Twistzz: "I'm just happy to be here because people say we shouldn't even be here"

We caught up with the Canadian rifler after his game-ending 1vs2 clutch against Monte in the first round of the Paris Major.

FaZe, who barely made the Major through the European RMR's last chance qualifier, have now gone up after defeating the top-seeded Monte in their opening best-of-one.

It wasn't a walk in the park for the international superteam, who had to go a full 30 against Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev and company on Ancient. In the end pulled through due to a variety of individual plays, including a 1vs2 clutch by Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken that put an end to the match in the final round of regulation.

Twistzz took a moment after the map to talk about being in Paris after a tough route in the RMR, his game-ending clutch, and the joy of playing different teams than they are used to, such as the aforementioned Monte, or paiN, whom they will face in the second round of best-of-ones.

First things first, that last clutch, you're proving over and over that those are situations you thrive in. Run me through that last 1vs2.

It was just easy, it was a situation that ended up in practice, in our bootcamp, a couple of times. I read the situation, I made sure to let him plant the bomb and let him clear the angle. I think he cleared the angle that I came out of and his teammate was in the off-angle, so I knew I slipped through the gap. Then yeah, I basically knew where both players were and it wasn't so difficult. Let's not over hype the clutch, it was good, but there's better ones.

It's good to see you get these match-ending moments. I heard somebody shout at the end of the match 'oh, what's this top seed?'

Yeah, I said that.

Tell me about that energy at the end of the match.

It's just funny, you know, to come into the event as the last seed. People are [saying] like, we shouldn't even be here right now. Which, in some scenarios, they're probably right, but yeah. Now it's just fun to feel like every team we play is an upset. I think we're starting to have fun.

We're in a high-pressure environment again, it's the first thing you mentioned when you walked up to the mixed zone. Tell me a bit about that sentiment.

What I mean by that is that I feel like in Rio there wasn't any pressure, we were just exhausted and couldn't feel the game the way we wanted to. When you play a bootcamp you're more having fun, working on things together, and you just want to improve. When you come here there's something you actually have to work towards and win, so you feel every game differently that you would in practice and that's the first thing I notice when we start these games.

Comms are a bit more chaotic or hyped, or more in the mood to win — in part because people still want to win, but more importantly want to improve on things. So coming here, you feel something inside of you kicking in and everyone around you has the same feeling, they just want to win.

First match, 1-0, great start. But it was 16-14, there were some dodgy moments. What were the margins that you got over Monte?

Probably some individual moments, ropz's 4k in donut was a huge play, the 1vs2 at the end, rain kept us alive on the T-side, he had some very important rounds and was responsible for like three of the rounds we won. It's good. They had good individual performances, but I think we delivered in key moments.

FaZe moments. Does that give you confidence looking at your next match coming up now, which will be against paiN?

Is it confirmed?

Yeah, it's the only way bracket can work.

It's just nice to play new teams compared to what we played before. At multiple events in a row we would just play the same teams: Heroic, G2, NAVI... So it's nice to come to an event and you get to play different teams, different names. I'm looking forward to it. Honestly, I'm just happy to be here because people say we shouldn't even be here.