zews interview: NAF & Twistzz's growth, shaping Liquid's new foundation, skullz's process

The Brazilian skipper was candid about Liquid's early struggles and their process to get on the same page.

Wilton "⁠zews⁠" Prado returns to Liquid after five years away, a journey that has seen him go through stints with MIBR, Evil Geniuses, O PLANO, Fluxo, retire, and survive a widowmaker heart attack.

The two-time Major winning coach served as the coach of the North American lineup in 2017 and 2018, during which time the team peaked at No. 1 in the world rankings and were consistent title contenders. He coached Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken and Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic during that stint, players with whom he now reunites in Liquid's ambitious rebuild.

Five years away and experience dropping down to lower levels of Brazilian Counter-Strike means zews enters this version of the team humbled, grateful to work with tenured players who can build out a trustworthy foundation as they aim to become the "reference point to others in the scene with how we do it."

Creating that foundation has been a key focus for Liquid since the roster came together, starting with a retreat away from PCs and leading into a bootcamp as they began to build up their chemistry and playbook ahead of the tournament season. zews spoke at length in an interview with HLTV about the importance of creating those relationships outside of the server, going into the team without preconceived notions or prejudice about the players, and the development both in-game and as humans that he sees in NAF and Twistzz, the latter of whom he revealed he scouted to Liquid in 2017.

The Brazilian coach also gave his impressions of Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis, Felipe "⁠skullz⁠" Medeiros, and Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller, going into detail about what the team are doing to integrate the inexperienced Brazilian rifler into a team of veteran talent and whether he has lived up to zews' initial impressions.

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Note: This interview was conducted on January 20, prior to Liquid's IEM Chengdu closed qualifier grand final.

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If the embed above does not load, you can find an audio version of this interview here.

You've had quite the journey back to Liquid. A retirement, surviving a heart attack, trying your hand taking a step down by coaching Fluxo. I wanted to focus more on that last bit — you made the Major with them, but other than that, there were a decent amount of struggles, you said it was a "bad experience" to Janko. Can you expand on that, and on returning now to a top level with Liquid after trying to share your experience elsewhere?

In regards to my ride here, I spent two years retired, and then had a brief 'friends' thing with O PLANO. Going into Fluxo, I actually made the decision that I was going to come back for it, right? And I really wanted it to work. I really liked the players, the support staff in the organization was great, but a lot of what we had talked about, unfortunately, didn't come to fruition.

Inexperience played a big part, that's a lot different when you're trying to manage a project like Fluxo who's starting, but starting from a more grassroots kind of a thing with a foundation you have to build, it's not as structured, everything like that. It was a bad experience because of that, I guess, I had some experience but it's hard to pass and go through when things are just kind of afloat.

Thankfully, it led me to be recognized into going to Liquid. Over there [Fluxo] I had only one goal, which was to qualify them for the Major, did my part there, ended up getting the shaft after that but job done, I guess, in four months.

Liquid picked me up and I couldn't be happier and more thankful because realizing what some of the struggles are over there that aren't necessarily inherent to the players, but more of how the entire scene is, unfortunately, how it was grown back down in South America, I think just put me in a really good, humble position in Liquid to be able to work with people that aren't inexperienced in that sense, are more willing to work toward a common goal and already know how to get there as well.

When you say you got the shaft, what do you mean?

Basically, I had an agreement, right? I only had one goal, which was to get them to the Major, and after that I would be taking some steps back into more of a managerial side. I actually just wanted to be CEO of the Fluxo esports division in itself, but had some metrics to achieve and I achieved them too early. My salary and everything like that would go up and the direction of the project changed, so plans changed from what we agreed.

I know when you talked about moving to Liquid, that was a big factor in not having to worry about the salary negotiations, the managerial aspects, everything being fluid as well.

Yeah, I mean salary is the smallest thing, it's more about the culture, the environment, how things flow in terms of hierarchy, the actual fluidity of the process in itself. There's a lot more structure that's placed so that you can put the emphasis on what is needed, not need to do the entire project overview, you know?

Talking about the structure then, around the formation of this lineup there was a lot of focus placed on building a relationship between the players outside of the server, you did a retreat with Edward Cleland before your bootcamp. Who was the driving force behind making that out-of-server relationship such a priority? How has establishing those connections helped you out early?

For how it went down, it's a collaboration between many personalities and parts in the moving puzzle. Casper [cadiaN] had mentioned that he wanted to do something about getting to know the players outside [the game] since we didn't have that connection, maybe doing something without PCs. In that, I saw an opportunity to make something bigger, make an actual lesson out of it with broader purposes on how we set the foundation for the team.

With that, Edward was already one of the people we were looking at when we were looking at sports psychologists, I had a lot of chats with him, and kinda just let him run with it because I felt this was right up his alley. I gave some direction on what I wanted for the foundation of the team, how I'd ideally like to run this project.

Liquid as an organization with joka [Steve "⁠jokasteve⁠" Perino, Liquid General Manager], higher-up management in Victor [Victor "Nazgul" Goossens, Liquid founder and co-CEO], they heard it out, they listened to all the angles. They thought it could be worthwhile and decided to trust us in doing this because it is something that you have to spend on, you're taking time out of normal practice and everything like that, so it's an unorthodox approach, but everyone just loved the idea, and we went forward with it and honestly we killed it.

What we took from it is now I know my teammates a lot better, I know that they will fight for me and with me, and I'm happy to do that. We understand where we are, we meet each other exactly where we are, we don't try to have unreal expectations not only about results, but about how we're going to handle things. It isn't just what we want to achieve and what our goals are, as high as they are, it's how we want to achieve them, how we want to behave, how we want to get there, and how we want to have that planned out to be efficient. It really was something unforgettable, and I think everyone in the team would agree to that if you asked them, it's something that they loved.

And for you personally, you told Dust2.br that you're a bit of a 'big brother' figure on this team, that you're focused more on the managing personalities aspect, you said you do 20-25% of the tactical stuff and are more focused on the personalities and guiding the team. What kind of perspective did that retreat, and the bootcamp after, give you in regards to managing those personalities and what working with them long-term would be like?

I think I heard Thorin say that I'm kind of the specialist of big personalities and I thought that was funny, but that was the outlook coming into this situation. After the retreat, it's just sped up our process, that's the best way I can describe it, it's a catalyst. All of these things take time, be it inside the server when you're trying to get a strat correct, or trying to understand the thought process or the communication of how to move throughout the map, how to react and things like that, it requires time, it's a synergy thing.

Outside the server, you also have to work with each other. We spend more time with each other than with other people, so the fact that we were able to get so much cleared, very cleanly put out in a planned form and an understanding form, just means that we have a really efficient path toward actually evolving, and that should be our game. Our goal and game is to constantly evolve, learn from our mistakes, it's our work ethic, how we position ourselves, and I think that bootcamp and that retreat set the tone for it.

And now, learning how to deal with them, it's been fairly easy. That's the truth. These guys are pros, they're already seasoned veterans, they have accolades, they have their own styles. The difficulty for us is finding the best ways to put it together, how to make everyone feel comfortable when doing it, how to get these different cultural aspects of communication very quickly toned, keywords, things like that. But that's kind of the fun part to work on you know, you don't need to work on just the emotional part.

So 75% was the expectation right now, not that I need to be doing more tactical stuff, but we're focusing on the evolution part because we did set those things so well.

Can you tell me how that evolution has been going? I know that when cadiaN was on Confirmed he also talked a little about needing to get all the styles of CS on the same page, but that was relatively early on and it's been about a month. How has that fluidity and integration been going?

Well, we're a team that talks, right? We have to talk to each other. The only way we're going to get to a true understanding of how to best incorporate everyone is by fine-tuning and tweaking it, and that requires some honest conversations in regard to things that we enjoy doing, and things that we don't. What do we notice in each other that we think we have to improve on, things like that, and us being open to it.

The fluidity of it is that we're always identifying new things that we have to work on, taking it one step at a time. We're still an early team, as much as everyone likes to put pressure on us. We're very real with the sense that, even though there are amazing talents with experience, with the accolades, it's a brand new experience for everyone and we're not aiming to win just to win some tournaments here and there. We do want to be the team that's a reference point to others in the scene with how we do it, with how many titles we'll win and will come from that. We tend to believe that it's very high, but that requires time again so that's just how our mentality is.

Can you give me an example or two of one of the newest things you've identified that you have to work on, just for something more concrete? When a lot of people talk about this early development, it is in pretty broad strokes, so I'm just wondering what you've nailed down early on right now.

It's hard to get too technical without giving too much away, but we definitely understand how fast or how slow we want to approach each situation. When things are happening to us, are we going to be the aggressor or the defender? There are many different playstyles that we're doing, but that requires communication because from different schools, it's easy for each and every person to think that their way is the most inclusive, or the most correct, because they've had success doing that so in their minds that's how it goes.

The reality that we face is, we like to approach a situation like, okay, Mareks [YEKINDAR], you did this in VP? We'll incorporate this aspect of it, but we'll take this from Casper's run, we'll take this from Russel [Twistzz]'s stint in FaZe and his experience, how he likes to manage this kind of mid-round aggression. skullz, you're an anchor, but we need you to fill in this situation for us, and in this other one you will be more free.

So it's many maps that we're getting into in our map pool, we're identifying all of those very bluntly and realistically, which in past experiences from all of us tends to be a slow process because players in general have a hard time dealing with actually focusing on things that they individually could be doing better, the obvious ones, right?

Those are the things we're doing, with communication, with frustration, with how we position ourselves inside the server and even outside, regarding our actual commitments in life, how we separate life, work and everything like that, it's fine-tuning those kinds of settings. That's speeding up the process, it's putting years of living together into a shorter amount of time, but in a way that it doesn't spill the glass of water, per se, so that [logic] takes care of it and not [emotion].

Last question about the retreat. Going back to a video Liquid published that showed some of the behind-the-scenes, there were a lot of quiet moments of reflection, people writing into their own notebooks, some self-guided stuff. Without going too much into personal detail, can you tell me what that did for you and what some of your takeaways were upon some further reflection?

For me, this team is a mixture of old faces and new faces, so it was a lot of catching up and revisiting the past situations that led to where we're at. I'll say for myself, Russ, and Keith [NAF], we used to play together and work together, had a deep connection there, but we each ended up going our separate ways so it had to go there. It's nice to dot the i's on those things, understand some things with a new perspective that comes with age and time as well. How some things were meant to be and some things we could've definitely done better and thought differently.

In regard to the new players, there are a lot of expectations into how the person is. Like we'll hear about Mareks, 'Oh zews, you're going to have trouble with Mareks because he's hard-headed' and everything like that. And if I had gone with just that prejudice, it would have been hard, but no. Once you get to know him it's actually completely the opposite, so we were able to, with an actual true clean slate, no prejudice, no preconceived notions, actually understand the person, who they are, what they're about, how they like to deal [with things].

We also understand where each other's flaws are so we can meet them halfway. Not everything is going to be perfect and it's not always a right or wrong, sometimes you just have to push through it, either agree to disagree or just bond together, choose a direction, hope it's the right one, and if not we'll try the next one to get it right.

For me personally, it was a really big bonding experience with the entire team, and I know it was for them as well. As a coach, it helped me set the foundation for what I believe an esports team should be, what the standard is of how we behave, how we are seen, how we act with each other in wins and losses, how we focus on practice and everything like that. Not having a computer in front of us actually made the idea be more elaborate than just trying to do it like 2024, put it into 144 characters and that's it. We had plenty of time to go deep into the ideas of what we want so we have a better understanding.

Talking about Mareks, you mentioned you could have had this prejudice, this preconceived notion of who he was. Toward the end of the last Liquid lineup there was a lot of speculation from the community, fans, people from the outside thinking he had full control over this lineup or that it was all on him. Coming into this team and after having some of those conversations, seeing what he's like, what have you gathered and how have your preconceived notions changed?

It just more confirmed what I already believed in, which is don't trust other than your personal experience for most, get guidance, get an overview and things like that.

In Mareks' case, dude, he's amazing, he's one of the most hard-working people I know. He's talented as fuck, just cleanly put, he's really skilled, and he helps out in the communication. I think it was a humbling experience for him being an IGL, he got to see the other side of the coin, but it's not like he was a dictator. There were other factors, there was a coach that was supposed to be helping IGL that had to take control of the situation, in this case, him. His teammates need to have the active voice.

It's an entire environment that's shaped and one person ends up taking the shit blame. We come from the media game in the sense that we know how narratives are shaped and formed, and how perception and stories that the public would like to believe are true end up going a long way.

Any time I join a project, I try to do it with a clean slate, we'll always have our own personal biases and tendencies, but I try to be very open-minded. I wouldn't say that nothing has changed from something I believed in and maybe what I've heard, but that everyone has surprised me very positively in how willing they are to give this a fair shot, give it their full effort, believe in the structure we set up and how we understood it.

Be it through our exercises, be it through our communication, everything that we do we are doing differently, and everyone has bought in. We're in this together, so that's what's changed for me, is just confirming that it's supposed to be us as a group, not compared to what everyone else may think.

Speaking of everyone buying in and these preconceived notions, cadiaN said on Confirmed that he was surprised NAF was willing to buy into these team-building exercises, the internal conversations, building a relationship outside of the server. He said it 'doesn't seem like a Keith thing to do.' You coached him for about a year, you also coached Twistzz and I'll ask you about that after, but can you tell me about what development you've seen in NAF personally and in-game?

Keith has been one of the ones who surprised me the most in terms of his evolution. When I had first worked with Keith, he was a superstar player, he had a very hard mind, he was very set in things that he believed, but he didn't stir the pot, rock the boat, anything like that.

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Recently, since FalleN left, Keith has described himself as a soldier, someone who was always able to adapt to the situation and fix it. I think that in the 2018 Liquid, that was true in-game, but out-of-game Keith was still very young and learning how to deal with the teammate aspect.

Nowadays, he's actually one of the reference points at meetings where he's like, 'No, we're not getting out of this room until you solve this, what the fuck do you mean?' kind of a thing. He has an active voice that pierces the room through experience.

He gives really good advice to Felipe [skullz] and he's just generally bought into the process which, when Casper says it's 'not a Keith thing to do,' it's because Keith is just chill, you know? His off day is going to be him relaxing with his girlfriend, watching a movie, maybe going to dinner or something like that, whereas everyone else might want to go do some sports on the beach or something like that.

So for him to be buying in with how we're doing things right now in terms of these micro activities that we're doing and him being fully involved, and not only involved but leading forces in some moments, I think that's what surprised me the most about Keith as a human. It's how he's grown and he's just wise in his own way, because Keith will always be Keith.

Touching on Russ a bit, he's had a lot of success on FaZe in the last two years, and even the old Liquid lineup after you left. What have you seen from him?

So Russ, like I said, I have a very deep and close connection to him, a relationship. I scouted him for Liquid back in 2017 and he was super young, 16 turning 17. The evolution that he's had really makes me proud, because he is the person who can identify his own mistakes faster than anyone else, like if he did something during a match or didn't act a certain way, didn't uphold some values, he will admit it about himself and know to work on it.

He's very driven, he's always been a work-ethic example of a person, so to me he's one of, if not the star of this team in the sense that everyone looks up to him. The accolades that he has, what he portrays and values, he's very well-spoken in what he believes and following his heart in what's correct. He puts in the work, he puts in the guidance in helping others' shape and everything like that.

Russ is still in the process and I can only imagine what he'll be in three years, but given how much has already happened he's already one of, if not the best, example of an actual athlete. Someone who's been raised to perform from the beginning and keeps doing it to a high level, even when people don't see him as the star, per se, in other teams when he more than clearly has the talent to be that star.

Going on to Felipe then, you talked about your initial impressions of him with Dust2.br and how he rose up your list based on the qualities he showed in your conversations. You also mentioned that creating an environment for talents like him to rise is difficult. Now, a little over a month into the project, what has it been like actually working with him, playing officials and seeing how he responds to his performances?

I maintain my opinion. He surprised me in the beginning with his mindset, how he works and just how polite and educated he is in regards to listening to situations, filtering information, deciding what he's going to focus on. His in-game relationships and out-of-game relationships with everyone else is exceptional, he's the kind of kid that everyone wants to be around. He's always playing ping pong with someone, asking something, or just hanging and chilling.

He does a lot for the team environment, I think that's something that normally you kind of soft expect from the rookie, that he's going to fire up and motivate everyone, but normally you only expect it to be in-game. When he's doing it out-of-game, I think that's something amazing about Felipe that's come along, and his learning process.

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He's very aware that it is a learning process for him, at least in the beginning where he's trying to soak up as much information as possible. And again, that seems very easy on paper and in theory, but when every day you have someone telling you what to do, what you can do better, how you can evolve, and for you to actually be able to put aside your ego, in that sense, and just filter it and actually use it to evolve in a productive way, it requires a lot.

That's been his main focus here, and he's been getting really comfortable. Everything is new, new teammates, new language, new playstyle because paiN was very structured whereas here, we're a little bit more free-flowing with the actual talents' opportunity to arise in the situation. His evolution curve is extremely high, I'm excited to see where it'll get, but I think Felipe is here for the long run with us.

You haven't had a lot of pressure quite yet, there was obviously the RMR qualifiers, but outside of that no big LANs. How much management do you see having to do with Felipe considering he's the most inexperienced in terms of that pressure, potentially making it to big stages, and the expectations that surround a lineup like Liquid?

Two parts. In regard to the expectation, we treat every match and every practice day kind of the same. It's one of the big secrets that people who have won at the highest levels and maintain it realize. You can't treat things differently. It's about setting a precedent and a routine for every day, it's discipline that you have to fall into.

So it doesn't change much in regard to the setting, other than of course when we get to the arenas. There will be pressure there, but we're very well-conditioned that our opinions are the most important when it comes to how we regard the team internally and how we handle it. We realize that it's not going to be perfect from the beginning and that we have to get better, we shouldn't expect only wins, so we're kind of setting the tone for how to handle it.

For pressure, I just disagree because for some reason in this lineup- not for some reason, I kind of get it of course with the names that you see, but we're 17-1 and we lost a map to M80 when Mareks was just like, throwing up after every map, our PCs were lagging out with the anti-cheat, people dropping [from the server], everything that could have gone wrong. We tilted a little bit, even fell to ourselves in that we let everything like the tiredness get in our way. People not only bashed us for that, but we're 17-1 and they're saying, 'Ah, they're not winning convincingly,' so it's not enough to win, you actually have to get... [trails off]

[Editor's note: This interview was conducted prior to Liquid's Chengdu qualifier loss to M80.]

So there's always going to be pressure, it's about us offloading that pressure. Whatever people are saying from the outside, we have to, in a very nice way — I think you get it — ignore it, and use it to your advantage. If it's good, soak it in, if it's negative, just let it fly by.

Absolutely, but as you said, some of those games were close, they weren't completely clean. I know the goal must have been to make it through and that you're happy that you qualified for the RMR, but can you tell me about those games and what caused them to be so close, outside of the M80 one where you had some of the issues you talked about, and what the environment was like during the run?

Yeah, of course, and just to clarify it wasn't only against M80. Unfortunately, we had to buy five new PCs, set them up. It was against every match we were having but in some it spiked a lot with the anti-cheat, we don't know what was going on.

But what happened was that we're a team that's growing. Of actual practice, I think we started the open qualifiers with maybe 17 or 18 days of actual practice inside the server. When trying to incorporate a full map pool with actual well-drilled timings of flashes, many variations of plays and reactions and how we want to do them, while learning the new style and adapting to language... it really isn't a lot that we've had to work with, and that's even more generous than other teams have had, but we're a brand new project.

Date	Matches
PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 NA RMR Closed Qualifier
13/01/2024	Nouns Finished 10:13 Liquid	Match
13/01/2024	M80 Finished 13:3 Liquid	Match
14/01/2024	Liquid Finished 13:11 Badass	Match
15/01/2024	Party Astronauts Finished 0:2 Liquid	Match

So what's happening is really just a learning curve. It's learning to deal with some of the outside circumstances that happen that unfortunately we can't control, and it's on us. We agreed to play like that, we are aware, so we have to take responsibility and learn how to deal with it.

In regards to the mistakes that we're missing or not understanding some communication, it's a learning process, we're aware that it's going to take time. We're very steadily growing into it, whether it's weaker opposition or not, it works in our favor because actual match repetition means we're getting into the rhythm of competing. We've played every match — other than maybe some last rounds when we're 11-0 doing five AWPs or something like that — we're trying to take it seriously, focus on the communication because we're using it as effective practice for those larger tournaments and arenas.

What has happened specifically? Each round will have its own thing, sometimes will be just a miscommunication, over-aggression, it can be a bad whiffed duel, it can even be some strat that we were caught off guard because the other teams do have their merits as well. What matters to us is that we're not taking it too big, we're just considering it a learning curve, 13-11, 13-0, we went for the win, we got it.

Talking about the leadership in these games, it's been a while since you were in a team helmed by an IGL at a top, top level. What has it been like working with cadiaN both as a personality and as an in-game leader? Obviously some comparisons can be drawn between FalleN who you worked with before as an AWP-IGL too.

I've really enjoyed being back working with a leader that actually takes command of the situation. I think that's one of the most overlooked aspects of in-game leading that people see, it's the actual leadership, not just the captain style of what strat he's bringing but how he leads the team.

In regards to the strats inside the game: Which strats we'll run, what's our playstyle, how we'll react, and being able to have an active voice to command a Twistzz, a YEKINDAR, a NAF, which are big names, and say, 'Hey, no, stop doing this and do this,' you have to have personality, so I've loved working with Casper there.

I think that a lot of what at least I saw from the community and from others, people who say, 'Ah, it has to be fake,' like yesterday we're winning the map, there's no cameras, nothing, he wins the clutch and he's dancing on the chair, things like that. He's someone that moves the personality and it's easy to want to work with him, and for him in this case from all the players who have buy-in.

For me with similarities to FalleN, it comes into that leadership. AWPing styles, I think Casper is a little bit different, he likes to search for the game, be active, command. FalleN was more about teaching, Casper, not that he doesn't teach, but it's also more in the moment of how he likes to lead. It's in the situations, but that means he grows under pressure and I'm sure he will perform in the greater stages.

I just love Casper, I think he's a great human being. I think a lot of the flak he gets is because the community just doesn't understand who he is, and the ones who like him see that he actually is just that extroverted and crazy. He's a great guy, great captain, and that's not just PR talk. I think everyone is really glad to have him on the team and we couldn't have gotten something better. And now, Casper gets really good teammates as well that he can lead and play alongside that can help him along the way.

There's a lot less teaching needed in that way too, compared to FalleN, with the amount of experience that's on this lineup. But in that regard as well, skullz is inexperienced, so who is taking charge of that aspect? Is it self-driven by him, or is there somebody who's stepped up to mentor him more in some of those aspects?

Over here it's all a collaboration, it's hard to pinpoint just one person. Casper gives a lot of the corrections mid-scrim, during tournaments we do review as a team after where everyone gives opinions. Russ sits next to him so he's always giving little tweaks. Mareks and him are just great friends right now, they're bonded at the hip almost, so they're always discussing about the game be it at dinner, over ping pong, thinking about ways to incorporate different playing styles. Sometimes it's even more macro than an individual play.

Edward, myself, and joka, specifically, have always been trying to give him that emotional support, understanding the change of cultures, what he needs, how to say something, how to filter something different that was said. It's a joint effort. Everyone is doing everything for him as well, but it's for each other, right? As much as he's inexperienced, he brings a lot to the table because he is a CT specialist, if people aren't aware. He has a style where he's able to knock 'em down and hold his own, so we're giving him the freedom as well and he's teaching us some things in that.

Turning the attention to some of the games you have been playing, you had that bootcamp in Europe at the start of the roster, but recently you've been playing North America for these qualifiers. Can you tell me about the practice and the officials you've been playing here? NA practice was pretty rough for a couple of years, not that it's amazing now, but we are starting to see some new teams, some new names, start to establish themselves. You have Complexity who are known and have obviously done well, but then you have teams that are coming up like M80, Wildcard, and Nouns, so what has your impression been of them and what they're doing?

One thing that I'm loving to see here in the North American scene right now is passion, and you actually have teams that are putting in the work hours, practicing, and practicing correctly. The quality has been better than expected for sure. The thing that's still lacking here is the quantity, you can have quality practices every day but it will get repetitive soon within the week if you're still choosing the same teams and things like that.

In terms of tournaments, I think everyone was positively surprised by the teams that were signing up to these qualifiers, especially the RMR, things like that. It's nice to see the scene start to revitalize, we have new talents that are starting to pop up on the radar. North America deserves it, deserves to have teams representing, and it's traditional. Even though people used to meme on it, it's always been a vital part of Counter-Strike in general.

So for our feeling, we're feeling it's starting to get on the right path, we hope that the development leagues and development of talent pools keep growing, they keep having opportunities to go out, because we will be seeing more names from the Americas popping off in CS2.

Are there any players or teams that have really stood out to you?

Yeah, I mean you can obviously talk about JBa and Swisher, I think they're doing a phenomenal job. That dea AWPer is playing really well as well. Those three stand out to me. stanislaw has been doing a really good job in-game leading the Wildcard team, they've been playing some tough matches and things like that. In general, they're starting to scatter pieces everywhere and it's going to be interesting when all these pieces unite.

How does it compare to some of the practice in Brazil in South America? That was also suffering a little bit, but I'm not sure what the exact level is over there compared to NA now.

South America has developed a lot as well. In my experience there with Fluxo, we did bootcamp more outside. There is more quantity of teams there, but you end up getting more consistent, quality practice in [North] America because over there, the variation is way too high because of the amount of teams. Sometimes you will have bad teams to practice which are more loose and don't actually help you practice, it's more on them running around the server. In that sense, it's still a little bit behind.

In the infrastructure, I'd still like to see the organizations giving more bootcamps and more practice periods to teams outside because that's how I learned to grow as an athlete. You have to practice your game outside against the best to actually be the best, understand how they think and how it works, but it's an interesting scene to practice. Let's say if there's going to be an event in Brazil for 15 days, you're going to have decent practice there, so that fits already something that before we didn't have, and that's pretty cool.

Turning the attention back to Liquid a little bit, you're about to have your first big LAN appearance at BLAST Spring Groups where Spirit, your first opponent, won't be at full force. For Liquid, you won't be at IEM Katowice just because the team didn't have any ranking points, so this will be your only real test on LAN before the RMR. How are you approaching the event and what has the focus been on ahead of it?

The focus ahead of it has been on these qualifiers, one step at a time. We still have to finish out today, our Chengdu qualifier here, our finals, then we will focus on that.

[Editor's note: Liquid lost the grand final 1-2 to M80.]

We do have a support staff who have already looked at our teams, our opposition. It's unfortunate about Spirit and what's happening with the visa situation, out of our control.

Our expectation for BLAST is pretty simple: It's to play good CS the same way we're doing here, to keep evolving. It's not going to be an event where we're playing just to showcase, we want to keep improving and growing during the event in itself. It's where we'd like to see ourselves peak in this very initial part of the season, let's call it, before the RMR because we don't have Katowice.

We'd like to qualify and not have to play the Showdown, I think that would be a really cool goal for us, but no expectations set. It's more on the quality of play that we bring and how we position ourselves there.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024
24/01/2024	Spirit 14:35 Liquid	Match

Is not attending Katowice a huge blow to the team?

Yeah, I mean morally it is because we all wanted to be there, right? Because Katowice is such a staple and marquee event, it would be cool to play in one of those stages, potentially to get to play in front of the crowd before heading into the RMRs and Majors and things like that, but everything happens for a reason, and all in due time. We accepted it already, it is what it is, we'll be rooting for our friends there and we'll use it as time to actually prepare ourselves so that we show up when it matters.