Yassine "Subroza" Taoufik is a former player for Counter Logic Gaming and an up-and-coming Canadian CS:GO player. Subroza came into a struggling CLG in August 2016, but they continued to struggle in their international and domestic events, which eventually led the 19-year-old to leave the team on Feb. 13.

theScore esports caught up with Subroza to ask about his departure and he opened up about his time with CLG and his apparent loss of confidence from the repeated cheating accusations from the community.

You spoke a bit about your time on the Counter Logic Gaming roster in the team’s press release. What else can you say about your time with the team? What has being on CLG taught you about being an esports pro or as a person?

My time with this team was awesome, I really enjoyed the many activities we did and had so much fun together most of the time.

On CLG, playing with people with that much experience taught me the important things a pro player needs to become great and they showed me by doing it themselves. How to be a great team player, make the right decisions and have the right mindset at all times.

Your former teammates spoke very highly of you, talking about your selflessness and your work ethic. How would you describe them as a team? Would you say there was a sense of progression for the roster(s) you were on?

At first I considered them as a team and my job, but as time passed it became way more than a team, I would describe them as family to be honest. They were just awesome human beings and always so kind!

We definitely were progressing and learning, what people don't see is the hours we were putting in daily towards our goals, I could see us becoming a great team if we fixed small issues we had in high pressure moments and with a little bit more time for sure.

You unfortunately were under the microscope of the community and were accused of cheating, something that can sometimes be a funny badge of honor when you’re just pugging. However, I’d imagine it was a different feeling as a pro, especially when it’s coming from a community figure like Richard Lewis. How would describe that experience?

Before I even got pro there were a lot of talks and accusations of the same subject, but I never really cared because I played with real life friends and barely made any money or was never watched by thousands of people. Me and my friends used to always laugh about it, but the problem is as soon as I went pro it blew up.

It didn't really affect me at first, but it slowly got in my head reading Tweets, Reddit comments (sometimes even on our CLG subreddit), etc. every single day, especially when it's people like R.Lewis with big fan bases.

I tried to never think about it when I play or practice and just focus on my game, but it was a weird pressure that I could never handle. I was playing and barely felt like it was the old me who used to frag a lot and play like I was the most confident person in the server.

With time it got worse and worse and it's part of the reason I decided it was best for me and the team to part ways.

You had a pretty sudden departure from the CLG lineup. If your undisclosed personal issues become resolved, is returning to the lineup an option for you? Or would you have to start from scratch or perhaps choose to not return to CLG?

I don’t think returning to the CLG lineup is an option I am thinking of, or ever will think of, maybe one day you never know.

Yes, I will be trying to not start from scratch but finish what I started with my old friends and make one of my dream come true.

Is your personal reason for leaving CLG something you’d be willing to talk a little bit more about? Any ideas what could be in store for you in the near future, esports-related or otherwise?

I’ve said some of the reason previously in this interview, but for the rest I would like to keep it for me. Missing home was definitely another reason why I decided to step down.

Plans are to make the [ESL] Pro League with my old team [ex-Ace Gaming] and become the greatest player I can be. Also, I will commit a lot more to streaming and the things I enjoyed doing before going pro!

Thanks to all the people who support me, I will be back!

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.