"This topless Turkish dude rekt Hiko on Mirage while he is on 22nd hr of 24 hour stream. Who is this guy? Anybody knows?"

There rarely was an introduction as weird as that as on reddit. In this month of June 2014, tarik is in the middle of his 24 hours stream when he gained attention online by displaying a level good enough to surpass Hiko, one of the best North American player back then.

Passing by on the reddit thread, hazed gave an answer to clear up the mystery behind that “topless Turkish dude” :

I’ve been friends with him for about 3 years and talk to him pretty much everyday as we and a bunch of other players hang out in the same mumble for years now. He is insane. His individual play is absurd. Anyone can vouch for that. A lot of you are questioning why he isnt on a team if he can be so good. Its simple, he plays for himself. He always has. If he cared more about his team play, he would be on NCG in my place i can guarantee you that. He is far better than me individually but he has no regard for team play. Unfortunately, teams require team players and he hasnt quite obtained that skill yet. Im hoping he will some day as he would be a problem for any team to deal with. James "hazed" Cobb

Three and a half year later, tarik is wearing a jersey. The one of Cloud9. He won the most sought-after title there is on CS:GO: a Major. All while being the in-game leader, and being the centerpiece of his team. That still did not hold him from being awarded the MVP title from HLTV.

The one who went under the nickname “noshirt tv” on twitter for a while, because indeed he liked to play topless. The Turkish American binational came down a long way these past few years. If his skill dates back from CS 1.6, it’s truly on Counter-Strike that he exploded onto the scene, to become a cornerstone of the North American scene.

Everything, or almost, started from here

CLG, the first part

Not lacking compliments on reddit, hazed will be one of the first teammates of tarik among Netcode Guides. The team will indeed decide to give him a try in the summer of 2014, in replacement of Lucky. At the time, the five is completed by FNS, jdm64 and reltuC. But they will not remain under this org for long, leaving CLG in October. But right before that, they still had the time to play a match of regular season in the CEVO league, against iBUYPOWER (DaZed, steel, AZK, swag, Skadoodle). A certain matchup on Season, easily won 16-4 by Netcode Guides who were far from being the favorites. A match that would appear, 5 months later, as voluntarily lost by iBP. The match that would eventually drag the pro scene into an unprecedented scandal of fixed matches. For having experienced this from the inside, tarik later gave his feelings about this infamous match where he plowed through the best American.

Dude, I was feeling it. I was crazy. I was litteraly like that. Me and Josh (jdm) were like that. We were given ourselves credit and shit, talking about « this is our comeback into the scene ». But FNS called the throw. He litteraly said after the game « these guys 100% throw that". But i was like « dude you're fucking crazy ! » Tarik "tarik" Celik

After a few tournaments played without an organization under the tag “mouseSpaz” and a change in the roster, ptr replacing jdm64, tarik&co obtained their best result by qualifying for the X-Games in early 2015. A succession of wins over iBUYPOWER (DaZeD, swag, AZK, Skadoodle, Hiko) and Torqued (mOE, steel, montE, tck, dboorn) during the American qualification will offer them a spot in Aspen. And to this tournament, they would not compete as “mouseSpaz”. In the meantime, the team became the first to fly the CLG, Counter Logic Gaming, flag on CS:GO. A renowned organization on League of Legends, that made its first step on Valve’s FPS there.

True to his roots (photo : DreamHack)

At the X-Games, the brand new CLG team gets off to a good start by beating Team-LDLC (Happy, shox, NBK, SmithZz, kioShiMa), defending champions of the DH Winter’s Major just two month ago. A ptr on fire will make a huge impression during this match, but unfortunately the other group stage matches will not end as well. A 5-16 loss against Liquid (adreN, FugLy, nitr0, daps, NAF-FLY) and 7-16 against fnatic (pronax, flusha, JW, olofmeister, KRiMZ). The tournament suddenly ends at the first stage for them, but the roster found its new home for the next year and a half.

tarik will be part of every success of CLG. A surprising victory against fnatic in the opening match of the ESL ESEA Pro League Season 1 Finals, just before reaching the final top 3/4, or this successful group stage run at the MLG Columbus by beating the defending champions -EnVyUs- to play a quarterfinal in front of a home crowd at the Nationwide Arena, or also that victory at the RGN Pro Series or the WinOut.net CS:GO Championship, will eventually establish CLG as one of the best Northern American team.

Month after month, tarik will become one of the best player from the lineup, and one of the most promising player in the US. His adventure with CLG will end soon after his 4th Major, the ESL One Cologne 2016, where he finished on a harsh 1-16 loss against dignitas (MSL, k0nfig, RUBINO, cajunb, TENZKI). tarik will leave the scene, declaring that he wanted to take a step back and focus more on streaming, his first love. But the urge of competition is too great, and it’s too hard to fight against once you already experienced it.

OpTic Gaming, the second part

Only a month after leaving CLG, he gets on board in OpTic Gaming, the second organization that will mark his career. There, he joins daps, NAF-FLY, RUSH, and the up-and-coming Spanish player, mixwell. This roster looks promising, but will soon operate a change and welcome stanislaw back, who was first dismissed in place of daps. All the pieces are now set so that, during two events, OpTic reaches the top.

The first, that will be the ELEAGUE Season 2, with more than a million on the line. OpTic eliminates EnVyUs early in the group stage in a convincing fashion, and then fnatic. Then, in the bracket, everything goes extremely well: mousesports is easily defeated in quarterfinals, FaZe can’t come close enough to compete in semifinals, and true to its reputation, Astralis will choke under the pressure in finals to offer tarik and OpTic their first big title of their respective history.

The biggest trophy ever won by tarik and RUSH… For the moment

The same thing happens again the following week: for the ECS Season 2 Finals, OpTic will once again defeat EnVyUs and FaZe, adding to their hunting trophies Cloud9, and just casually establish themselves as the best American team. Only cloud in the horizon, Astralis will, this time, show a far better face in finals, refusing tarik and his teammates a second title that no one would have even thought possible a few weeks before. The end of the year has significantly raised the standards: in early 2017, OpTic is considered as one of the best team in the world. But despite their new status and a promising future, stanislaw, the leader, will not feel at ease among the team anymore. To everyone’s surprise, he leaves CLG to join Liquid. His departure from the team will hurt CLG really bad. The line-up will never find a fifth player good enough to replace their former leader. Hiko isn’t suitable, jasonR prefers to focus on his stream despite a convincing trial period, and hazed, who became the team’s coach in the meantime, can’t permanently help the team out.

The balance is broken, the roster is lost. And it’s in Cologne that everything will end once again for tarik. Still a somewhat convincing last tournament, ending on a top 5/8 at the Lanxess Arena. Goodbye the GreenWall, and welcome Cloud9’s blue. A new team he will join along with RUSH. C9 has decided to part ways with its mythical duo: Shroud and n0thing. tarik and RUSH will be welcomed by autimatic, Stewie2k and Skadoodle. Many will consider them the best possible North American team. Even though, only a few days after his arrival, tarik was still looking for his upcoming matches under… OpTic. Just goes to show that, even for him, you still had to get used to this change.

Cloud9, the third part

New jersey, new responsabilities

Recruited as a skillful player, tarik will rapidly turn towards another aspect of the game: in-game leading. Just a few weeks after the roster’s creation, he takes the lead and becomes its mastermind. A fructuous choice that will allow Cloud9 to establish themselves even more, month after month. Semifinalists at the ESL One New York and ELEAGUE Premier, champions at the Dreamhack Denver: the formation make its mark.

Once the Major comes, in January 2018 and in the US, C9 is considered as the outsider. However, tarik’s ambitions are clear: he wants to win the Major. An answer one could take lightly as the competition has been going on only since a few days, and his team still hadn’t secured a spot in the top 16. But the matches come and go, days are passing, and Cloud9 is still holding. Even when they are a defeat close to elimination. During the second phase, C9 will successively beat Virtus.Pro, Astralis and Vega Squadron to finally get through the group stage and reach the playoffs.

There, in front of a conquered audience inside the Agganis Arena in Boston, the American superteam will sweep G2 16-8 & 16-7, hold against the tornado SK Gaming 16-3, 7-16 & 16-9, and play an outstanding final match against FaZe. Despite a defeat on the first map that they seemed to have under control at first, C9 will take the second map and blow everything up on the third one. 7 rounds behind FaZe at 7-14, they manage to come back, save four match and Major points at 11-15, and later give up three others at 18-15. But they are still holding against the pressure. The whole team remain calm and tarik excels at keeping the confidence on their side.

His ace at 18-19, with both the AK and the AWP, will light the comeback of four consecutive rounds that will lead Cloud9 to the supreme title, and the relief of a whole country that waited this title for more than four years. Right after the final, HLTV will reward tarik with their MVP title, acquired through as many headshots as genius calls.

Could there be a better ending? Or maybe is it just the beginning?

The one who gained the nickname of “peanut brain” when he was younger because of his incomprehensible moves and the many fails in his matches, proved his detractors wrong once and for all. This “topless Turkish dude” brought an American team for the first time towards the ultimate title. Reaping the harvest of three and a half year of hard work on him and his playstyle. tarik, once a streamer, now a Major champion.

Thanks to SPK for the translation !