EliGE: "We got a little bit stale on our good maps"

In the aftermath of Liquid's group stage exit at ESL One Cologne, we spoke to Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski about the team's recent months and the busy schedule they have had.

Liquid didn't live up to expectations at the tournament in Germany as they lost their first two matches, against BIG and North, and finished in a disappointing 13-16th place at the event

In our interview, we quizzed EliGE about burnout, practice issues, roles and more.

Recapping the last events you had: the final at ESL Pro League, quarters at StarSeries, where you lost to NRG, the final at ECS and then the semi-finals at Belo Horizonte. Combining all of that, how happy were you guys with what you had achieved before Cologne?

Obviously, we weren't really happy because in Belo Horizonte we should've had a way better result, I think we were super disappointed with that result. StarSeries, we were super disappointed as well, but if we are to pick two tournaments to do really good at, I think I would definitely pick ESL and ECS, to get second places at both of those. I think those were super-huge tournaments to place well at. Obviously, it's disappointing to not win anything, but overall I think it was a good four weeks.

Playing all of those events, you perhaps weren't getting burnt out but did it feel that you just didn't have enough time to practice and prepare? That other teams got a read on what you were doing?

I don't think that it was other teams getting more of a read, I think that we have got a little bit stale on our good maps, and I think that started to show as the weeks started going on and on. And our worse maps didn't have time to get better. We still have a lot more things to do with our map pool and we will be developing that over this period between now and ELEAGUE. That's going to be one of our main focuses because I think we weren't able to really develop that during the four weeks and it's one of the main problems when you go back-to-back-to-back in a bunch of tournaments. That's why I personally don't like going to a bunch of tournaments like that. I think that having a week and a half or two weeks in between to fix things that you need to or put in strats that you need to, I think that's the most optimal strategy.

From what was posted on social media, the time between Belo Horizonte and this against wasn't something that you could use ideally and practice, there were some issues. Can you tell me a bit about that?

TACO had to stay in Brazil because of a visa problem and he didn't have his own setup at home, so he had to play with super-high ping and go to his friend's house to practice, he wasn't able to get in a bunch of individual practice with that. And also, there were some doctor appointments which were unable to be moved for some people. That was impacting our practice as well. So we weren't able to put in a bunch of time and put in the practice to fix the mistakes we needed to in between.

Coming here, I guess you weren't satisfied with how you prepared for Cologne?

We were definitely super unsatisfied with our preparation, we didn't come into the tournament thinking that we were going to win it, but, obviously, our results were way worse than any of us expected and we all came out of it even more disappointed. I think that if we did a little bit better it wouldn't be too bad, but it definitely shines a light that we really need to fix a bunch of things, and we will be super prepared to do that as soon as we come back from this tournament.

I think that after Belo Horizonte there were talks of some role changes on the team. Has any of that materialized, how are you feeling about your roles on the team right now?

We didn't change any roles really, the only thing we really changed was on Mirage TACO went from being the lurker on A to taking mid control with us. That was the only thing that ended up changing, and I think we still have a lot more to do on Mirage because, as I said before, when we were on the four weeks of tournaments back-to-back we got a little bit stale on our good maps. Even though we started very strongly with our Mirage, it was one of our stronger maps at the start of that period, it ended up a lot worse.

That's what I also felt, watching both you guys and mousesports, both of you had your best maps, Mirage was one of them, and they are just not that good anymore, it felt like it was just from playing too much...

In my opinion, I don't think that going to a bunch of tournaments is the best practice, I think that having time to go over things before, in a standard practice day, where you have the one hour, two hours before practice, set an objective to work on things during scrims, I think that's the best way to get things done. I think both of us [mousesports and Liquid] were going through a bunch of tournaments and we ended up getting a little bit stale in the things that we do. I think that was one of the problems why both of our Mirages have got kind of bad.

You and nitr0 have been on Liquid for a very long time, with a lot of different rosters, players, some of them very good, on paper at least, but you still have not managed to reach an elite status, except maybe for short periods of time. Do you think that there is something that ties all of those rosters together in that sense?

No, I don't think that there is some factor that is consistent among all of the rosters, I think that every single roster had its own issues and own problems. We've been doing our best to address those issues as they come up. I think that, right now, the way our team is, we are at the strongest that we've ever been, in terms of all the players, I think that there aren't really many issues, as there were in the past. Some of the issues in the past were really huge and hard to overcome, but now I feel like anything is able to be overcome with this roster. So I'm really excited about the future.

You obviously didn't have a great Cologne, this isn't going to be happening in two weeks at ELEAGUE?

No, for sure, you are going to be expecting a way stronger Liquid coming out, we have a lot more things that we need to fix that we are going to be implementing, and I'm super excited to be able to play in two weeks at ELEAGUE.