mithR: "I'm happy that the harsh tone that I have in between maps seems to pay off"

The Danish coach is satisfied with Liquid's progress but admitted there are issues the team needs to solve.

Liquid came into the Opening Stage of the Perfect World Shanghai Major as favorites to advance and lived up to that expectation, going 3-0 with wins over Cloud9, Wildcard, and FlyQuest to seal a top-16 berth.

The run wasn't without difficulty, however, with Liquid clawing back from a 3-9 deficit in their first match, struggling to close out a 10-5 lead in the next, and needing to claw back from a blowout loss on Inferno in their qualifying series against FlyQuest.

I don't think that we are anything like ourselves on that map," Torbjørn "⁠mithR⁠" Nyborg said to HLTV about Liquid's Inferno struggles.

"I feel like we play scared and we play hesitant, we are not as aggressive as we should be. We're not very annoying to play against and we need to be more in their face, make them more uncomfortable than what we did on that first map."

The Dane also spoke about Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken's leadership, Liquid's results and struggles coming into the Major, and his expectations as his team heads into the Elimination Stage.

If you cannot see the SoundCloud embed above, you can listen to the interview here.

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Congrats, you're through 3-0. The series didn't start the greatest but ended in dominant fashion. Can you tell me about that, starting off by losing that way on Inferno and then bringing it back?

FlyQuest is an extremely well-prepared team. I have worked with several of the players before, especially dexter, and I know how he preps. I also know how comfortable they are on Inferno, so I'm not really surprised that they could play really well there.

With that said, I don't think that we are anything like ourselves on that map, I feel like we play scared and we play hesitant, we are not as aggressive as we should be. We're not very annoying to play against and we need to be more in their face, make them more uncomfortable than what we did on that first map.

The real question is to try and recognize why we end up playing like that, because the same thing happened against Cloud9 on Ancient. We need to try and recognize why these things happen and then try and solve it, which is easier said than done obviously. If I had the answer for that we wouldn't be starting off like that, but we managed to pull it back and I'm really proud of how the players and helping each other and supporting each other.

We started to have more energy and positivity in the group as soon as we got onto Anubis, and we also know how comfortable we can be on that map. I can't really say much to the last two maps, I'm really satisfied.

As you said, you've had this recurring issue throughout this tournament and the RMR to be aggressive, playing hesitant, but you've also been running the time down super low on the T side, losing to time. Can you tell me what you see going wrong from a tactical or coaching perspective?

I have an expectation to my players that we play a very default-heavy game where everybody is making independent decisions and they can carry the responsibility of those decisions, even though they are wrong. Sometimes when we are playing — I don't know if it's the stage or whatever it is, and again if I had a good answer for it we wouldn't be having these issues — we end up hesitant sometimes when we shouldn't, when we should try and go for it, and we play to not make mistakes.

If you play against a team that has more confidence, more hype, and momentum which FlyQuest certainly have at this moment, it makes your life very hard. But... I can't recall a single scrim in recent times where we have saved two or more guns on T side Inferno for four or more rounds, which we did in this game, and that is nothing like ourselves.

We looked very shaky in the beginning and obviously we need to figure out what is going wrong, we need to improve, and we need to do better. We can be satisfied with the last two maps, but that is a mentality, winning the first map, that we need to try and solve somehow.

You mentioned that a lot of the weight of the decision-making in on the individuals in this default style of yours. A lot of the conversation, especially with these T rounds where you're saving, has been around Twistzz as an IGL and whether it is coming down to how he is calling. What are you seeing from behind the team, is it him contributing to that or is it more of an overall breakdown?

When you're working with a fresh in-game leader like Twistzz, I really stand by what I said at the beginning of this team: that I feel like he does have the potential to be one hell of an in-game leader. I think that he has shown that multiple times both in the game, in our officials, but especially in the practice room.

But the way that you work with these kinds of players is that you need to have a lot of info from your players around the map with what kind of information they're gathering if you want to succeed in the round. Sometimes when that information is not coming it's very hard to make a call, and that's where you need to either call more set things and have more set endings, or you need to try and kick your players in the butt and make them start talking more.

It's a little bit of everything right now actually, but it's definitely something that we need to try and be more stable with coming out of the gate than what I feel like we're doing at the moment.

So is it not the same contributions from the rest of the players in officials as it is in practices, is that what you're saying?

No, I think that right now I'm also very emotional after the game, obviously I'm happy we won but... I don't want to sit and say that it's because of the players not contributing enough or Russ [Twistzz] not calling well enough, it's a little bit of everything to be honest.

It could also be that my game plan is not good enough or giving them good enough guidelines, we all carry responsibility and it's not on one player or certain types of players or anything. It's on all of us that we need to be better at being there and supporting each other if we want to come out strong.

And just to go back, you did go 3-0, you are through to the next stage. Turning it to a happier note in that sense, being able to do that and head into this next stage where the best eight European teams are already and others that will advance, what is the mentality like with that and with trying to make the playoffs of the Major?

I believe that we have what it takes to go very very far into the tournament. We have lost to Wildcard, and Legacy in the Rio closed qualifier, but aside from that we have lost to teams like Spirit, G2, NAVI, FaZe multiple times, like we've been losing to the best six teams in the world.

I feel like we've actually been doing pretty well, and also to some extent, overperforming a lot. When you play in the biggest tournaments, you only play against the best six teams in the world, and you keep losing to them all the time, then obviously you'll drop on the rankings which we have done.

But with that said, I feel like we do deliver stable results, and whether the win is shaky or not, it's still a win; we manage to pull through somehow and we do that all the time. I'm very confident that we have what it takes to go very far, we just need to find the key in order to get those last few inches and beat the best teams in the world consistently.

Getting to this stage is a success, but I'm sure that you're aiming higher, right? So for you on a personal level, getting this far and now going forward, how are you feeling and what is your mentality outside of the team's results?

Obviously I'm dreaming of trophies and I want to go as far as I possibly can as a coach, but for me — and I think I've proven this multiple times — it has always been about the coaching deed itself, not so much about the result. I believe that if you love what you do and you're doing a good job, the results will come eventually. But I will do whatever it takes in order to go as far as I possibly can.

It means a lot, but right now I'm happy that the harsh tone that I have in between maps seems to pay off and the players really listen and trust in what I have to give them. They trust in the game plans, they trust in the evaluations, they trust in how I want them to practice and how much I want them to practice, because we have some very very long days. I could not be happier with being in Liquid and to have all the support that I get not only from the players, but also the support staff and the leadership.