Twistzz on ultimate: "The sky is the limit for him"

The Canadian IGL heaped praise on his teammate after yet another win.

Liquid have locked up a spot in the group stage of IEM Cologne 2024 after a hard-fought 2-1 victory over FURIA. It's the fifth win in a row for Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken's troops, who are carrying on the momentum from their undefeated BLAST Fall Groups run.

Roland "⁠ultimate⁠" Tomkowiak played a key role in Liquid's victory with a stellar performance on Nuke (1.32 rating) and a 1v2 clutch on Mirage late in the game. He ended the Play-In as Liquid's highest-rated player (1.21) and earned praise from Twistzz. "Considering he can rifle and AWP, the sky's the limit for him," the Canadian told HLTV after the match.

The competition will get much tougher from now on for Liquid, but Twistzz is not fazed and said that his team will take it match by match."Until, you know, maybe you'll see us in the arena."

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Twistzz, this was your fifth match with this roster and your fifth victory. The win streak continues. Things are looking pretty good, don't you think?

Yeah, of course, I'm very proud of my players. Obviously, we put in as much work as we could. Barely like, I don't know, three days after my wedding, we were instantly in the server. I finished the whole playbook before that, and then from there on out, we just used the playbook and improved on things throughout the weeks leading up to the events.

I knew what we were building was going to be strong, but to say it has surpassed my expectations… I mean, to be honest, I didn't make expectations. But I'm just very happy with the performances that we're putting in and the individuals are… You just feel, like, passion in the room.

Can you walk me through the series? Because that first map was a little bit rough, but it seemed that you improved as the series went on.

Yeah, I'm not going to lie, I was a bit caught off-guard about Anubis being let through by them because our pick was going to be Ancient. I could say they had a good game plan on it. They played differently compared to the other teams we've faced on Anubis. From there on out I was a bit excited to finally get to play some T side Nuke, had a good CT side comeback as well, and then was also excited to play Mirage, after our defeat to NAVI on it. Yeah, only good things to say.

You've had some very close games with this roster, and it seems that every time you manage to pull through in the end. I guess that shows the team's resilience at the moment.

Yeah. I mean, that's the whole mental part of the game, right? I've told these guys multiple times, like, 'It's okay to make mistakes. I want us to just play the game. Play the way you want to play.' And as long as they're listening to me and they still make their own moves and have initiative, I'm happy. That's really all I tell them before games. Win or lose, I just want to play good CS together and enjoy the game. And so far, it's been like this every series.

Some might say this is just a honeymoon period, but I think one of the most interesting aspects about the team is that you've picked up victories on pretty much every map in the pool. I guess that speaks to the work that everyone has been putting in.

Yeah, of course. That was, like, my whole intention coming out of the player break, to have a deep map pool to kick off the first two events of the year. Some could say that we're still missing things, at least I feel that way, and we're having to do our best now without having time to practice and continue adding things on the fly. But yeah, I'm happy to display a strong map pool to start off. I think it's fun, every time we're moving to a new T side, like on a map, I'm just like: 'Finally I get to call on a new map.'

ultimate had a very impactful series. He had that clutch now on Mirage towards the end, and overall he's been one of your best-performing players in this tournament. You were the one who picked him, you said that he passed your eye test. You must be pretty happy about the decision you made, right?

[laughs] I mean, I was already happy the first day I talked to him. Before, you know, saying to Liquid that this was the guy. My first interview with him, I was just super, super happy. It gave me the vibes that I was looking for. From all the demo watching and everything, I knew the player I was getting, and I'm just happy that he has found a lot of comfort with us and enjoys us as people.

And how far do you think that he can go? Because he seems to be very good, not just with the AWP, but also with rifles. He's had some clutches with rifles in this tournament.

Oh yeah. I mean, considering he can rifle and AWP, the sky's the limit for him. I think it's more about making sure that in my system and what I'm creating, it's always fresh and something new for him and that he understands the control and power that he has in the team. I think he can only evolve and go from here, and it's also our job to make sure that he stays on this track and that we also help him improve.

You're now going to the group stage, where competition will be much tougher. You said you had no expectations heading into this tournament, but considering how much you've progressed since the team was put together, how far do you expect to go?

Everything's a new goal, right? Honestly, it's just one map at a time, one match at a time, until we make it wherever, whenever. For BLAST, there were no expectations. Even when we beat NAVI, there was no pressure to win the second match really, I just wanted us to play well. It's the same thing here.

I just want us to play good CS and we're taking it game by game, and if we lose, we're going to improve and work on things. If we win, we're still going to work and improve on things, but keep the flow of energy as a team. But yeah, not trying to set insane expectations for this event. Game by game, until, you know, maybe you'll see us in the arena.