Cooper: "We threw away our opportunity [to make Pro]"
We caught up with Swole Patrol AWPer Austin "Cooper" Abadir after his team defeated Gorilla Gang last night.
You just took down Gorilla Gang to send yourselves to the grand finals of the event, how does that feel?
It feels good. We came here just to have fun, and we're doing as well as expected. We wanted to get to the finals, but it always feels good to actually make it there.
You're here with an even further modified version of your new lineup, how much practice did you have coming in?
With yay, zero. With swag and MarKE we've been practicing quite a bit lately, they've been on the team a couple weeks.
Talk to me a little bit about the initial roster change before this season, removing ryan and adding LILMAN.
Well we met LILMAN in China, and scrimmed with him a few times and he just fit in perfectly, so we decided to move forward right away with the roster change. Honestly, the ryan move, I feel like it was probably more emotional than anything, I really don't like making roster changes, but it happened and we just had to move forward.
Obviously more recently, LILMAN left the team, along with SileNt. Was that fallout from the season ending?
Yeah, we had a few disappointing results. I could tell LILMAN didn't really want to play with us too much, so I just gave him the option to leave and he went ahead and took it. There's no bad blood there. swag and MarKE hit us up to play, so that just turned into an extra person leaving.
Obviously you and freakazoid are one of the few brother duos in the scene. What is your relationship like, first of all outside of the game, but also playing together?
We've always played sports together, we're really close, so the arguing clips and stuff, we get over it within thirty seconds. If we say move on, we move on. Its good to play together, its fun, we are always really hard on each other, so we're always improving together. It helps the team when we are are working together and not bickering.
It has been a year and half since Fragadelphia 10, back then you were playing in Main. Is it surreal to realize how much progress you've made in a relatively short amount of time?
It doesn't feel short for me! I've worked hard every day, I've wanted to quit a few times, too. But every time I came back and worked harder than before. Everything I get, I've earned, I put in hours every day. Hopefully I keep going farther and farther.
Do you feel like you're no longer just freakazoid's brother?
I hope so. Like I said, I'm working hard every day so I'm not just freakazoid's brother. So I become a very good AWP in North America and prove myself on bigger stages.
You were in-game leading for a time, how did that go, considering you were one of the less experienced players on the team?
I think it went fine, we had good results. We started off with freakazoid, then I picked it up, we had good results for a long time. He wanted to pick it back up after he got motivated so I could just focus on fragging and AWPing.
Next season of MDL actually counts, it is a promotion season, what are your goals?
We expect to make Pro. We feel like last time it was very close, and we threw away our opportunity. This time we're really going to work hard to make it and accomplish that goal.
Looking forward to tomorrow, you only have one series left to play, who do you think you'll be playing in that grand final?
Well there is oNe, ownage, Gorilla Gang, and Hooked, right? I think if oNe play as well as they can, they'll make it for sure. They're all really good guys, so it will be really fun.
Swole Patrol have the majority of the day off, as they wait in the upper bracket for their grand finals opponent. If compLexity's Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker maintains his form from yesterday, they will be sure to give any team a run for their money.
