitality in the quarter-finals?

They're a new team. They're trying to put flameZ into dupreeh's roles, but he's not as experienced as dupreeh, it's a bit tough for them to make the same things that they did with dupreeh. For us it will be a bit easier to face them with flameZ for now, than with dupreeh.

What about ENCE, if you do make it?

They're a good team, they just showed this at IEM Dallas before the break. They're a good team, but there are some teams that are better than they are.

On Ax1Le if he does comes back, how good is it to have a player that can frag so hard and still take some tough CT spots?

It's really important, it makes it easier for us other players when your anchor can frag and make his role as best as he can do.

Goals for the tournament — is it just the win?

Of course. For our team, there is only one goal for every tournament. It's the win.

How long before we see the peak of this roster?

We will see how it's going to work in the future, how many hours we are going to put into our work. If we do put a lot in, maybe two to three months. If we don't, maybe six months. We need to find the best solution of how to build our system, but we will do everything we can to reach that goal. Everyone in the team wants to make their own era.