Cloud9 was seen as the last beacon of hope for North America during international events for the last couple of years.





When every other NA team was knocked out in the group stage of MSI or Worlds, only Cloud9 prevailed and was able to reach the elimination stage. At the 2018 World Championships, they even made it to the semifinals.





Recently, Team Liquid managed to make it to the Finals at the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational, knocking out reigning world champions and tournament favorites Invictus Gaming in the process. We spoke with Cloud9’s long-standing marksman Zachary “﻿Sneaky﻿” Scuderi before the start of the 2019 Summer Split to discuss how watching Liquid’s run felt, the Summer Split, and his next cosplay.





Interview performed by Aaron Mickunas; article written by Brian Chang.





Cloud9’s always the last hope for NA. What were you feeling in particular when you watched Team Liquid make finals at MSI?





Sneaky: I think it felt pretty good, seeing a team not just falter. I guess it happened before with 2016 CLG, but I’m pretty sure them just getting out of groups makes it so that third seed of NA doesn’t have to go through Play-Ins [at the World Championship], which, potentially, since we’ve gone as the third seed so many times, it’s like, “Oh. Nice.”





We’ve gone through gauntlet every time since it existed I think. It’s pretty high pressure to be the last hope. I would say last year at Worlds, it definitely felt better when we played the first day of any of the groups in the last portion of it, and we were the first team to make it out. We went 4-2 in our group and lost our last tiebreaker, but what I felt was we were inspiring the other NA teams to be able to finish their group and get out, whereas the other way, every other year we’re the last ones to play. They just get knocked out and we’re like, “If we get knocked out we’re fucked.”





Photo via Riot Games





OpTic head coach Thomas "Zaboutine" Si-Hassen told me that when Team Liquid beat iG, he felt like anything could happen in League of Legends . Did you guys feel any inspiration there at all, or were you just relieved that you won’t have to play through play-ins at Worlds?





It’s a little bit of both. We kind of felt it after we beat Afreeca at Worlds. It definitely felt like we had a path just completely open to us to Finals and actually winning the whole thing. Every year in the past, it was just a game of everyone waiting until you face a Korean team, and then you lose. And now it’s not only Korea winning, it is definitely up in the air who’s actually the most competitive region.





At MSI, G2 won. I don’t know if EU is the most competitive region, but they won and they did really well. It could happen again. NA could do better next time or China could rise. It’s definitely a ton of possibilities and it’s way more interesting than before. It was just, whoever comes out of Korea it was just, “Well, good luck.”





Are you glad then that G2 beat SKT in semis? Because it opened up that chance?





Yeah, yeah for sure. Maybe it’s boring for people in Korea or China to see their teams lose, but since it’s been so many years of NA and EU failing against those teams, it’s really insane to see.





Are you and the rest of C9 worried at all about any lower-tier teams from spring coming up to bite you in the summer?





It’s kind of just a weekly struggle for every team, or I guess the teams at the top. You always have to think of everyone as a threat, and not ever think of any game like, “Yup. This is just a win.” If you ever get into that mindset and you just don’t really try to get advantages in game, like you’ll think they’ll just come to you and you don’t have to feel pressured to do something in the game. It’s just a weekly struggle of trying to keep yourself in check and recognize that you may be good, but you have to make sure you can prove that.









Do you think that this team is more motivated than the team was going into summer last year?





Yeah. I guess we were in a similar position but not exactly, going from spring into summer. The previous spring we lost in quarters of playoffs to TL, so we had less points to work with, and there was a bit more pressure on the line, because if we didn’t place that high in playoffs we were pretty much screwed for our chance at Worlds. There was definitely a lot more pressure going into summer, so we had to prove ourselves more.





This time around, we have more points, but it’s still about similar pressure. It’s always hard to say about the motivation thing, because it always feels to me like we’re always trying to improve, and it’s hard to pinpoint whether we have the vague “motivation.” That’s just something that someone on the outside could see, like Reapered last year. He could recognize that we’re not really trying hard enough, in a way. We’re all putting in the games of solo queue and scrims and stuff, but maybe it’s just about everyone’s attitude toward trying to improve and he’s just trying to shake things up in a way to make everyone play better in some form.

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Does it feel like you are the definitive de facto leader of the roster?





I would say in the past, it always felt like there was some designated team leader, but I don’t think it’s ever been talked about in the past few years. I’ve never heard anyone call anyone on any team the team leader. If it did exist, I think I would for sure be the team leader just because of the way that we talk to each other and stuff. It’s not like I’m directing it, but I feel like I bring things together in a way. I would say recently the team’s not putting as much respect on my team leader qualities. They’re giving me a lot more lip for sure, I gotta pull them back some, haha.





Where does the “Sneaky in lane” meme come from? How do you feel about it?





It’s just a meme in its purest form. I remember the specific game that [Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng] said it after. I was Sivir into Caitlyn, and sometimes you just don’t know how to play matchups, and I think back then I was just really trying to smack him early. Like, walk up and auto, and I pretty much fucked myself early. That lane phase was kind of screwed, and that was when he said it, but it was more of a generic statement when he said it, rather than like, “That game I destroyed him in lane.” It was like, “Yeah, Sneaky in lane? Not good.”





It was just like totally generalized. I think it’s fun to play with. It’s just something that happened, and it’s funny to talk about now. No matter what I do, it’s, “Sneaky in lane.” There’s two sides of it, rather than it’s only negative. It can be positive too.





Photo via Riot Games





You tend to capture this very light-hearted spirit that many players and teams don’t really have. Do you think that’s you, or do you think that’s mostly Cloud9?





I would say it was kind of our atmosphere on the original C9 that I guess I’ve kind of carried through all the iterations. It’s not like it’s only me, but it’s how we interacted with each other. Being really friendly, and trying not to get into any huge arguments with each other to make us hate each other. It’s usually just subtle things. If you see people arguing about something, you bring in your opinion and you try to move on. It’s like, “Hey, this conversation has gone on for too long guys. Let’s talk about something else.”





Do you think that Cloud9 has been able to hold on to the family-oriented lifestyle, or is it more friendly professional for you guys?





Cloud9 has also always had like very family-like feeling and structure to it. Back in 2013 and 2014, that wasn’t so rare, and now franchising has been going on for a couple of years, it’s more like a, “Hey, talk to my agent” kind of atmosphere.





It’s kind of hard to define the line. It’s a hard call, because I like to think that we are really close to each other. It’s just hard because I don’t really know how close other teams are. I mean, you can hear things, and I feel like definitely the newer teams that have just been forged by franchising itself -- I don’t know actually anything about Clutch, but I would think of something like Clutch, they don’t really know each other and are pulled together. It’s like, they’re forced to become friends.





Do you think that you prefer to be on a more family-like atmosphere? If you were ever to leave Cloud9, do you think that you would try to rebuild that type of thing somewhere else?





If I was to go somewhere else, I would definitely try to bring it, because I think it’s just the best way to be with the team. You make it so that everyone enjoys their time, everyone is okay talking with each other. No one has to talk to people in secret about another just because you don’t like what they’re doing. You just try to talk to each other about everything that goes on. It’s not like there’s ever too much serious stuff, but just trying to figure out the team’s problems in general and I would definitely bring that with myself.





I think Cloud9 would carry it too if I left, like they would try to at least because I think the best thing that brings a team together and creates the most synergy is just being able to trust each other. It could be hard without some sort of mediator actively pushing for it.









Do you think that Jack tries to help this whole thing along, or do you think he’s mostly just around to make sure things run smoothly?





He’s really friendly about everything. He’s serious when he needs to be, but he’s always joking around with us too. I think he definitely contributes to it because if you had a boss who just like rolls in and you get really scared when he comes in, you try to have the most super professional discussion about everything when he’s around, that’s really hard to work with. Jack is always trying to butt in with whatever funny thing he has to say.





One more question for you. Can you tell me what the next cosplay is going to be? Are you working on something?





I’m always working on something. Our next one is a League one. It’s not an AD Carry, and it’s a mid slash top. It could go to either one, and it’s meta.