CrusaDe: “I’ve learned a lot from those downs and I am confident I know now what it takes to make it to the top and I believe I have those qualities.”

For upwards of three years, Dutch main support, Ryan "CrusaDe" van Wegen, has been chasing his dream to join the Overwatch League. Featured on teams like Cyclone, Lazer Kittens, and teams like the British Hurricane, CrusaDe brings a veteran presence to nearly any team in the ecosystem. However, he’s taken the talents he’s honed in Europe and joined the North American Overwatch Contenders squad, Skyfoxes, as they battle some of the region’s top teams in the Overwatch Contenders seeding tournament. 

With victories over the Montreal Rebellion, Third Impact, and a close loss to ATL Academy, Skyfoxes are poised to make a top four placing and obtain a direct seed in the first Contenders tournament of the season. CrusaDe spoke with GGRecon about the calling structure in Skyfoxes, his confidence going forward in the Contenders seeding tournament, and his goals for 2020.

Could you walk us through how this iteration of Skyfoxes came together and how you joined the team?

I can’t say much about how this Skyfoxes came together as I was the last person to join. I wasn’t part of the making of this roster. I got asked to trial a couple of weeks ago because Elk was leaving for collegiate. After trialing with them for 2 weeks-ish, I got offered the spot and joined.

Now looking at this roster, it is comprised of fairly young players, not only in age but in their careers as well. You’re someone who has been in the scene for a long time and has quite a history, is it safe to say that you’re a fairly vocal member of the team? What’s the calling structure like in Skyfoxes?

In most teams I’ve been in, I’ve always tried to take a leading role in the communication. I was happy that in Skyfoxes I could continue to do so, and take a vocal role. The calling structure is still developing, but right now it’s me doing the ult tracking, mikeyy making the general game plan, and everybody else steps in and helps wherever needed.

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Walk me through the loss to Revival in the semifinals of the Mayhem Winter Classic? What exactly went wrong?

As you said before we have fairly young players, and they don’t have that much tournament experience yet. During our semifinals match vs Revival, there were just too many things going wrong probably because of the pressure that was on these players. That combined with Revival playing really well made us lose 1-2. 

As a follow-up, you guys took the rematch with Revival in the lower bracket finals, could you talk about what you guys changed to take such a close-set? 

We didn’t change anything drastically, we just had a good talk with the whole team and coaching staff and decided that we just wanna keep our heads cool. Play our game, and focus on what we practiced and let them adjust to us, not the other way around.

Now you guys did end up winning the event with a fairly decisive game against Third Impact. Was there something that clicked in the grand finals that pushed you guys over the edge?

I think after winning versus Revival, we knew that if we play our game it will all work out and that’s exactly what we did against Third Impact.

With back-to-back wins at Breakable Barriers and with the Mayhem Classic, is this just the start for you and Skyfoxes? Do you guys feel confident in scrims going forward and taking a top-four finish at the upcoming Contenders seeding tournament?

These tournaments were very good for us. We got some much-needed tournament experience and bonded as a team. We are nowhere near our top performance yet so we will continue to practice hard and we feel confident going forward that we will take a top four finish in the seeding tournament.

Speaking of the win, was there a team that impressed you or a player that caught your eye? As the Overwatch season starts back up, in general, who are some gems that have been doing well behind the scenes that people might not know about?

Well, I’m not that known in the NA scene so everybody is kind of new to me, except for the people that came from EU. But the people that impressed me the most in the tournament are Aspire and Aspen from Revival and iCy from Third Impact. I guess they were the most annoying to play against in the tournament for me.

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Blizzard developer Josh Noh took to the official Overwatch forums to give some insight into their decision making within regards to balance and power creep. This has the community up in arms and today he gave a follow up on the same topic. What’s your take on the recent comments?

I think in the past pro players were able to give feedback about PTR patches. In the beginning, Blizzard seemed to use that feedback, but as time went on this felt less and less the case. If that were to be revived and we could give more feedback about PTR patches again that Blizzard would actively use, that could help the game a lot in my opinion.

Last but not least let’s talk goals, not only for 2020 Contenders season but for your future in Overwatch? Where is your mind at with so much going on in Overwatch at the moment? 

My Overwatch career has had its ups and downs. I’ve learned a lot from those downs and I am confident I know now what it takes to make it to the top and I believe I have those qualities.

My goal right now is to show the North American region my skill, win Contenders, do well at Gauntlet and after that, my dream since I started with Overwatch over 3 years ago: Get into Overwatch League.

Image via Blizzard Entertainment