C9 OXY: “This year was just an uphill battle for me”

Cloud9's VCT Americas campaign came to an end on Wednesday, August 19th. The team failed to secure a spot at the Stage 2 playoffs after losing to VCL team BESTIA. For Francis “OXY” Hoang, the result marked another difficult ending after spending years with Cloud9 and repeatedly trying to reach an international event with the organization, an achievement he never managed to attain.

In an exclusive interview with Sheep Esports, OXY reflected on the team's performance throughout Stage 2, his own individual level, the difficulties Cloud9 faced during the season and the frustration of missing another international opportunity.

Francis “OXY” Hoang: “To be honest, it was a lot of things. There were a lot of holes in our stuff and we tried to patch the boat and move on with them. It wasn't the best year or the best season for us because we did make the head coach swap and a bunch of swaps and stuff like that coming into the season. We just did what we could. We did the best we could with what we had.

OXY: For Breeze, I don't know if we just come in differently or how the map is played, but I guess we're just very confident on Breeze and the way that we had everything played. We were just very good on the map. But today, obviously, was a little different. I feel like today was just a very bad day for us individually, even from myself. I played very poorly to my standard and it just wasn't what we needed to win.

OXY: I don't really know, to be honest. I feel like we just understood these maps. Split and Breeze especially, we just really understood the maps and knew how to play to our strengths as a team. Especially Split, I feel like even with us, we didn't have that much practice. We didn't have much practice on all the maps, but on Split, we still just understood how to play the map together correctly. I think that's why it really worked out well for us on Split, and for Breeze, I feel like it was the same thing.

OXY: Honestly, for my individual performance, I feel like this year was okay. I didn't think it was the best or the worst. I don't know how to compare it to the other years, but I will say this year I definitely didn't feel 100%. Even today, I felt I was playing at maybe 70% or 80%. I wasn't fully there today, and in general this season, and that comes from I don't know where it comes from. Maybe stress or whatever happened this year. Too many things happened, but I feel like there's a lot better side of me that still can be shown. We're just going to have to see what happens in the upcoming tournaments and next year.

OXY: At the end of the day, we did play a very good team, 100 Thieves, and we did 2-0 on them. We came in very confident, and I feel like throughout that week coming into playoffs, we started off a little not hot, I guess, in a sense. Coming into the game against Fluxo W7M, we lost the first map and it was pretty bad, but then obviously we brought it back. Then coming into EG again, it was not bad, but it wasn't fully us that we showed against 100 Thieves. I don't really know what we lacked, to be honest. I think we were just not confident. That's the best way to say it.

OXY: It's very heartbreaking for another year to not qualify to any events or to not go to any internationals when I feel like the level of play is something we should be able to get there. It's very frustrating. But I will say this year especially was just an uphill battle for me. It was a very long and very hard-fought year. So I'm not necessarily as sad as I was the other years. Last year was probably my saddest one. We were literally one game away, four rounds away from qualifying for Champions and beating NRG, but then letting it slip away.

But this year, I felt like it was more like every single month was just a long, hard fight, no matter what it was. Kickoff was pretty good, but every single month after Kickoff was a long, long year. Actually, no, Kickoff was not fun. I actually forgot I had that little thing happen to me, and then every month after this and whatever happened, it was just a hard, long year. So I'm honestly just glad I made it through at this point.

OXY: I will say the support is unreal. I feel like most, if not a lot, of our fans are from TcK and our Brazilian fan base, and it's just really supportive. I'm very happy that we have those fans. It's really great to have, especially when the year's been a very long, long, long year. So, yeah, I'm very happy and honestly love TcK. He's so funny.

OXY: For this Stage 2, the main lesson that I learned was just resilience and fighting through. I feel like that was the biggest thing I learned through this year. I feel like a lot has happened and I still made it through. Obviously, I didn't do the best and have the best results, but resilience, and just playing your game. You just have to wait and see until the result shows one day that you can make it through.”