We spoke to William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba after his team secured a confident victory over NiP to hear about Cloud9's fifth player situation and playing with Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk.

Cloud9 ran over the Swedes in the opening game, 16-3 on Inferno, securing their first victory in the fairly competitive group A in Cologne. RUSH was one of the standout players, leading his team to victory.

RUSH would be happy to have STYKO for ELEAGUE as well

Following the match, we sat down with the 24-year-old and talked about finding a fifth, their plans for ELEAGUE Premier and expectations from ESL One Cologne.

FNS is officially out of the team almost two months by now, and you still didn't figure out a permanent fifth. Without going into some details that you probably can't disclose, why didn't you find a permanent fifth player?

Typically, the best time to get a player would be around the Christmas break or the summer player break. Obviously, the Major is right after that in both scenarios, but at the same time, that's when most of the roster changes are made because you have a month and a half or whatever to make roster changes. But we did it during the heart of the season, we thought it was better to bite the bullet now than later, and try to get a player if we can. And we have several options we are going through, obviously, STYKO is one of them and this is more of a trial than anything for him. I think going forward we are just going to play with players we have on the list and hope that we can get a fifth. I mean, we are not in the same scenario as we were with OpTic [last year], I think we are going to get the fifth we want within the next month.

We are not in the same scenario as we were with OpTic [last year], I think we are going to get the fifth we want within the next month William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba

You mention that this is a trial for STYKO and that you have a list of players, so at ELEAGUE Premier, do you have another player you plan to play with maybe?

Honestly, I'm not sure, but as of right now, for me, STYKO is our player. For ELEAGUE as well. I'm not sure honestly if we are going to use someone else, but I think I would rather use STYKO, give him a really good chance. Obviously, with one event you can't really get a good gauge, we only had five scrims together, I think it's unfair to do that. I mean, people say that it's even unfair towards Pujan (Pujan "⁠FNS⁠" Mehta) that we gave him just two months. I feel like that's a good amount of time to learn what he has to offer and what kind of a system he wants to run. People might say that it wasn't enough but I think it was plenty of time to get a good gauge of him.

Let's get back to the practice part, you said you played five scrims - how much did you actually get to play together and how do you feel as a team?

We played with certain players that I can't really name, that are obviously not on the list, we also played with mixwell who we thought would be an option, but we realized that he has his own plans in mind and that's fine, that's his choice, but we don't want to play with him if there is no chance for him to join, that made no sense for us. So it was kind of last minute that we decided to pick STYKO because we knew that EnVyUs were free agents and he was also free, and from what we understood he is a very smart player, methodical player, level-headed, we thought he was our best option, honestly. The amount of time we had with him, it felt really good so far. He had 150 ping in the scrims which doesn't really matter, but I think the one key factor that he has is his communication seems really on point, and he is always really cool, calm and collected, honestly.

The Slovakian's communication was a key factor in getting him a shot in Cloud9

You mentioned maybe playing with other European players as well. I mean, you played with mixwell in the past, but he wasn't really a player that reached the top level in Europe. So is there something that you noticed about these EU players that separates them from NA ones?

I mean, even mixwell, when he joined OpTic way back in 2016, we were on OpTic with NAF, daps, and stanislaw and we had this weird way of practicing where it wasn't a lot, it was kind of wishy-washy, and he joined in and was "Is this normal? Is this how you guys practice?". From there on it was kind of clear that EU players have a really different sense of the way they practice. But since then, NA has gotten a lot better at having a strat book, dry-running, practicing as much as we can in the best way possible. But still, the players we played with, we've learned stuff from them. So I think it's valuable, whether they join or not, to play with them in these scrims and practices.

The players we played with, we've learned stuff from them. So I think it's valuable, whether they join or not, to play with them in these scrims and practices William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba

What's the general goal for you in Cologne, what do you aim to do?

I'm always pretty realistic about the scenario we are in, but I am actually really confident, I'm probably the most confident in this roster, just from the practices it seems to flow pretty well, I think it's the roster I'm the most confident in since Stewie2K left. No offense to Pujan obviously but it just never felt like we got a good mesh going, aside for maybe Marseille.

But for me, hopefully, I want the crowd. Playing in front of the crowd, nothing beats that. I missed it in 2016 in my first Major, in 2017 I got to beat SK 16-3 in the first map, we lost out after that, but it still meant a lot to do that with hazed standing in. The fact that we got that far was amazing, I hope we get there again. If we can make a semi-final or a final it would be incredible.

Let's touch on the NiP game that was extremely one-sided, how come it went so easily for you guys?

I think that Inferno is a really good map for us, I don't know if teams know that but we are really well rounded on it. NiP and we both made roster changes fairly recently, so we are both getting into our grooves, but I guess maybe we grooved a bit faster than them. Also, I know that GeT_RiGhT is going through some health issues and I feel a little bit bad for him. It sucks that he has to go through this at LAN events and I hope he gets better, it might be a factor for him as well.

That's all from me, is there anything you wish to add to close it off?