After the dramatic exit of Cloud9 from the playoffs of IEM Cologne 2023, we managed to speak with the inactive player of the roster, Timur 'buster' Tulepov. His thoughts on the tough match against Vitality, assessment of his personal performance, and impressions of playing with Perfecto and Electronic - in an exclusive interview for us at bo3.gg.

— Was there a hidden desire for Ax1le not to arrive and for you to go out and play on the stage? 

— Of course not, I'm not that kind of person. I'm glad I had the chance to play in the updated roster. I myself did not expect that they would call me two days before and say that Ax1le was having visa issues. I played purely until he could get to Cologne. That's exactly what happened.

— You must have watched the match, in your opinion, what did C9 lack in the match against Vitality?

— In fact, Vitality strengthened their firepower, and now they look quite strong, replacing Dupreeh with Flamez. But the core of the team didn't change, as well as the internal structure. Cloud9 can be called a completely new team, with a new style of play, star players, etc. They just need a little more time. They played the group stage with me, and suddenly Ax1le comes in. With whom they didn't play throughout this stage. Of course, it will also be difficult for them. But still, they fought decently, if not for their own mistakes.

— The coach of the team Groove said that you play in the group stage as a stack. Is that the case for you? And describe your experience of playing with Electronic and Perfecto.

— I can't say that we played like a complete stack, after all, four players had been playing together for a month. I think this could only be said about Vertigo. Of course, we didn't use all the rounds they had worked out, but I told Konstantin to clue me in on all the rounds. So that it would be more comfortable for me and the guys in the game. But he is such a person by nature that he doesn't want someone to strain too much. And maybe that's why we might have looked very raw. 

And playing with Perfecto and Electronic, especially with Denis as captain, is new to me, but I can definitely say that Electronic understands the game very well, reads it very cool, and overall as a player he is super, the same can be said about Perfecto.

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— The Cloud9 period ended much earlier than I would have liked. How would you describe the experience of playing in the club? What did you like, what didn't you like?

— I would say it was a great experience for me. Since I had never changed the team before. Of course, it's a pity that we couldn't achieve all our desires. But playing for the Cloud9 organization was a pleasure. Everything was top-notch!

— H0bbit saw in you a problem of your past lineup exactly in the leadership of the past lineup. Did you agree with him?

— I wouldn't want to bring out any internals that were there before. Time will put everything in its place. You can agree with Abai, and somewhere Nafany may be right.

So, I won't choose a side here. Everything that was, everything remains in the past.

— You are currently looking for a team, right? Right. Have you thought about what conditions in the team, maybe the game itself, and outside the server should be for you to feel 100% good?

— In Cloud9, I tried completely different roles for myself, and now it's hard to answer this question unequivocally. It depends on the map and the team a lot.

— Are you considering options for international rosters or just Eastern Europe?

— So far, only Eastern Europe, because with English it's not that cool, but I'm trying to learn it, it's getting better, some conversational language is available.

But will it be good for an international team? I don't know, probably not, but maybe someone will want to try me, and I would be happy to try a new experience again. For now, I am open to all offers.

— Are you satisfied with your performance at IEM Cologne 2023, in the end? Considering that you didn't prepare for it.

— I'm glad we made it to the playoffs, but of course, I'm not satisfied with my personal game. I could have played so much better. If we had at least one day of training together, it would have been much easier for me. Because I haven't played for a whole month, I've hardly touched the computer at all. And it turned out that I had to play a tournament, on different roles, in a different structure - everything was new. It was hard.

But I think it can be noticed that gradually with each game I was gaining momentum and felt more or less better.

— Have you thought about taking a vacation before the release of Counter-Strike 2? And when is it coming out?

— It was expected that the game would be released this summer, but so far it's unclear, no one is writing anything. I'm not planning to take a vacation. I have certain things that I didn't manage to finish and I need to sort out now, while I haven't found a team.

READ MORE: Head Coach of Astralis Casle: “I actually like the matchup versus G2. That's the one team we lost against”

— And finally, Blitz for our site. Did you have a nickname in school?

— Tulep.

— Favorite school subject?

— Mathematics.

— Favorite movie?

— I'm really bad at remembering movie names. The first thing that comes to my mind would be Interstellar.

— What's your most expensive skin, and what's your favorite one?

— Probably the most expensive one is Karambit | Waves, if I'm not mistaken. Before that, I had more expensive skins, but I can't remember them. Also, I didn't buy anything from skins. And the Karambit was completely random! I was testing in Cloud9, then I came home, opened only 8 cases, and it dropped from the last one.

— The last question may seem strange, but still: if you're the sexiest of all Timurs, who's the most handsome player in Cologne?

— The most handsome player in Cologne? From those left? Then it's NiKo.