Cxzi on exiting Marsborne: "I'm turning 26 this year. I don't have time to build what they want to build"

Dust2.us Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore spoke with Wildcard's Danny "Cxzi" Strzelczyk after their victory over Voca.

Cxzi provided insights into what went wrong on Marsborne, his thoughts on Wildcard's play so far, and which grudge matches he's looking forward to.

Find the video interview below, with a full transcription underneath. All questions and answers have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

How do you feel you did against that Voca after beating them 2-0?

I feel pretty happy that we beat them. It got a little dicey on Dust2 and even Overpass at times, but we stayed composed, and we handled it. We all played pretty well. We kept the comms up, and we messed up a couple of situations, but we played pretty good overall for only a week of practice.

What was the key to winning against them?

Obviously, they just had a player change, so I think they're still playing with shane. He didn't really play the game that much over the little break he did have. When you change a player, you have to re-evaluate a lot of things. So they're still strong. They play together well as a squad, and they've always been. So, it's just that we had shot harder, and we had good situations. We were just closing on the situations.

How did you find your way onto Wildcard?

The whole Marsborne thing, I kind of had the option to do what I wanted. I was asked one question, and the question was, "Where do you want to see yourself? Do I see myself competing at the best events, playing the best players, and obviously with Marsborne, that's just not where we were at, and we weren't going to be at that level for a long time. I'm also turning 26 this year. I just don't have the time to build something they want to build. Marsborne's a great group of people. I think the org's great, all the people within the org are great, and it's more that they understand that part of me. I'm a competitor, and I want to be playing the best teams, and that's what it is.

How does it feel to give up the IGL role and stop being the main play caller?

It doesn't change as much. There's still a lot of mid-rounding I help out with, and calling for certain plays I want to do. Do I have the final say? No, but we bounce off each other pretty well. nEMANHA is going to call me off sometimes, and sometimes he's going to trust me to also make a read. We've been meshing really well together in that regard.

How do you rate the nEMANHA and splawik duo in these early days?

I like it so far, a lot of the things that we talked about in review are rounds that we definitely have to bring up, and the ideas that splawic actually puts in the idea box make sense. We all chip in with ideas, too. We all have a vision, maybe not completely the same, but we're getting to that level where it's almost the same. That's only after a week, a week and a half. We've talked about the game a little bit, and we're heading in the direction we want to head.

What was going on in the Marsborne camp?

It's just a lot of stupid stuff outside the server. That's one thing, how we act in the server, all at different times. I've had my issues. Everybody's had their own issues. I think part of it was that we had a good run at Circuit X, and then we went home for a week. Boot camp actually went really well overall. We played super well, and I thought after the boot camp, "Wow, we can win both of these events." I was nervous about 9Z, and when we went into FERJEE, we lost in a double overtime in the third map. So that's the improvement that we made going into the next day.

It's just unprofessional things outside the server, and the tension that we all felt. Also, when you're traveling for 5 weeks and you're with them every day, you're always going to bump heads at times. I don't think anybody hates each other outside the server or anything like that. It was more of all the buildup and all the traveling and missing things. I know I missed some stuff. It's just a lot of work, but it's what we signed up for.

So, much love to everybody, to all of them. We all talked. We played CCT together, and it was great. It was just one of those things where the Major is on the line, and things are going wrong. We had a super strong showing, and things were going wrong.

There was that one comment from motm on Twitter where he said the team all hated each other. Was that just him venting?

Nobody hates each other. Maybe we don't see the same vision in the game. I don't think anybody hates each other personally. I was more just annoyed with how they all got benched, because I didn't really know what was going to happen. I didn't know he was getting benched. He was a little bit caught off by that as well because he improved a tremendous amount in those last two months, and he was a big reason why we were playing super good. I think he was just upset with how it all ended, which to be fair, I get that.

Do you think playing CCT together as a team was good for you to bury the hatchet and get some closure for that roster?

Yeah, we were playing loose and having fun with it. I don't think anybody was really getting frustrated. It was good to win it, and we were glad we won. It's extra money in our pockets, so it never hurts to win some extra money on a dead team.

How are you feeling about your chances of making a deep run in the playoffs?

Take it one game at a time. I want to beat Passion. It would be a really good grudge match. I wanted to play Marsborne because Grizz is still on there, and Lucid is there. I don't think the bracket can happen now, though. I want to get NRG back for all those games, and also Grim's on the team now. I wish I could play every single one and just beat them all, but we got to see how the bracket works out. I'm not worried about it. I'm not scared of any of them. I'm ready for whoever we play.