OXY says Cloud9 wasn’t listening to their coach in loss to MIBR

Francis "OXY" Hoang and Cloud9 have been eliminated from the VCT Americas Kickoff 2025. The team started off with a great showing against NRG, but lost two back-to-back games versus G2 Esports and MIBR.

Following the elimination match, esports.gg had a quick chat with the C9 duelist. He spoke on his own performance and let it be know that he didn't feel the team was doing a good job listening to their coach during the series.

"Well, last year was your rookie year. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with traditional sports and what is called the sophomore slump. Where players have a great rookie year, but their second years see a drastic fall off. Do you believe in that kind of superstition? Are you worried at all it might happen?"

OXY: "Honestly, no, not all. I think I found my groove again and I know exactly what I did wrong the first two matches. I'm back on the road of what I did last year. But yeah, I don't believe in that superstition."

"Talk me through your performance today then. When you just look at the stat line, it isn’t bad at all by any means. You guys have finally been winning map ones, and you started to get fired up with the Operator on Abyss, even got an Ace with the Jett knives. What’s your immediate critique on how you and the team played today?"

OXY: "Just to start off, I think we barely had a lot of time. We didn't have much time because we made some roster changes and stuff like that. So, we were working a lot for the entire last three weeks, four weeks, however long it was.

"And honestly, I think we played, or we showed that even though with a short amount of practice, we would be a really good team. But today, I felt like we didn't really listen to what coach said. I'm not even going to lie.

"During the tac timeout, he had a really good plan, and we did it for a couple rounds, started winning, and then we just started losing because we wouldn't hold the space. I remember on one round, one minute into the round on Abyss, we lost everything.

"We went mid, we took mid, we had everything, and then a minute later, we were all four sitting on A site and one guy B, just playing retake. Then we don't have anything at all, and I push and just die. We weren't listening to our coach's tacs and some of us weren't restrained today."

"So, Abyss was super attack-sided. If you had to look back, so soon after the match, on your defensive side. What could have gone differently so you didn’t have to try and make such a large comeback?"

OXY: "It was just the space thing. We didn't take space. We gave them everything and we knew that they excelled at that. They did well when they could exec. We took some of their main, I killed two with the Op. Like the one round I had an Op, I think we won. I don't remember the second round we won, but yeah, we didn't start off playing well, which led to our defense being poor."

"For Pearl then, it just felt like any opportunity to get momentum was immediately shut down by MIBR. What was it? The map? Maybe team comp or just MIBR’s confidence pushing them ahead?"

OXY: "I think it was their confidence, and also, we were in total control of the game at the beginning. Then we honestly gave up all of the momentum. I don't know what happened the fourth and fifth round, but obviously, we won the pistol and then we won bonus. Then we lost the eco round. They had all the momentum back. They just ran with it and that was it."

"The team’s off to a rough start. Last year, Cloud9 didn’t qualify to any international tournaments in the VCT. This year, you’re missing the first one already. Do you think it's at a point where the team or org presses the panic button?"

OXY: "I don't really know, but I honestly believe that the organization, and I mean Cloud9's a good organization. They've been in multiple games and made it to multiple events in other games, but I think the roster switches for the VALORANT team, some were bad. There's also many reasons to which the public can't know or doesn't know about why we made these choices. And honestly, I have no clue about it."

"So, that’s it for officials for a while now. Do you agree with that schedule where you can go months without playing another VCT game?"

OXY: "I know that they extended it a while, but players did want to start earlier because last year, I think we started in February or maybe even later, I think it was in February. But I agree with the schedule to a certain extent. I don't think we should have start this early to the point where we started in January.

"Teams are coming up back from New Year's break and Christmas. They have two weeks to legitimately practice. While the only thing I don't agree with is the people who are seeded higher or whatever. It was like, they had bye round basically, and if they win that one round, they have one week apart. From where they can practice and then they can get more time than other teams. But for us, we've had to practice every single day."

"From now until Cloud9 is back in the server, what are the main things you want to tighten for your game so you can come back during the first Stage and get to winning?"

OXY: "I think we've just got to, I mean, I have to just keep doing what I'm doing. As in like, remember who I am and just take my fights and do what I've been doing. Just play confident and don't forget it."

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