Twistzz: "The team is showing how wide the skill level is, that everyone can do anything"

After FaZe joined G2 in the grand final of IEM Katowice, Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken spoke to us about making things work while playing with a stand-in and the title deciding best-of-five.

Despite having to deal with Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool missing out the beginning of the group stage and Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard later sitting out the playoffs due to positive COVID cases, FaZe have surprised everyone as they have remained more than competitive with Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage filling in, now advancing to the grand final of the event following a one-sided semi-final bout with HEROIC.

After the match against the Danes, we talked to Twistzz by the Spodek Arena stage to find out how it has been from his point of view to deal with the situation and constantly changing positions and what he sees as the biggest reasons why FaZe have put on such a high level despite the difficult circumstances.

The Canadian star touched on the upcoming grand final match against G2, which will pose a new challenge to the team as they'll play a best-of-five series, potentially still with jks standing in, unless rain is cleared to play in time.

I called karrigan a master of solutions yesterday because of what you've had to go through these stand-in situations, and I'd like to get your thoughts on that too. How have you managed to put on such a show with jks now playing in different positions again?

Honestly, I think what karrigan is doing with us, and the team itself is showing how wide the skill level is on this team, that everyone can do anything on the team and do it exceptionally well. We always talk every night about which spots would jks play if Havi doesn't play, what happens then, who moves where... For Nuke, I was an outside player before on the team originally, so it wasn't new to me. And karrigan has a history of doing pretty good with stand-ins, I have to say.

You had to switch around a few positions, right?

Yeah, of course. We kind of slotted him in wherever he feels comfortable. At the beginning of the event I was supposed to be playing short and ropz playing con, and when he joined the team I was the con player previously, so it makes sense if he plays short. Two weeks of practice on short doesn't really matter anymore, I had to go back to con, and then ropz comes back and I have to play short again... It's kinda like whatever, playing outside Nuke, moving spots around, but it's fine, it shows how good all of us are.

Was it a surprise to you how easy especially this semi-final was?

I think our confidence is really high, and not having any pressure, we're kinda just playing for rain and doing our best and putting on a good show. A lot of the praise is owed to karrigan and broky because they're on an absolute tear together. They both have amazing calls, but so far our T sides this event have been phenomenal, and you really wouldn't expect that from a team with a stand-in. We look really structured, it feels like when we're in the game communication is great. And for broky, he's playing lights out right now, some of the best CS I've ever seen him play. He's making good calls, micromanaging well, and I'm proud to be his teammate.

Tomorrow, the best of five is a big question mark, are you going to be able to match up to G2 across such a big map pool?

Yeah, that's going to be a fun one, having to prepare a BO5 with a stand-in, or playing with Havi again, we honestly don't know. Our map pool was going to change today based on who played, and tomorrow it's BO5, so it doesn't matter, people ban their permabans and you play all five. I'm super stoked to play in that final.

How do you approach situations like this mentally, not really knowing what's going to happen with who is playing?

I think it takes a lot of humor and positivity. Our team is full of jokes and happiness, and we're all staying up late. It kinda feels like a LAN party in our bootcamp room the whole time, we're playing retakes, or even prop hunt up until like 5 AM, we're just hanging out being friends. I think what we're doing outside of the game is transferring on stage.