NertZ: "To not be in front of the home crowd is heartbreaking"

The Israeli player took some time after Liquid's elimination in Austin to give his final thoughts on the season.

Liquid were sent out of the BLAST.tv Austin Major's third stage in last place with an 0-3 record. It came after a well-fought series against MOUZ that went to triple-overtime on Mirage. Before that, however, Liquid struggled to put together any sort of competitive play.

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MOUZ consign Liquid to last place in Stage 3 despite ultimate's 45-kill decider

"I feel like we're at a point where we realize who we are as players and what we need to do to succeed," Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz says, but they couldn't dig deep enough in Austin until the very end, when it was too late.

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Tell me a bit about the game against MOUZ. It was a competitive match that went to multiple overtimes on the third map...

It was a rollercoaster during the third map. The first day we played wasn't competitive, even the first map [against MOUZ] wasn't competitive. I cannot express my feeling, for me it was partly mental things... Again, I don't know what's going on, but if we we played like we played in the last two maps it could be different. It's unfortunate that it happened when we had our back to the wall.

The season is over now, so what do you make of it? You played without a coach for months now, the conditions weren't the best and the team has been struggling for a bit now.

The season was disappointing. I would say that Liquid did everything they could to make us comfortable, in a way, even though we didn't have a coach. Our assistant coach did an incredibly good job, but again, when you don't have a coach — and I feel like we had a few problems —, if we had the coach that we needed, it would be fixed sooner. Right now people are trying to figure out how they're playing, but it's already four months or three months since we came and we're still trying to figure out what we can do better.

Speaking of the assistant coach. On Nuke, they noticed on the desk that you were playing a lot with rotations on ramp and stacking ramp. Was that something to do with DeMars DeRover and his analysis?

Not really. Before the game we said that — in each map it's different —, and in this map specifically, ultimate and I took responsibility in a way. We played really good, we talked a lot, we communicated really good, and I feel like this is something that helped us win the game. When I say it was me and ultimate, it's not like we're the cause to win, but as an Outside player and Rotation player, you're kind of controlling the game.

Speaking of ultimate, he had a great last map. You had it in the palm of your hand and lost a crucial 3vs5 that sent it into another overtime, and then failed to close it out. What happened in those final rounds, those final overtimes?

First of all, I was enjoying it. I was enjoying the rollercoaster in the overtimes. I'll speak individually. I feel like I made a few mistakes in overtime and as a team and like we could have closed out the game. We gave everything we could. As I said before, it's unfortunate that we did it now and not before.

As a team now, you said it's a disappointing season, and there was a tough exit at the Major. Do you think it's time for a rebuild of Team Liquid, to make big changes and really shake things up?

I don't know. I don't know what Liquid are planning. The players are not involved. In my opinion, it's up to the org to decide what we need to do. I'm just disappointed in what happened. To not be in front of the home crowd is heartbreaking, especially when it's in America and everyone wants to see Liquid's success. It's just painful.

Looking at the next season, what do you hope for when you get back after the break?

I really hope we will skip this situation and figure out how we need to play with each other. It's as simple as that. I feel like we're at a point where we realize who we are as players and what we need to do to succeed, and this is what holds us back. That's what I hope.