nafany on Cloud9 removal: "I was ready for it and maybe even happy with it"

A month into going official, Vladislav "⁠nafany⁠" Gorshkov and BetBoom have found success by qualifying for IEM Sydney.

nafany's stock as an IGL has fluctuated greatly during the last few years, with the highs of his Gambit days contrasted by the lows of his final days in Cloud9. The 22-year-old found himself out of the team in the off-season, as the organization signed Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov and Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy from Natus Vincere. He led the core of the team since 2019, and the longevity took a toll on the team, according to the the young IGL.

"We were together for a long time and grew a bit tired of each other in my opinion. I saw what Hobbit said and he thinks, seems like at least, that the problem was on me. But in general, I think that time said to us that we have to make some bigger changes in the biggest part of the team," he told HLTV in Belgrade.

"It's obvious that three players were building the team and making most of the decisions outside of coaching staff. It was mostly me, sh1ro, and Hobbit, because we have the strongest voices and it was pretty fair that one of us should go, and it was me. So I was ready for it and maybe even happy with it, because it's a new start for me, seems like a really good start, actually. But overall, as I said, it was just a matter of time that we had to make really strong changes."

Now, nafany has found himself on a new team almost immediately after he was benched by Cloud9, as he signed for BetBoom and assembled a team of his hand-picked players.

"BetBoom contacted me and they asked me if I want to try and build something new. They gave me the opportunity to decide which players I want to see in this team and which coach staff, they [the organization] really believe in me," he began describing the process.

The freedom he got from BetBoom enabled him to make swift moves in the market. "I instantly wrote to KaiR0N- and zorte that I want to play with them after a few days. I also said to BetBoom that I really want to try and play with s1ren, but the problem was that he was under contract with Spirit and the organizations had to agree on a buyout."

"The last player was danistzz, and it was kind of hard for me to decide who is going to be the final piece. I was speaking a lot with zorte and KaiR0N-, but the final decision was on me, and I just believed in him and it seems like he's a really promising player. Maybe he has some problems with in-game communication or understanding of the game, but again, he's pretty green. He doesn't know a lot, and he is learning really fast."

Negotiations between CIS organizations are often impossible, but BetBoom were able to get the signings over the line. It didn't happen smoothly, nafany adds. "We couldn't even actually practice before we signed a contract at BetBoom. "

His team just achieved their first qualification for a Big Event in IEM Sydney just moments before the interview, and nafany couldn't hide his happiness. "Actually it's a really nice feeling because I lost only like two tier-one tournaments because as far as I remember, Cloud9 played only Cologne and Gamers8."

"I didn't expect that it will be this fast, I expected that we need at least half a year to find our game. So overall I'm pretty happy that I have everyone in this team. I also have to mention that we did it without any analyst, without any coach, without any manager."

Date	Matches
IEM Sydney 2023 Europe Closed Qualifier
25/08/2023	BetBoom Finished 2:1 9INE	Match

The lack of coaching staff is about to change, however, as nafany says that he already gave his input on the decision. "We are looking for a CIS-experienced coach. We have few ideas, but again, it's mostly on our organization. I just said to them something about who can help us and who will not fit. So it's just a matter of time before we will find the right man for us."

The Russian IGL also found himself in some arguments on Twitter recently, but he insists he takes the comments with a grain of salt. "I don't give a fuck actually," he began laughingly. "If people are saying something bad about me, sometimes it's true, sometimes it's not.

"For example, I saw that a lot of people say that groove was calling in the online era. And it's actually pretty strange because they don't even hear TeamSpeak, and I was there. Some things he helped with, but it's like how a coach should work, right? I was calling for most of the time and it's pretty funny to see people saying that I'm a bad IGL because groove was calling online and that I called much worse on LAN. But actually if you look at our first year on LAN, I wasn't so bad, I was actually pretty good," he finished off his defense.

An energized nafany then finished the interview by giving his team even more praise. "I believe that in this roster we will just play how we want and do what we want, and don't give a fuck about what haters say. And as I can see, everyone in this roster really wants to work, we don't have players who are here only for salary. And it's really important for me to know that everyone wants to be better."