Could you introduce yourselves for those who are unfamiliar with you? 

Febiven – Hi, I’m Febiven and I can only play Riven, if Riven is banned game is lost 😉

Voidle – Hi, I’m Voidle and I like Thresh.

Odoamne – Hi, I’m Odoamne and I’m the top-laner for Cloud9-EU.

K0u – Hi, I’m k0u and I play jungle for Cloud9 EU.

Hjärnan – Hi, I’m Hjärnan and I play adc for Cloud9 EU

How were you first introduced to League of Legends?  At what point did you decide to pursue it competitively? 

Voidle – Through Dota.

Febiven – Through friends.

Odoamne – I got into League of Legends after playing DotA for a couple of years then trying out all the other MOBAs out there and I eventually sticked to it. I started playing competitively when I noticed that I’m becoming better and better at the game around season 2.

k0u – I’ve always wanted to play DotA, but I was too horrible at it and kept getting owned. That’s when League of Legends appeared, I played a couple of games and was doing really good. I started to play competitively, when I was able to hit Diamond and kept playing at a high level.

Hjärnan – I started playing league in season one when I was introduced to it by my friends.

Initially upon creating a team to compete for the Challenger Series did you expect your dominance on the ladder? 

Febiven – Yes, we’re all really highly skilled individually so that’s our advantage.

Voidle – Yes, would be silly if we didn’t dominate premades with 5x high challenger players.

k0u – Yes, we’re all really skilled individually, all we lack is synergy and that we will get by spamming games together.

Hjärnan – Yes, I believe we have the best individual players in their respective roles.

Now that you’re a part of Cloud 9 there is a lot of expectations and hype surrounding the team.  Do you deserve the hype?  How do you handle the hype?  

Odoamne – I don’t believe we deserve the hype yet, since we haven’t proven ourselves in any tournaments so far but I believe we will perform really well and we will start deserving the hype around us. The hype just motivates us even harder to practice more and get better as a team.

Febiven – Hype will come soon ™

Hjarnan –  Yes I think we deserve the hype because we have all worked really hard for this.

The NA Cloud 9 team believed that SoloQ was essential and they would strive to be on top of the Challenger ladder.  Is this something that you also share?  Why is it important? 

Voidle – People at the top of the soloq ladder don’t get there for no reason. It has the best mechanical players which was the basis for our team.

Febiven – Yes, it is important, because by playing solo queue at a high level you mechanically improve a lot.

k0u – Yes SoloQ is definitely important, that’s where most of my mechanics comes from.

Hjärnan – Yes, I mean most of us are already top 10 in the challenger ladder. The biggest thing I’ve learned from soloq is mechanics and expect the unexpected.

As a Challenger team, what are your thoughts on the current challenger scene? What can Riot do to help improve and promote it? Is the Coke Zero Challenger Series a step in the right direction?  

Voidle – I wish riot would do more amateur tournaments to promote teamless soloq players to tryout new teams.

Febiven – The current challenger scene is okay, Riot should organize more amateur tournaments to promote.

Odoamne – The challenger series is indeed a step in the right direction by promoting more amateur teams to go competitive. Riot should organize more and more amateur tournaments so amateur teams have more opportunities to prove themselves.

k0u – The current challenger scene  is definitely better than the previous season, but I still think there should be more amateur tournaments, there’s just too few options  to prove yourself, that you can play at a LCS level.

What is the teams confidence level after securing the number one spot on the EUW ladder for the Coke Zero Challenger Series?  How is the current team cohesion and atmosphere like?  

Voidle – I feel like if we work on our calls and practice vs top teams we should be able to beat anyone.

Odoamne – We are very confident in our team’s synergy after we reached the number one spot. The atmosphere and cohesion are great and we will most definitely improve by practicing more against the top teams.

k0u – The atmosphere is definitely good, all players have no problems with each other. However we are sometimes too hotheaded and greedy.

Hjarnan – It made me really happy to see that “apples is sour” secured the number 1 spot on the ladder. I truly believe that our roster is godlike.

Going into the Challenger Series which teams impress you the most?  Any specific players?

Voidle – I’m not really impressed by anyone specific, since I have played vs the best players in the world.

Febiven – No specific players.

k0u – There isn’t really anyone, but I can’t tell yet, because I haven’t played against them.

Does the team currently live in a gaming house? If not, do you have any plans to get one?

Voidle – No, we do not and we won’t be getting one before the LCS.

Febiven – No, but I would like to live in one if we get into LCS.

k0u – No, but I really want to be in one, especially if we get into LCS.

You have an impressive record against challenger teams but how have you been fared against LCS teams?

Voidle – We have promising results vs LCS teams in scrims,  but scrims and official matches are two different things. Once we meet them offline we will see how well we do.

Febiven– We have been doing really well in scrims so far, but that doesn’t say a lot since I have no LAN experience at ALL.

k0u – We are doing incredibly good against LCS teams in scrims, which was unexpected for me but, It’s scrim, scrim and official matches are different things. I’m not sure how we will do against a LCS team in an official match.

What are some of the strong points of the team?  In what areas do you think you need to improve on as a team? 

Febiven – Communication

Odoamne – I think the strong points of the team are the mechanics and game knowledge. We need to improve on our communication

k0u – We need to improve our communication.

You will be competing in the Scan EUW Winter Invitational against several other promising challenger teams, how do you think you stack up against them?  This will be your first tournament as a team, how prepared do you think you will be for it?  

Hjarnan – I think we will win the tournament as long as we don’t make bad calls.

Febiven – We are PREPARED!

k0u – We have been practicing really hard for this, so I’m sure we will win this tournament unless something unexpected happens.

Are there any particular players that you look up to in League of Legends? Why? 

Odoamne – I’m not looking up to any player, I try to improve by every game against anyone.

k0u – Faker, his reactions and mechanics is totally insane.

Voidle, having competing in the LCS and Worlds, has there been anything that you have been able to bring to the team based on your prior competitive experiences?  How have these experiences helped you personally? 

Voidle – I know some strategies and matchups but since the game is constantly changing I can’t really rely that much on my S3 experience.

How is the current bot lane synergy developing?  Do you think you mesh well?  If you were to describe your lane’s playstyle, how would you describe it? 

Voidle – We play aggressive and I think we have very similar views on how to play the lane, which allows us to stomp even the best botlanes in the world. Now we need to work on getting better synergy with our jungler.

Hjarnan – Voidle is the best support I’ve ever played with and I think we are one of the stronger duo’s in Europe.

If the team manages to qualify for the next split of LCS what does the team intend to do with k0u since he will be unable to compete until season 5?  Do you intend to do what Copenhagen Wolves did with Bjergsen and have a temporary mid laner?  

Voidle – We will most likely get a temporary jungler but we would take k0u back for the next season for sure.

K0u, many LCS players have been giving you a lot of praise for your jungling skills and consider you to be an up and coming  jungler.  What do you excel at as a jungler that makes these people view you in such a high regard?  

k0u – If I get early kills, I most likely will snowball the game. That’s the only thing I can think of.

Febiven, you have been quite a big fan of ad mids and assassins, what about them are so appealing to you?  Is this because you like the outplay potential? 

Febiven – Outplaying enemies is the best thing you can do, if you snowball by outplaying your enemy you can have a lot of impact in the game.

Odoamne, lately we have mostly seen tanky top laners being played since the masteries changes, what are your thoughts on the current state of top lane?  What do you think Riot needs to do, to allow more top laners to be played in the competitive scene?  

Odoamne – Top lane is dominated currently by high sustain tanks and their priority is farming. So now almost always we can see top-laners starting to proxy waves and take jungle camps to get as much  farm as possible. I think top-laners right now are the backbone of teamfights due to the time they spend on farming and getting items, they become that massive wall in every team. Due to the current state of the top-lane we can’t see more fighter-based top-laners like Jayce, Kennen, Irelia, and Jax because they have to prioritize building damage rather than survivability and if they get ganked once there is no way they can recover. Riot balanced the game very well so far but the only way I can see fighter-based top-laners making a comeback in the league is by nerfing survivability items.

What are your goals for season 4 as a player and as a team? 

Voidle – Beat everyone.

Febiven – Go unbeatable

k0u – Go undefeated.

Odoamne – Further improve as a player and become the best team in Europe.

Hjarnan – I want to make it into the summer LCS and possibly take the first place title

Thanks for the interview, is there anything you would like to say to your newfound fans and sponsors? 

Team – I would like to thank everyone, that is supporting us, we appreciate it, in return we will do our best to win.  Also would like to thank Jack for believing in us, our manager Jed, our analyst Charlie, and the C9 staff for all their help and support, that  they provide us with.   Shoutout to our sponsors who also support us: Alienware, Crunchyroll, Kingston HyperX, Logitech, and LOL Class.

Special thanks to:
DavidWidrick for art @ Davidwidrick.com
Shira for editing