Ax1Le: "You play your entire career in one style, now I had to adapt and it wasn't easy"

Cloud9's former star rifler has struggled on CS2, but is having an uptick in form at the Major with a 1.35 rating in the Elimination Stage.

Cloud9 sauntered into the playoffs of the first CS2 Major with a demolition job of Natus Vincere. After going 3-0 at the Opening Stage, an opening loss to World No. 2 Spirit set the squad back only for them to bounce back with a 3-1 record.

Sergey "⁠Ax1Le⁠" Rykhtorov's form has been the subject of scrutiny for a while, with a drop off in form midway through 2023 and going from No. 4 in 2022's Top 20 Players of the Year list to missing out entirely last year.

Part of that has been down to CS2, and Ax1Le has been hard at work to fix his game: "I’ve started dedicating much more time to CS in the past year. I watch a lot of match recordings, play a lot individually, and try to spend more time in the game overall."

That is now paying off; the Russian rifler posted a 1.35 rating in the Elimination Stage of the Major, the highest on his team.

Ax1Le also touched on the departure of Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov, Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov's in-game leadership, and just how much he "craves" the Major trophy.

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Editor's note: Questions were asked via a translator, and Ax1Le's answers were translated by Russian-speaking HLTV staff.

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I’m here with Ax1Le. The verdict is out: you’re back. What do you think?

Overall, I’m very happy about the team and my form. I’m going back bit by bit. Tried a lot of things after the new game’s release. But now I’ve slowly recovered the form, and everything is great.

We heard you’ve put a lot of hours in CS2. Is that true?

Yes. To be honest, I’ve started dedicating much more time to CS in the past year. I watch a lot of match recordings, play a lot individually, and try to spend more time in the game overall. Because there was a slump that affected it as well, which is also why I wanted to dedicate more to the game and return to the previous form.

Does CS2 impact your style a little bit? You’re a jiggle-peeker sometimes, you’re not one of those big wide swingers. Is that part of your progression in terms of CS2?

Yes, when CS2 came out, I had to adapt to the game. CS:GO was more measured, now people count on the shooting more, like peeking more. Overall, my style was about outsmarting or flanking the opponent. Now I had to adapt, and it really wasn’t easy, Because you play your entire career in one style, but here you need to readjust and play differently. Now I do more peeks and it helps in some moments.

On the team side, you missed out on Paris. How good does it feel to be back to the Major, back to the arena?

After we failed the RMR for Paris, it hurt a lot. And it is always very nice when you come back, and especially reach playoffs. It’s a great result, and we made it through a long way. Very proud of all the difficulties we’ve overcome and are overcoming to this moment.

What’s it been like playing with the old NAVI core, especially once BoombI4 came in as an IGL? What do you think of his style? Do you think it suits you now?

Kirill is pretty nimble. In some moments he tries to play aggressively. And generally, none of them are proponents of a slow and measured style. It was very tough in the beginning actually, because we used to play very differently, and some totally new CS came in. So we had to change. We’re still mixing things around, but looks like we’ve found a key.

What’s it like not having sh1ro around? You were a long-time duo, we all thought you two would be a duo for years and years and years. What have you thought about the team since he was gone?

It’s always sad when those with whom you’ve played all of your career leave. Yeah, I miss him to some extent. I think I miss all of them, with many I’m still in touch with. They are all great guys, it was great spending time with them.

For playoffs now, what’s the goal? The rest of your team has done it before but not you. Are you still hungry to get that Major?

I personally want to win the Major so badly. Because I feel like we can do it if every one of us craves it and will do everything we can to achieve this. We probably need more of a mutual understanding, supporting each other at everything, being a team, and playing like a team. And then our goal is winning the Major, for sure.