After the excitement settled from Cloud9's ​stunning victory at the ELEAGUE Major: Boston​, Tarik "tarik" Celik spoke to DBLTAP's Nathan Fusco via email about the event and the team's plans going forward.





Nathan Fusco: It's only been about 48 hours since your victory, but already the talk is about whether the roster can keep the momentum. How do you guys plan to stay hungry and not settle?





Tarik "tarik" Celik: Moving forward it'll be very important for us to maintain our consistency and keep aiming for top four placings at every event we attend. Competition is at an all time high and staying at the top is extremely difficult, which means we have to work even harder than ever before. We will continue to find/create new strategies in effort to always be one step ahead in our games. Other teams are going to start looking into us much more especially now, which is why it's important we never stop making improvements or changes. Apart from the team aspect, it will be equally as important for us to make sure we stay in peak form as individuals by putting in the extra time outside of practice.





NF: It felt like a classic North American victory, pushing through smokes while playing ultra-aggressive at parts. Does the victory mean more since you guys were able to play your style and win?





TC: I think this event was a good demonstration of what we're capable of when we play together and are on the same page. We did a great job at making sure everyone was working together and helping each other, which was particularly important in situations where something didn't go in our favor. Adjusting as a team without hesitation or delay and also knowing when it was time to make plays as an individual was key to our success. Any player in the world can be a playmaker, but the best playmakers in the world know when to strike.





NF: It felt like the stars aligned for you guys. Everyone played out of their mind and we saw a side of Skadoodle we haven't seen in a while. Did you guys prepare differently or did you plan differently in any way?





TC: Skadoodle was exceptionally motivated and energetic through the entire event. It really showed in his play. And on top of that, it gave the rest of our team more inspiration to play even better. Tyler is a crucial part to our success and getting him into his zone takes our team to the next level.





NF: On Inferno, we saw Karrigan constantly try to fake you guys out, but you never fell for the fake, while in the past you guys struggled with those plays against FaZe Clan. What was different this time?





TC: We noticed early in the half that over rotations had began to cost us rounds, therefore we made the adjustment to stop biting and (start) trusting in each other. Once we made this adjustment, everything started to click better for us, but more importantly it showed that we could beat them without having to take risks.





NF: Overpass was dominant. Was this based on a great read on how FaZe Clan plays that map or do you now think that Overpass is one of your stronger maps? If so, you seem to have Mirage, Train, Overpass and possibly Inferno. Was it your goal to have such a healthy map pool?





TC: Making sure that we could play every map at a high level was essential going into the Major. Soham did a good job at predicting what maps we would get ahead of our games, which made it easier for us to discuss a game plan ahead of time. I'm very confident with our map pool, however hope we can continue to make improvements for the future.





Photo courtesy of Turner Sports/ELEAGUE