Axed on cutting CLASIA: "I just wish I could have helped him as much as he's helped me"

SkinRave finished 9th-16th in Fragadelphia Blocktober following a one-sided loss to OG. While this killed their chance to reach the Major, it was good for them to get some LAN experience with their new fifth Edgar "MarKE" Maldonado.

Our Editor-in-Chief, Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore, caught up with Tommy "Axed" Ryan before the OG match and discussed how MarKE came to join the team, how he's adapting, and how it was for them to part ways with Anthony "CLASIA" Kearney after yet another unprofessional incident with a team.

You can watch the full interview on YouTube, with key snippets underneath. All questions and answers have been slightly edited for clarity.

Are you feeling good about the team's progress? You've recently added MarKE. Has he quickly adapted to fit into the team?

Playing with MarKE so far has been amazing. He's like a true professional. He came in and helped us a lot. He's shown us things that he likes to do and what he's comfortable with.

He always gets a little bit of slack for being a quiet player, but I actually think he's pretty vocal. He contributes in mid rounds, and he sacrificed a lot on CT-side to join our team. I think he's playing five new positions, which is honestly really tough for any player to adapt to mid-season.

He has all of his spots on T-side, so he's a very natural fit there, and I think he works really hard. Whenever we showed him new grenades or strats, or whatever we need, I see him online in the middle of the night in servers to practice it. He's a wonderful teammate.

You ended up raiding Getting Info to take MarKE to SkinRave. So, CLASIA leaves the team, and you're looking at your options for a replacement for him. What led you to pursue MarKE over other options? Were there other options on the table?

To be completely honest, we first looked at a couple of Europeans. We talked to reck from SportsBetExpert and we talked to MarKE. MarKE was someone who Cryptic and junior have tried to recruit a number of times. I think that the situation we were left in, was the most natural fit to go out and get him.

He was a free agent, he wasn't signed to any contracts, and he fit the roles. Everyone who's ever really played with him has said great things about him, and that's really what we needed to continue to progress as a team. It was a good environment.

He's chasing a return to the top of the NA scene for a while. For some time, he was at the top of the NA playing for the likes of Chaos during the COVID-19 era. Is he happy to be back in a more structured environment?

As far as I know, and we talked about it a lot, he's happy to be around a group of people who he can show up and enjoy himself every single day, be himself, and doesn't really have to worry about making mistakes.

He's just kind of allowing the process to happen naturally. And yeah, he has been at the top of NA multiple different times with different rosters. One of the biggest reasons why we actually considered picking him up was because Cryptic and junior both said that he's very hard to play against.

For example, just trying to call like a Lobby crunch on Nuke against him is hard, because he plays his life very well.

On the other end of the equation, there was CLASIA, who was banished from SkinRave. A lot of people wonder what the hell happened there. Can you get into that?

We pretty much just came back from Knoxville, and we were a couple of hours into practice. I guess the atmosphere wasn't the best that day, and attitude was kind of showing. So, I kind of just said, 'Hey, what the fuck is going on?'

And I wouldn't really call it an argument, there was definitely some back-and-forth. But it concluded with him basically telling us, like, 'Good luck in the match tonight, and I'm gone.'

And he kind of screwed you guys in a way, considering that SkinRave are still mathematically hunting for a spot at the Budapest Major. You had a close loss to Wildcard in ECL, and of course, you had to play the rest of the season with the team, and a couple of other matches while looking for a new fifth. Is that a mortal sin CLASIA committed, having potentially cost you the Major?

I don't really know what's next for him. Honestly, I don't know. I mean, a lot of players in NA find a way to come back over time, regardless of the situation or where they last were. I just hope that whatever he does next in life, he finds happiness.

This was not your first time working with him, right? You were together in EG/Carpe Diem and Secret Club, right? EG had a bootcamp in Seattle, and during that bootcamp, he ended up getting benched. Having seen now that he's been cut from four or five teams, including some you coached, do you regret picking him up for BLUEJAYS, and not cutting him earlier?

No. CLASIA was one of the people who actually recruited me to the team. I don't regret anything at all. I think he's a good player, I think he's a smart kid. I don't really know exactly what the issue is.

He's someone whom I've always believed in, and I thought has a lot of potential. I'm not really sure what he needs to do to unlock his potential, but I've always believed in him, and I've kind of seen him a lot like the little brother that I never had.

He gave me the chance to join RBG, which turned into Evil Geniuses, and he asked me to join BLUEJAYS as well. I mean, he's helped me a lot throughout my career. I just wish I could have helped him as much as he's helped me.

I saw that you signed up for the showdown tournament at DreamHack Atlanta, that BYOC tournament that qualifies one team for ESL Pro League Season 23. Few teams signed up for it, either because it's a BYOC or because of the costs. How do you feel going to that event and taking on BIG as your only hurdle to get to EPL?

I feel great, I'm not really scared of BIG at all ever, and it could come back to bite me in the ass, and that's OK. But the last time I played BIG, Cryptic had the game of his life, and this time we're going to win it.

And, final thoughts, how are you feeling about your first two months with SkinRave?

I feel great, I really have no complaints. They've treated us well, and I think the future is bright.