Several hundred people in the crowd in Austin, Texas's Convention Center at the North American debut of the biggest esports tournament series in the world, DreamHack. Two Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams are competing for a chance at glory. One, the current world champion, Luminosity Gaming. The other, Splyce, a mid-tier North American team with two stand-ins.
The pressure is on, and as the two teams play on Train, one of Counter-Strike's oldest maps, Luminosity Gaming is slaughtering Splyce. By halftime, the score is 14-1 in the Brazilian Gods' favor - you only need win 16 rounds to win. After the half, the game comes to a close at 16-5. Splyce got crushed.
But one of Splyce's stand-ins, former Cloud9 entry-fragger Ryan "fREAKAZOiD" Abadir, is just happy to be here. He's not competed in a tournament since the Major League Gaming Columbus major in March--leaving Cloud9 just after. But competing again, he says he's found a new hunger for the game he's been a pro in for seven years.
"Since I've been around for so long, everyone's kind of saying I'm washed up," fREAKAZOiD says with a smile. "But I feel like I have a new hunger for the game. Taking that time off, just not playing, I just feel like, this new hunger. I kind of feel like a new me is going to come. I don't really know how to explain it, but that's how I feel right now. I almost didn't want to come here, but coming has made me wanna play again at the highest possible level."
fREAKAZOiD isn't the only stand-in for the team. The other is popular Twitch streamer Jaryd "summit1g" Lazar. He's never played in a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive offline tournament, and he's currently the fourth biggest streamer on the Twitch platform. But despite having streaming as his income, fREAKAZOiD says he's confident that summit1g could make it as a competitive player.
"He takes it serious, he wants to win," fREAKAZOiD says when asked about his fellow stand-in. "I think people get kind of confused because he's a streamer, but he loves to compete, I can tell. You can see when he's playing and how he talks and like, he goes for it. I respect that a lot about him. He really does wanna play for a top team."
But fREAKAZOiD acknowledges that competing would hurt summit1g's streaming time, something he likely can't give up due to his status on the platform. Just a year ago, fREAKAZOiD primarily streamed without competing much before joining Cloud9. When asked if he was a similar position then, we both laugh.
For the past month, fREAKAZOiD has been almost absent from streaming and completely from competitive. He says he's been taking some personal time to catch up with family and friends upon returning to San Diego in the beginning of April.
Before returning home, he played at MLG Columbus in March. There, fREAKAZOiD had statistically the worst performance of his career, according to Counter-Strike's most popular website, HLTV.
That led him to depart Cloud9, something he says was on his own terms. Now, he's on a break.
"Right now, I'm kind of just enjoying the time off," he says. "But I'd love to play in ELEAGUE, especially ELEAGUE. Also FACEIT and ESL and all that stuff. Right now though, I'm just focusing on myself, like as a person and trying to grow from certain things in my personal life."
fREAKAZOiD says he's main motivation for the break is finding happiness. He says that he's recently been unhappy during playing, and that taking time off has made him find a bit of joy. But that won't stop him from competing if the right squad comes along.
"I just want to be happy again, you know what I mean?" he asks. "When I play the game, I just want happiness in my life. Not to be cheesy, but I'm just really enjoying being able to do my own thing. Don't get me wrong, if I get a nice offer, I'm coming back for sure. That's my goal, too, I want to come back. But I want to come back for the right reasons."
While there aren't many official offers, fREAKAZOiD has had many interested eyes in bringing him into a competitive team again. Here at DreamHack, he's competed with Splyce, but only due to Abraham "abE" Fasli being on vacation after the team got invited to the event last minute. But also, according to sources close to the team, fREAKAZOiD has negotiated with Echo Fox for a position on its squad.
In the interview he couldn't speak on the matter specifically. However, he was outspoken about the potential of playing with former Cloud9 in-game leader Sean "sgares" Gares and the remainder of the Echo Fox lineup.
"Hypothetically, I love Sean," he says. "Sean's a great person, outside the game. Inside the game, I always called him the wizard. He's super ****** smart. He just helped me understand the game better when I joined Cloud9. I think it'd be great to play with him [again]. Obviously I can't do anything like that right now, but it'd be great to play with Sean again. It'd be great to play with all the guys on that team again."
If he does join Echo Fox, that'd grant his wish to make it to ELEAGUE. That team has a guaranteed spot, primarily due to the relationship between its owner, retired professional basketball player Rick Fox, and sports management agency WME|IMG, who is the co-producer of the league.
With names like Fox, and ELEAGUE, which will be televised beginning at the end of May, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is becoming one of the biggest esports in the industry. It only holds second to League of Legends, which unlike Counter-Strike, has full developer support, including tournament organization. fREAKAZOiD thinks that Counter-Strike might get even bigger.
"Counter-Strike is blowing up, so for me to predict the future, I just don't think I can," he says. "It can either be massive, or it could keep growing [like it is]. I think it's gonna be HUGE. I mean, seeing a $1.2 million tournament on TV already, if that blows up, the game on top of that is gonna be huge in the following years. The internet just keeps expanding, and there's more people to reach. I think the sky's the limit. We'll see what happens."