nafany after early elimination: “If someone wants to find someone to blame, it is obviously me”

One-sided losses to Liquid and Astralis eliminated Cloud9 from IEM Cologne shockingly early, with the world No.4 team not even close to contending for the title just a month after lifting the IEM Dallas trophy.

Particularly struggling in Germany was the team’s in-game leader Vladislav “⁠nafany⁠” Gorshkov who posted a mere 0.71 rating across the six maps played. The 21-year-old opened up the tournament with a decent showing against Outsiders, but was a complete bystander in the following two games they handily lost — and admitted as much in an exit interview.

Talking to Freya “⁠Freya⁠” Spiers on the broadcast after being eliminated by Liquid, nafany was clear in poinging out that he was the reason his team struggled.

“We played really awful today, and yesterday as well. Sure, it is a couple of things why we are not playing how we can play. But if someone wants to find someone to blame, it is obviously me because I played awful both series, against Astralis and Liquid.”

nafany‘s struggles were the worst in the first map against Astralis, when he posted a horrifying 1-23 K-D in a 16-11 Mirage loss. He said that not only was his individual performance as an entry player lacking but that he didn’t deliver as a caller either.

“When you have an opening fragger who isn’t getting opening frags then it is obviously hard to play. And as an in-game leader, I was not so good this tournament. So these are a couple of things why I ruined this tournament for my team.”

The 9-12th finish at IEM Cologne brings to an end a turbulent season for the former Gambit lineup, who went through a period of struggle on the big LAN stages, an organizational change, and managed to win their first big trophy in an arena in the first six months of 2022.

“Thanks to everyone who supports us, it is very important, and thanks to everyone who hasn’t stopped believing in us,” nafany said to close out the interview. “It was a tough season for us for a lot of reasons, but I believe we will go back and train a lot in the next season.”