Cloud9.bOne7: “All I can say is that life is extremely weird.”

You just beat Empire convincingly with 3:0 score and qualified for ESL One Frankfurt. How do you feel and what are your thoughts on playing in front of a stadium audience?

I was glad we won 3-0 so I could walk outside for a bit to lose a bit of stress, I was a bit nervous in the 2nd game, my hand was shaking quite a bit, though it usually is like that always when I drink 3 cups of coffee in 2 hours ^^. Yeah I don't know about the other part, I can't really imagine how it's gonna be at this point so I'm just looking forward to it.

You have recently obtained your Visa for the U.S. and you will be participating in TI4. Were you concerned at all? How do you feel now that you are sure to attend the largest ever eSports tournament?

I'm not sure if I felt anything really, I was expecting 100% to get the visa so there was no surprise there. As for the event itself, nothing is really making sense considering how the game was 4 years ago so...So I'm just going with it, I'm really not having much of an opinion on anything, all I can say is that life is extremely weird. I used to just be a pub player in Dota 2 because I built myself a really terrible reputation in Dota 1 being a huge flamer (even though still I was I think one of the most dedicated and hardworking at the game), and I was watching Aui and Envy etc win/go to LAN's and now I'm playing with them, sometimes it's really weird to realize these things considering Romania had better players than me.

What kept you going after not being able to attend the LAN events due to visa issues?

I don't care about any difficulties, if it came down to it, I would have a day job just to pay rent and try my hardest to get good at the game and eventually into a decent team. I would always try my hardest in the game at the very least most of the times. As I finished college, the next step for me is to try even harder and get into a better mental and physical state,as I'm in a really below mediocre physical shape right now.

You are also one of the oldschool people in the scene, and you were quite known inside the Romanian scene. However, apart from playing with TeG you haven't really had many achievements in Dota 1. How did the transition to Dota 2 go this well for you?

I was pretty known on the international scene as well though, the classic Dendi how to 1v1 midlane included me in there together with Maelk PGG and whoever was on that. As for achievements we never did anything, we just won against all the best teams like a game in a series or something like that, so I was just basically there but never in a really solid team. I don't know about the transition though, the game got better and better. I started playing Dota 2 competitively really when I bought a new PC at the beginning of last year.

How do you feel about Dota 2 scene as a whole right now? How is TI influencing the community?

It definitely had a huge influence on how the community developed. I'm not sure how the community is really, I just see a lot of money going into the game, but the community...I'm not sure, I'm a pretty low profile player so I don't get to interact that much with the community.

It seems like even a simple matchmaking game can be hard at times. How did people start playing so good in such a short time frame?

Well the money has influenced it I think, there's no way we would've gotten to this level without the international even if Valve was developing a Dota 2 game without supporting its competitive scene at all. A lot of players are probably looking forward to becoming a good legit player and play in a good team and maybe play in TI, and since people at the top are trying way harder, the level of play increases, and from that, pubs copy competitive play and thus the game evolves in all its sections I believe.

You are now qualified for 3 big events prior to TI4. How do you think participating in these events will influence the team? Is it a good or a bad thing? Will you hold some tactics back?

I don't believe we will hold any tactics back. I'm really happy we're gonna play all those events, the annoying part about it, as in anything, is the travel. It's quite stressful, every time I gotta catch a train, that's like 14 hours from my hometown to Bucharest where OTP is, then I waste another 10 hours, then I go fly to 2 different places because there's always a layover... Overall though I'm really glad we're gonna take part in all those events, there's a lot to learn from every event.

Any plans for a bootcamp prior to TI4?

Yeah, we're gonna bootcamp, I'm not sure on the details of that though.

What do you think about this year's format for the qualifiers for TI4? How do you feel about the invited teams?

Well most of the teams had legit chances of qualifying. I'm really happy that they changed the format, though I hope they had this last year as we would've definitely played in the qualifier then...

How does it feel to play on a team with all members being from a different country? How does the timezone and cultural difference work out for you guys?

It's fine for us, we try our hardest, so modifying our schedule shouldn't be a problem. I'm actually more comfortable speaking in English atm, in Romanian people seem to often have a difficult time understanding me, I have a really bad habit of speaking really fast. As for cultural differences, I don't know about that, maybe we're just slightly different from one another, but since we're all Westerners, we have a kinda similar mindset.

Do you have any players you look up to? Someone who you learn from? Or someone you like to watch when they are streaming?

I enjoy watching Arteezy because I think he's a funny streamer. Sing is also really funny but I prefer watching his YouTube videos since he has moments where he really shines in being funny, Arteezy though is constantly funny to me, because of the way he speaks.

As for a player to look up to, recently I watched iceiceice's pov on how he plays, I think I learned some things from him. The thing is that when I started, I practiced and watched and tried to copy all the best offlaners, but as time progressed I feel like I couldn't really learn that much from other players, people don't really seem to try their hardest, they are all good players, but they don't have tricks or specific small things they do to get ahead in the game, they are just generally good at Dota and have a good sense of the game. I'd like to be patient enough to watch all top offlaners perspectives but I don't really have that much time, so I just spend maybe 4-5 hours a week doing that, mostly checking on iceiceice since he's clearly ahead of his opponents in his area.

Have you considered streaming more consistently?

I stream as much as possible, I'm not a really good one to watch though since I'm often really emo and play really bad. I do have games where I play really well as well, but I'm not consistent, so it's easy for people to get turned off from my stream. I try to play as many pubs as possible...

You mentioned that you really like iceiceice. What do you think about DK's strength? Do you think they are the favorites to win TI4 after their Starladder performance?

They are definitely a top 5 team in this years TI. I believe they can lose if they get outpicked, but even so, with the lesser strat, their teamfighting is so much better than anyone else's that they might just win at a considerable disadvantage.

You have probably seen Chuan's interview with onGamers during SLTV. What do you think about iG and Chuan's emotional account of their state as a team?

Yeah I'm not sure I think Chuan got a bit to emotional about things. Unless you can boost your performance or improve your habits, you should probably find ways to get over feelings if they happen to be negative or even disruptive.

Any final shoutouts?

Shoutout to our sponsors Alienware Logitech HyperX NeedForSeat. Also shoutouts to ppasarel, stompa, rtz etc ^^ :D

Photos used in this article are courtesy of: Gosugamers.net, Roxanne Aoki, SingSing.