Twistzz: "Our practices went really well and it's definitely going to show"

We briefly spoke with Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken following Liquid's sweep over MIBR in Group A at ELEAGUE Premier 2018 to talk about their mishap in Cologne and expectations in Atlanta before heading into the player break.

Liquid are coming into Atlanta after a disappointing run at ESL One Cologne, and came out strong on Inferno to get ahead on MIBR's map pick, before capping things off on Cache, with Twistzz leading the way with 98.7 ADR and a 1.63 rating in the sweep.

Following Liquid's victory, we sat down with the 18-year-old Canadian to talk about what went wrong in Cologne, preparations coming into ELEAGUE Premier, Wilton "⁠zews⁠" Prado's absence, and team goals set heading into the player break.

We spoke with nitr0 back at Belo Horizonte following the teams' semifinal exit and he mentioned that you guys felt stale. Regarding your group stage exit a couple of weeks ago, do you think this was the issue going into Cologne as well?

It was more of having a lack of practice. The week of the event we could have come up with new things for Cologne, but I had health issues and I still have health issues. TACO was having visa issues as well, so our entire week was taken up and it was hard for us to schedule practice properly and find time to make new things. We went into the tournament not confident, like, none of us were plying individually. We all tried our best but we knew it was going to be hard.

Despite the circumstances going into Cologne, what are some of the preparations you guys took heading into Atlanta.

This event we had roughly a week to prepare and we were really efficient, we got a lot of new stuff down. Number one is the mentality, and obviously, Cologne was a mishap. It really shook some of my teammates, so it was a wake-up call for us to start practicing harder than ever. We see what other teams are doing now, and there was no excuse for us not to be doing the same thing, so we put in a lot of hard work and the mindset of the team has changed 'cause we are playing more motivated. We are going to look really good here.

Talking about preparations. zews, unfortunately, could not attend due to health issues. How much did that impact you guys coming into this event?

He wasn't really able to help us online while we were practicing or during our scrims. So, this event we just prepared without him. He still analyzes other teams to try and help up our game even though he doesn't have to 'cause he's going through a lot of stuff right now. We are going to try our hardest without him here.

Let's talk a little bit about the match. You remained in control on Inferno, MIBR's map pick, and secured the win convincingly. However, going into your map pick, Cache, you guys struggled at first but brought it back. What was going wrong on your CT-side?

We had a pretty bad start with our pistol messing up a pretty easy situation. In the second round, we had a game plan on what we wanted to do, but two of our teammates didn't listen and so again we messed up. It got to some of my teammates head right away so we knew this was going to be harder than expected, but after we won the first round we just got motivated and more energized. Also, when you are doing retakes I feel as if it's a confidence booster, like, knowing when they have control of the site and you can retake it, it's a confidence booster as CTs.

Despite the results from Cologne, you guys came into Atlanta and swept MIBR in the Group A opener. How are you guys feeling now after this win?

I felt really good. I would say it was expected (laughs), but our practices went really well and it's definitely going to show throughout the tournament.

This is the last event before the player break, what are some team goals set as we draw closer to the Major? Do you have any individual goals set for yourself?

Stay positive. Sometimes we have a lot of negativity in the team and it can really affect some of us in a bad way. So far everyone has been super positive. We all have been in the practice room 24/7 with each other and I think that is really important. We have been going out and eating together 'cause doing things together as a team brings the team mood up. That's what we have been changing and I'm hoping that stays the same after the player break.

Individually, I am going to try and play throughout the entire break. Not really use it as a break but rather just grind through it.