Groove on Cloud9: “We still have a lot to do”

Cloud9 CS2 coach Konstantin "Groove" Pikiner commented on his team’s loss to Ninjas in Pyjamas in the lower bracket of Group C at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024. He shared his thoughts in an interview during the English-language broadcast of the tournament.

"In my view, we lost due to poor decision-making in the middle of the game and a lot of mistakes in the later rounds. We also lost a few 3v1 clutches, for instance on Anubis. I think that was the most crucial round. Again, we lost a 5v3 round. Sometimes that’s acceptable, but since we are a new team and our play is unstable, these rounds become incredibly important.

We have an entirely new team, even with Boombl4, because he previously played with an AWP. I see a lot of room for improvement. We still have a lot of work ahead, but what I like is the passion and determination—the guys want to win.

About ten days before this tournament, we had a bootcamp. The practice was insufficient, but the games at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024 and the online qualifiers we’re concurrently participating in provided us with a lot of information and food for thought."

BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024 is taking place from 29 July to 4 August. Teams are competing for a prize pool of $190,000 and six spots in the BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024. This tournament marked the debut of the updated Cloud9 roster. Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov’s team lost two matches in a row and was eliminated from the competition.