Player of the Month – Tarik

For the first time, a North American team managed to win the most prestigious CS: GO title by taking down teams like SK.Gaming and FaZe, both considered as heavy favorites.

In front of a magnetizing crowd in Boston, Cloud9 became champions with a score of 2:1 against the international squad of FaZe Clan. The NA team won with incredible synergy and team play, with one player dominating the spotlight.

He ended the tournament with 1.22 KDR, had the highest number of kills (258), and was top 5 in all of the other categories.  Besides that, he was the main reason for the success of Cloud9 in the deciding third map, ending with 1.43 KDR. Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you – Tarik Celik or just Tarik!

Player of the Month – Tarik

We analyzed not only his performance at the Major, but also at the Main Qualifier that was held a week before. From the data of all matches in January, we can see that Tarik actually does not have the highest KDR for Cloud9. Timothy “autimatic” Ta has 1.28, 0.2 more than Celik.

However, in the most intense moments, especially in the playoffs, Tarik stepped up and led the team.

His worst performance was against Astralis in the team round of the Eleague Major. Tarik ended with 0.77 KDR, even though his team won 16 to 6 against their Danish rivals.

It is strange that his best score of 1.55 was against G2 eSports. Despite his efforts, Cloud9 ended the map with only 8 rounds in their favor.

This is a proof that teamwork is way more important than just single player’s contribution.

Player of the Month – Tournaments

As we mentioned, January went under the sign of the ELEAGUE Major. Tarik and his teammates participated in the Main Qualifier where they smashed three pretty solid teams – mousesports, Sprout, and EnVyUs – to secure a major spot.

Next step was the group stage where they had to face teams like G2 eSports, Space Soldiers, Virtus.Pro, Astralis, and Vega Squadron.  After two solid losses from G2 and SS, Cloud9 had to fight their way to the playoffs with three consecutive wins, two of which were against former Major champions – Virtus.Pro and Astralis. The third win was versus the Russian team Vega Squadron, who have upset not one, but many teams in the past, including NiP.

In the final stage of the event, Cloud9, with Tarik leading the squad, was relentless. They won over G2 eSports, SK.Gaming, and FaZe to bring the Major title to a North American team for the first time!

Tarik was awarded the MVP award for the tournament.

We cannot describe the emotions with words, so check the video below:

Tarik History

At last, we will speak little about the path of Tarik. How did he became so successful at Counter-Strike: Global Offensive?

He is a former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. Back in the day, he played for the NetcodeGuides.com team.  Shortly after that, he was transferred into the famous North American organization – Counter Logic Gaming.

Showing great potential, Tarik was quickly spotted by the big guns, OpTic Gaming. During his short time with the squad, Tarik partnered with teammate Will “RUSH” Wierzba, showing the world that he has the talent to become one of the best players, not only in the USA but in the world as well.

In the middle of Summer 2017, and after the Major, Cloud 9 decided to make a move and transfer the OpTic duo – Tarik and RUSH. They worked very well with the rest of the squad and shortly after that they started to win more and more games against top teams.

Tarik established himself as a core player of the team. With this Major trophy in their pockets, we are sure that Cloud9 will use the momentum and win more events in 2018!