Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

With a 2-0 win over KRÜ Esports, Cloud9 head coach Veer picked up his first win in just his second match in the position.

The win was a big hurdle crossed for the American org, as it was its first win in VCT Americas Stage 2 and just its second Championship Point picked up this season.

Here’s the full interview transcribed.

Entree: What’s up, y’all? My name is Andre Hopkins, also known as EntreeInterview, and today I’m joined here by C9 Veer. How are you feeling?

Veer: Feeling great. Really happy to get the win. We’ve been waiting for this for a long time now, and hopefully we’re gonna keep growing from it. So it feels very good.

Entree: I mean, like I said before, I even started recording. Congratulations, big win. I mean, just how does it feel to kind of get that first win of stage two?

Veer: Yeah, I mean, I think it’s going to do so much for us. We were really hoping to beat LOUD and you know continue to snowball and get things going, but I think we played pretty good in the LOUD game, and I think we continued to improve in our practice yesterday, and I think that really carried it into today. So we’re really happy with it, and we’re going to continue the progress.

Entree: Yeah, I want to ask a little bit, just kind of what do you think the biggest improvement points have been over this last week, and then also since the game versus LOUD?

Veer: Yeah, that’s a great question. I think we’re really just kind of coming together as a team. We’ve been working on a lot of new stuff in terms of like identity, approach, how we go about like every map in general kinda right now. So it’s been a lot of work, and I think we’re just kind of refining it, so we kind of got the individual aspect down. We’re all playing very well as individual players, and we’re kind of just building the larger team picture around it right now, and really cleaning things up, taking the risk as individuals when we need, and then relying on our team as well.

Entree: I mean, in a meta kind like this, where we’ve seen in the past it’s more slow metas, and then in this one, it’s very fast kind of deathballing as some players describe. How much does like coordination differ in clean comms, especially in hectic situations? How important are things like that?

Veer: They’re critically important. It’s something that we focus on every day, that we talk about every day. How can we make our comms as clean and concise and straightforward as possible? Making sure that we’re not only relaying info but making actionable plans off that info because we can relay everything that’s going on. But if we don’t know what we’re going to do about it, then it doesn’t really matter. So with like the double duelist meta right now being so fast paced and chaotic, it’s really important that your communication system allows you to thrive in that chaos.

Entree: I mean, overall, just kind of what did you like from the team today, their performance wise?

Veer: I liked pretty much everything. I thought the energy was fantastic. We were really positive today. We converted some pistols as well, which you know just makes the game that much easier for us. So really happy to see that. And then more than anything, just happy to get the the rookies a win. Their first win in VCT. My first win in VCT as a head coach. So a lot of firsts today, and a lot of things to to grow and improve from, but a lot of positives across the board.

Entree: I mean, per usual, we see Oxy maximum passion. He’s out there. He’s screaming. He’s loving it. I mean, that performance today. Do you think that was just an individual performance, or was he kind of set up well to kind of have that big map? But was he 33 and I think 11 in the first map?

Veer: Yeah, I think he went plus 20. You know, I got to give credit where credit’s due. He was popping off. He was hitting all of his shots, but at the same time, Francis (Oxy) was really waiting for his util. He was still playing with the team, coordinating well, communicating as he should. So it wasn’t like he was just going trying to run it down and take over the game himself. It kind of just happened naturally with how the team helped support him to make that happen and then of course he was making the plays when he needed to as an individual as well.

Entree: What do you kind of think the biggest improvement pieces the teams still need to make? Of course, teams are always looking to get better, get 1% better. Do you think there’s anything that needs to improve that you notice?

Veer: As of right now, as a team, I think we just need a little bit more time to deepen our map pool across the board. We’ve only had five days of practice or so at this point, and then we had the match on Friday, obviously, so pretty quick turnaround. I’m gonna keep focusing on our communication system, adding in more keywords, protocols, and try to keep things clean. If you watch our comms video from today, you’ll see it. There’s a handful of times where we’re trying to like calm each other down, get everyone back on the same page, slow it down a little bit. So I’m really gonna watch that back and figure out what I can do to make things more consistent in terms of keeping our communications lean, so I think that’s probably the biggest thing we need to work on right now and then extending our map pool over the next five days for 100 Thieves.

Entree: I mean, working with Zellsis, as we see him with such high energy. I mean, such a leader. I mean, how much easier does that make your job as as the head coach, having someone who can kind of keep the team, keep their head in the game?

Veer: It makes my job infinitely easier. I kind of see IGLs as like the connection point from the coaching staff to the rest of the players. So when you have someone like Jordan (Zellsis) with so much experience, expert expertise, so like energetic and you know the vibes merchant, if you want to say it, it just does so much for the team. It makes my job, you know, I can tell us to be positive and carry that energy. But when you have a leader in game who’s always doing it, he just exudes the confidence, positivity, and energy that everyone else is going to follow that. So it’s really important to have Jordan on this team.

Entree: In an interview with Pedro Romero after the LOUD game, you talked a little bit about kind of being surprised by how the veto went. Thinking they were, like you said, you believe they were going to pick Lotus. Did it go a little easier today with a team like KRU, where you kind of expect them to pick Lotus?

Veer: Yeah, I mean, some more funny stuff happened in the veto today. It went better than expected. They threw us some curveballs, but I think we were ready to sit back on them this time. We were really prepared for any direction that they took us. I’m really happy with our map pool right now. But we’re just gonna keep deepening it, so the veto can only get easier from there. But as of right now, really, you know, the the Lotus veto, or sorry, the the LOUD veto with the Lotus hiccup, it did kind of throw us off. But I think we kind of came as a collective and talked about how we can go about the map pool to make sure it’s as best possible for us, even if we need to take a little bit of a risk in it, and I think the little bit of a risk today paid off. We’ve been thinking about banning their Lotus pretty much since the season started. I think in terms of like statistics, they haven’t won a map or a series rather where Lotus isn’t in the pool in like nine months or so. So we were really kind of just hoping to take the that kind of same line of thinking against KRU, and I think it worked out pretty well.

Entree: Yeah, I think there’s something along the lines of like, yeah, they always win Lotus, but outside of that, they’ve been struggling a lot. I mean, going into this game, you talked about trying to improve the map pool. I mean, kind of where do you think your strengths lie in terms of map pool-wise, and what maps do you think need a little bit of work? If you can give us a little insight?

Veer: I can’t. Not too much. Yeah, I don’t know how many other coaches watch the interviews. I probably gave too much information in the interview yesterday with Pedro. So I’m going to learn to PR train myself a little bit. But it’s a good question though, and I appreciate it.

Entree: Hey, I respect it. No leaks. No leaks around here. I always say that can’t leak too much. So, kind of, what’s the transition been like for you as going from assistant coach to head coach? Of course, you have the experience in the past with NBG. But what has that transition been like in the tier one scene?

Veer: It’s been – I wouldn’t say it’s been difficult, but I wouldn’t say it’s been easy. There’s a lot more expectation, eyes, and like just magnitude of these games. So I really just tried to take the same approach, and just everything I was doing in tier two as a head coach, and then with Shopify Rebellion Gold as an assistant, just tried to apply everything that I’ve learned through those experiences to help set me up well to best benefit the team in a VCT role. So it’s been challenging, but very, very willing to take it on, and it’s been so much fun so far. And then Immi’s been great working with me and the the new dynamic and system that we have, so he’s been pulling his weight very very well, and he helped out a lot today. So it’s been a good transition overall, and hoping to keep it going positive throughout the rest of the stage and plans.

Entree: I mean, we’ve kind of seen a little bit about, I talked to v1c just a little bit about stylistic changes in terms of from before the beginning of the stage to now, have you noticed anything, or as you, the head coach, implemented anything major stylistically in terms of comms, in terms of how the maps are played?

Veer: Yeah, we’ve made a handful of changes across the board, but we really haven’t tried to change like too much of who we are at the core. I’m just trying to go in and like optimize the system and make things more straightforward for the players to play and not have to overthink. So I won’t go into too much detail about how I’m going about doing that, but it’s been a very main focus for us because we thought earlier in the stage that some of the ways we went about playing like late round scenarios or trying to like set up the early rounds, we really could like optimize it in certain ways if we kept it consistent across the board and really got like the same page of our identity in those aspects. So yeah, I do think we have a new identity and approach right now, and I think it’s working well for us.

Entree: I mean, kind of going to split today. We saw KRU the last time they played the match. They struggled. I mean, getting a 13-0’d by 100 thieves. Did you kind of expect a composition swap from them, like we saw today?

Veer: Yeah, KRU been changing their their comps pretty much every time they lose. Even where Lotus that was their best map, they still changed their comp, and they’ve only got two games on the new one. So with how often they’ve been switching the compositions, we really expected it. So we had game plans ready for if they changed their comp, if they kept it. We were really prepared for pretty much anything they threw us.

Entree: I mean, did you kind of with so many teams playing this? I mean, pretty much like the LEV comp on split with them being so good at that map. With how much footage there is on other teams playing it? I mean, was that kind of easier to plan for?

Veer: Yeah, I think even in the match, I heard one of the players say that they’re imitating LEV, so we kind of know how LEV play, and then we kind of caught on pretty quickly that they’re following the same style and setups and like macro approach. So it kind of made us have a read on them without them having any footage of playing the comp. It was just kind of like on Breeze they were playing the 100 Thieves comp and kind of like keeping it very similar to that, and then they kind of followed the same thing with the LEV comp on split. So my players are just smart, and they kind of recognize that on the fly, and I didn’t have to use a timeout to talk about
it.

Entree: It makes your job a lot easier over there. So yeah, because I mean, I talked to NBS stuff, but the same thing, kind of just copying the LEV comp. I mean, if it’s working, might as well just see if you can just take that. So yeah. With speaking of NBS upcoming game against 100 Thieves. Just kind of, how do you feel going into that matchup?

Veer: I feel pretty good. You know, obviously we’re prepared for play-ins right now. I don’t know what our chances are to make play-offs, but at the moment we’re kind of just treating them as a test, as a litmus test to see where we’re at, how much growth we’ve actually had. You know, KRU, with all due respect to them, they’re one of the bottom teams in our group right now, LOUD was towards like the middle of the pack, even though they’re playing very well. So playing one of the top tier teams in the region right now, especially when they went over towards EWC and played very very well, it’s just going to be a test for us, and we’re going to have fun with it, see where we truly are, and that will tell us a lot about ourselves.

Entree: Okay, and then I have a little thing I do where I ask, you know, players and coaches decided to add a song to a playlist I’m making. Do you have a song you’d like to add to that playlist.

Veer: Oh, is there a theme to it?

Entree: Anything, anything you think of. We have a lot of different genres in there.

Veer: Give me, uh, give me Brain Fog by Slayr.

Entree: All right, that’ll go right in there. It’ll be in the playlist. All right, and then just to wrap up, do you have any words for the C9 fans?

Veer: Just thank you guys more than anything. They’ve been great. We just got done with the meet and greet, and the the fans are so positive. Whether where we win, whether we lose, and they do so much for us in terms of the support that they provide, and just really being the backbone of the team. So it feels good that we can finally give back to them and give them a win, something to cheer for, and have some high expectations and hope for us for the rest of the season.

Entree: I mean, I don’t know if you’ve seen, but RyanG2B, big C9 fan. He’s been freed finally from his not being able to tweet until C9 wins. He’s been very happy about it, so I’m sure he’s very thankful. But Veer, thank you very much for your time. Good luck in your upcoming game against 100 Thieves, and have a great rest of your day.

Veer: Thank you, Andre. Great talking to you.

Entree: You too.

C9 looks to carry its momentum and close out the group stage with its upcoming game against 100 Thieves, who currently top Group Omega.