Cloud9's Ryan "FREAKAZ0ID" Abadir sat down with theScore eSports after his team's ESWC quarterfinal match against Team Liquid to discuss his personal improvement, the quarterfinals and their rivalry with EnVyUs.

Q: To start things off, can you take us through how you got into Cloud9 and what the transition was like for you?

A: Well first off, I took a four month break so that’s why nobody really knew me. I was in school and playing rugby for about four months. I ended up coming back into the scene and Cloud9 needed a player or two so I was like “Jordan, just get me on the team.” I knew Jordan from LAN-ing with him previously. I wasn’t really familiar with Sean or Shroud — more familiar with Sean but not really. I was just begging Jordan daily for a tryout, telling him that “I won’t let you guys down. I’ll perform. You’ll have to give me a couple of months but I’ll come back.” Then I end up getting on the team and I was really happy about that. We started off shaky at first you know, but we have a lot of skill and potential on the team. I’m not going to compare it but we’re like the Miami Heat of basketball when they first started, they struggled. So that’s how we were, we struggled, but we’re really starting to click now.

Q: We’ve seen a sharp improvement in play from you over the last couple of tournaments. Can you walk us through how you made such an improvement?

A: So the first tournament I had was about a month after playing, and two weeks of forming a team. Not only did I struggle (that was probably the worst LAN performance I ever had in my life) but honestly, it was because the Europeans were that much better as a team. Whenever I was shooting at people I felt like I could kill them but the teamwork was just, on another level. Then, I realized that it’s not going to come down to just aiming anymore. I had to change how I played. I had to adapt or I wasn’t going to be able to play. I even said after the second Gfinity that if I didn’t perform at the ESEA LAN, I was most likely going to quit. I told my team, “hey guys I’m honestly not getting the kills I should be,” and I told them I’m going to quit [if I don’t perform]. Then, the ESEA came around and I did really well against EnVy individually. But that was because my team set me up. All credit to Sean, he’s a magician. People don’t understand that he does a lot of work for us. He deserves a lot of credit.

Q: How do you feel ESWC has gone so far for your team and where do you see your team finishing?

A: The event’s gone well, I think, beside our CT side Cache and then the Inferno match and some Overpass problems. We’re doing well but we need to cleanup some stuff to be able to get into the finals. Our goal is to be number one always. It’s never going to change and that’s our goal.

Q: Can you take us through your quarterfinal match, especially going through the second map with that pause.

A: Well first, on Overpass, we started flat and they started into it and ready. We kind of came into the map expecting to win rather than taking it to them and winning. So it took us a little bit to get going and once we got going we knew we were going to win.

On Inferno, we were up 8-1, we were comfortable and in our flow. Then, we have crashes, and consistent pausing and it took us out of our flow and rhythm. I’m not going to use any excuses but it took us out of our flow, to be honest. Then they have time to talk and it ends 10-5, that’s a great half for them. Then in the second half, we were up 15-9 at one point and then we made some poor mistakes and they capitalized. They were also prepared of course, and they played well, so you have to give credit to them too.

Q: Focusing on your Inferno map pick, seangares talked about how it was a pick based on trying to exploit liquid. How much do you guys try to do that against your opponents?

A: You want to strategize against every single opponent when you have the time bring up different stuff. So if you know they are a little weak on that and you can counter certain things they do, their tendencies and understand what they are doing then yeah, we’re going to pick that map against you to try and exploit you and we did. It was 8-1 and we were up 15-9. We should’ve closed it quicker. It probably shouldn’t have even been close, because of that half on 8-1. It was going to be a blowout. It really would have been if we kept playing. You can see that they were struggling before they started talking about it.

Q: You’ve had some very good games against EnVy recently, what do you think is your team’s edge against them?

A: I think that, not only do we have really good in-game leader, but our skill is getting there and our team work is getting there. They think their skill can beat everybody which, they do have amazing skill and they are probably the best team that we’ve played next to Fnatic, but I think were right there with them and this kind of surprises them. I think that when they start losing they get down. They try to force it against us and it’s just not going to happen against us. Because we’re better than people think and people are starting to understand that. We are only going to keep getting better too. It’s [just] fun to play against EnVyUs. I love beating them because of the stuff they said about me and some of our teammates. And I confronted NBK on that and I mean, it’s fun beating them.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.

Jacob Julliet writes about Counter-Strike for theScore eSports. Follow him on Twitter.

Paul Park is a writer for theScore eSports. You can follow him on Twitter.