NAF on EG: "Liquid is light-years ahead of this organisation"

Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic gave his frank opinion on nearly joining Evil Geniuses in 2022 in an interview with Alex "⁠Mauisnake⁠" Ellenberg.

NAF has been one of the most consistent North American players over the past few years. Not only was he part of the Grand Slam-winning Liquid side of 2019, to this day he still regularly performs against elite European opposition. His team has not always been so strong in recent history however, as they struggled with a roster featuring Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo and Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince in 2021.

Such were these troubles that NAF nearly joined Evil Geniuses at the end of 2021, but he ultimately chose to stick with Liquid, and the latest lineup featuring Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis and Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm is back on an upward trajectory after a rocky start to 2023.

NAF sat down recently for an interview with Mauisnake to give some insight into why the team started 2023 slowly, why the 2021 lineup struggled and how oSee has helped change the tide, and what happened with his near-move to Evil Geniuses in 2022.

The interview kicked off with NAF addressing a range of historical topics, touching on the -FLY part of his tag, his approach to practice when he first started playing, his time on OpTic, and the Liquid Grand Slam win.

The discussion then moved to more recent events, starting with the Canadian providing some information as to how Liquid approached the return from the most recent player break.

"The official break would end on the 16th or 17th and we took a break all the way up until the 10th or 11th, and then played scrims for a little under a week and played BLAST," the rifler detailed.

The short preparation time would help explain Liquid's rocky showing at the BLAST Spring Groups, and he explained further by saying "we had a different mindset going into BLAST, we were like 'if we mess up here, it's not the end of the world, if we want to try new things, now is the time.' We don't want to try things at Katowice, that would be the dumbest thing ever."

Conversation then turned to oSee, and NAF provided his opinions not only on why oSee settled into Liquid well, but why the inexperienced AWPer's addition went better than that of Grim the year prior.

"When oSee first joined the team I think he was a pretty good influence, and just listening to how he would talk and the way he would bring things, he would be more confident," NAF opined. "Whereas when we picked up Grim, we said 'you're just going to play anchor roles, just listen to what people have to say.'"

Mauisnake quipped in reply "it felt like from the outside it was a shut up and don't eff this up for the rest of us," to which NAF responded "that's unfortunately how it was."

NAF went on to emphasise oSee's improvement since he joined, stating that "during the start he was more uncomfortable, he didn't have a lot of experience playing against full tier-one opponents… but as of recently he has been doing really well." He finished by saying "I think we have more oSee to see."

The final leg of the interview began with Mauisnake enquiring about NAF's rumoured potential move to Evil Geniuses at the start of 2022. Not only did the Canadian refuse to hold back as to why he turned down the transfer, but also gave a glimmer of insight as to why Liquid were so dysfunctional in 2021.

"I didn't want to play with Liquid towards the end of 2021" the rifler began. "I was having some issues with how the team was being run, how it operated at times, how some players could act sometimes.

"When I was talking to EG management… that was some of the worst management I think I have ever talked to, probably in my life," NAF continued, providing a damning assessment of the North American organisation.

"They are clearly not handling their team properly at all… I was like: Liquid is light-years ahead of this organisation and I would be an idiot to go and join this team."

To close the interview, NAF gave some thoughts as to his future in Counter-Strike, saying he holds a desire to "maybe play on a European team in the future."

"I think that would be a lot of fun," NAF mused. "You can see the inspiration with Twistzz and what he's done on FaZe, he's done a phenomenal job and I spend a lot of time talking with him… I hope one day I get to play on a top European team."