HeavyGod said the team lacked energy in todays’s match.
Fall Showdown's ruthless cull continues as another event favorite is eliminated early. Cloud9 took a tough 2-0 loss at the hands of paiN Gaming and is now out of the running for a ticket to Copenhagen. Can Cloud9 turn the ship around and build on the talents of Nikita "HeavyGod" Martynenko and Kaisar "ICY" Faiznurov?
"Our map pool is stronger," says Cloud9 HeavyGod despite Nuke loss
Before the game, James Banks discussed the trajectory of Cloud9 with captain Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhaylov. While BoombI4 reiterated the team's aim of becoming a Tier 1 fixture, he stressed the importance of taking smaller steps with a young core. The IGL also praised paiN's LAN form and explosive gameplay.
Of course it's our goal to be a Tier 1 team. But when you have a young team, three new players, you need to think about easy goals first. You need to try to build a team understanding first.
Coming into this event, Cloud9 had managed to qualify for the EU RMR with a single map lost to 9Pandas. That qualification run must have taken its toll on the players, though, as HeavyGod found that Cloud9 lacked energy in their match today. Despite a 13-8 loss, he was adamant that Nuke is a solid map for his team.
We are totally prepared on Nuke. We just didn't play out game today. Didn't have the energy we did in the days before. Our map pool is stronger.
Mirage didn't go any better for the Russian side, as paiN was thoroughly in control of gun rounds. So, despite Kaisar "ICY" Faiznurov's stellar performance, the team failed to capitalize.
I think we gave many entries away. Like I said, our energy was low today and we weren't fully focused.
The team now moves into the preparations for the Shanghai Major while continuing to battle in online qualifiers for various events. Boot camps will be the name of the game as Cloud9 players prepare for the RMR battle.
Every loss is hard, but you have to learn from it and continue to the next game. We gotta prepare better next time and fix the mistakes. Keep believing. One loss can happen because no team is perfect, so just got to keep working. We're going to have one more boot camp after this because we need to work hard as a new team. Everyone is working hard. We'll show our best and fix our mistakes.
Related articles
Map Veto
- paiN removed Ancient
- Cloud9 removed Vertigo
- paiN picked Nuke
- Cloud9 picked Mirage
- paiN removed Inferno
- Cloud9 removed Anubis
- Dust2 was left over
Nuke being allowed into the pool may have been a calculated decision for Cloud9, but it definitely did not pan out in this match. For instance, paiN was dominant on their gun rounds and Cloud9 only had HeavyGod to answer back. While the Israeli rifler managed to pick up a few key rounds, the team lacked the punch it needed to knock down paiN.
Mirage wasn't much better. Cloud9 locked in the pistol conversion for three. But one-way traffic followed for the rest of the half, with paiN taking eight of the next nine. BoombI4's ACE kicked off a mini-comeback, but paiN weathered the storm and closed the series 2-0.
Cloud9: Favorites out early from BLAST Premier Fall Showdown
Cloud9 came in as one of the favorites thanks to their sheer firepower. But surprisingly, they lacked firepower in the match against paiN. So now C9 heads back to boot camp to figure out their mistakes, while paiN moves on in the Fall Showdown. That sets FaZe up with a clear path into Finn "karrigan" Andersen's home event if they can overcome the Brazilian side.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest CS2 news and updates.