Before talking about the ESL One NY, how do you feel in this new roster, that someone called the "NA superteam"?

I won’t say that’s accurate. When we get to a point that we haven’t been together for a long time. Because right now we’re finishing out all the details, like how to play as a team enough, because we're not fully certain about the roles, and Tarik also started in-game leading recently, so it’s also a big change for everyone. I think once we start running as a team, we’re gonna be that superteam. But right now, it’s work in progress. We’re not actually a superteam yet. 

About tarik. Is he the full-time in-game leader, or is Stewie still doing some? 

It’s Tarik. Tarik is our IGL right now, he’s been doing it for the last two-three weeks now. Since we started doing tournaments. He did Malmo, Montreal, and he did here, so he’s been our IGL basically all the time there and at home as well. I think he wanted to do it. It was his choice. He was like "hey there’s the ESL One in New York, can I lead?", so he’s taken the reins and I think he’s doing a good job. He’s getting better everyday.  

RUSH with his new jersey

Let’s talk about the ESL One New York now. You won your first game against Na’Vi 16-13, then lost against SK 16-5. During the elimination match, you only needed two maps to kick Na'Vi out of the tournament, but in the semi against FaZe you lost pretty quickly. Is your lack of consistency only due to the fact that you’re a new team and need more time? Or is there anything else that can explain it?

I certainly said it in an interview before we played the semi-final that the one team I’d like to avoid is FaZe, because when they play it’s really individually heavy. They can use their roster to top over any team. In return also right now, we’re playing a more individual-based play, not really team-wise. It’s more like, "let’s get in the site the same for everyone and trade the kills". That’s how FaZe basically feels like to a some extent. They’re like that, but they have Karrigan who’s been an in game leader for longer. He knows what system he wants to put in place for them. So it’s easy for him to play against a team like them but less skilled… Not less skilled, sorry, but less prepared. So FaZe owned us pretty hard, there’s nothing to argue on that. I just wish we could have more time with our IGL, but maybe in the future, we’ll show them we can actually kick their ass.

Last question on a different topic. What’s your opinion on shroud becoming a full-time streamer? Do you think he’s wasting his talent, or do you agree with his choice? Would you also do that? 

He has a lot of talent obviously, he may be wasting it a little bit by streaming, but I don’t blame him at all. I would probably do the same thing if I knew that I quit, knowing that I don’t like that exposure. But at the same time, nothing beats competing for me. To go winning in big tournaments, for the fans… I think that he might, in his actual mind, regret a little bit but At the same time he made that choice ultimately. 

It looks like he has a lot of fans so maybe he’s doing it while waiting for an opportunity or so.

Any last words ?

I guess the thanks go to the Optic and upcoming fans for always being supportive. When I left OpTic they were still supporting me, it felt good. And hopefully they’ll keep supporting us during the rough time. Even though we lost in made semi-finals, that was a bad show, but I hope that they’ll still support us after that…