I was struggling like in only North America, and looking back now I'm just like,
these players aren't on my level. Twistzz, my home boy. Russ, how's it going? It's going great, happy to
be here at a real LAN again. Yeah, you started out in a few
different teams, played with Ocean I think it was. Was it AGG was the team?
And then Misfits was the first time we saw international flair. You were playing with
Sean Gares, who's another great in-game leader. How much of those sort of formative years
for you, playing under two guys like that, especially someone like Sean, was
kinda shaped where you are now. I'd say Sean Gares had a bigger impact than Ocean
did of course. I think Ocean was good at giving me confidence cos he put me in a lot of star roles.
For instance there'd be like spots where you'd boost an AWPer, but he was very confident in my aim, he'd boost
me with just a rifle to take that fight. Whereas Sean Gares kinda taught me how the game really
works. Like what kinda rotations are, how you can manipulate what other players are doing. And
that's when I started to evolve as a player. And then I was able to take that
an elaborate on it during Liquid. Talk me into that period and
getting into Team Liquid. I was already friends previously when I played
on TSM for a bit. I was friends with nitr0 and EliGE. I remember asking Nick for tips on how
to review demos, like what am I looking for. How do I load them into console? That would be funny actually. What I'm looking
for, the most important things to pay attention to. Like what players are reacting to or
if I do xyz how is this guy gonna react. I actually think they wanted me before
I joined TSM, but I was still unknown. Would that've been roughly when they were
considering removing EliGE? I dunno if a lot of people know that. There was a time
when they were thinking about removing. I was on the team. Okay cos he was the one at the start that
was kinda like, up and down. What was going on there? Because obviously now he's
the centre of the team in a lot of ways. During 2017 he unfortunately had some mentality
issues. It was a different type of being toxic. Where instead of saying mean things you don't
say anything at all and you stop communicating. Passive aggressive or shut down? Maybe sometimes but I'd say shutting down was the worst. Then after the match he would let out
a lot of frustrations and he wouldn't let it out in the most friendly way. Everyone does it but
for him it was more of a pattern, and people got tired and never knew how to fix it. Everyone
wanted to help him but they didn't know how. So what changed for him? Cos obviously
he took a much different role after that? Yeah I t hink it's because we started working
with a sports psychologist, his name Jared Tendler. And I think he really helped everyone on
the team, but me and EliGE specifically took note of a lot of things he was talking about, and yeah
I'm really happy that we're able to help EliGE fix his issue, and I really wanted him as a teammate
still. I remember being on the team and everyone was discussing it, and I was like "why replace
our star? Why not help him, try helping more?" Sure T: It didn't really make sense to me, so
I'm happy with the way things turned out. M: the other aspect of this is you
have Stewie coming into the team. Taco's back out, Stewie's come from the
MIBR project that didn't really work out. I remember that situation was very weird. Was it? Talk me through it,
cos it came quickly as well. It was weird because we knew that Taco and
Zews were leaving. So we knew three months before the end of the year that they were
leaving. And we're left with we can only trade with these players cos they wanna go back
to MIBR. So we have a choice of Tarik and Stewie, that's all we can pick from. So we have
to pick one. Not that someone's better, but we didn't have an option.
Clearly we made the right decision. Well let's get to the main Liquid then. Because
obviously Astralis has this crazy era. We're not sure who's gonna beat them, and then outta
nowhere Liquid's all of a sudden just freaking untouchable. You guys won a grand slam in
what, 63 or 63 days, ridiculously fast overall. What was the changing point of the whole
structure of the organization, the team. I'd say Nick's leading improved greatly. He was
working a lot harder. I think having adreN by his side to help coast him into the right direction,
help him take notes, study teams. And they shared the work so it wasn't only on him and he could
focus. And I think another thing that changed from 2018 to 2019 was how EliGE took initiative.
He had a lot of plays he was setting himself up with and he was taking more control.
From 2018 to 2019 he would say a lot more, he'd have a lot more ideas, he'd be
like hey Russ come and do this with me, let's take control of this, I'll flash
for you here or flash for me here. You don't get a major. Did that sting a bit? Did you guys feel like that was
the one thing missing to really I think it stung because we knew we kinda peaked
too early. And we also took a player break. I'm pretty sure even they think about it. What if
we only took one week off instead of almost having the whole month to ourselves. It sucks,
getting Astralis in first round of playoffs. That was it, that was the game of the Major,
everyone knew. There was so much pressure on that. I feel like whoever won that game won the major. Then changes come. Nitr0 gets married, becomes
a father. We're fast forwarding a little here. Pandemic hits. Nitr0 going out I think was the
first big change in the team. And then moses coming in. Online era, everything all at once,
and every team's facing this kinda "what the hell's going on in Counter-Strike?" The reason
I get to this is obviously there's some changes within the team but the big one I know with
Jason being there, and knowing moses as I do, is he's talking about mentality, and I think
it was getting difficult. He was even saying, and I don't wanna put words in his mouth or words
to the public that shouldn't be from his mouth. But it was difficult to force change. People were
too stubborn in the team I think. People were very set in their ways. And I think you maybe felt- what's your perspective? I don't wanna speak
for Jason, so tell me your perspective on it. From my perspective I think exactly how
Jason said, people were way too stubborn for change and I guess they didn't really
respect Jason either. For him to command people or enforce changes. Anything that
was really said was shut down. Any changes, any position changes, I remember I was having
a pretty tough time individually on a lot of maps and I was like I need something
new to do, I need to stay motivated, and maybe position changes, you know? I started
learning more. We changed for like a week and then someone said I don't like the spot anymore,
and I'm forced into my old situation. So you felt pretty restricted? At the same time I wasn't sure how
my communication was. Maybe there was something else I could've said differently. In game or about switching roles? Outside the game. At some point I even wanted to
try AWPing cos we had a bad AWPing situation and I was like, I'm secondary most of the time
so maybe I can learn, do it for the team. You think that was a Liquid issue, like you weren't necessarily in
positions you wanted to be in? I think that was a Liquid issue. I don't know. It
was weird. The way our game was structured was not good for me individually. I was in a lot
of lurking positions but at the same time I was supposed to be the support. I don't
know why as a team we couldn't fix our role situation at least in the moment I didn't
know why. Now I know why, people were stubborn. It's easy in hindsight right,
when you're caught up in the moment. Trust me I've been there with
a lot of stuff. The other thing to and we'll touch on it quickly you had a girlfriend
in Europe. You wanted to spend more time in Europe and Liquid didn't want to bootcamp
there as much, in the pandemic especially. There was a lot of weird situations. It's nothing
personal, it's just like team stuff and maybe the others have a different opinion, my ex teammates.
But towards the end of the year, we bootcamp, or I have a contract meeting in October, and I'm
kinda just like, okay, I'll extend my contract if the bootcamp goes well. If there's progress.
If suddenly things start clicking again. Did you put pen to paper with a clear clause
for that or did you just wait to sign? Just wait. Liquid was a really
good org, they let me have time. Cos they could've roped you
on that one hard, legally. They could've been like no you have to sign now.
I'm still good friends with their owner Victor, and I was there for roughly four years. yeah, four years, that's nuts. So end of 2020 we're coming up on our last
bootcamp that ends up being my last bootcamp with the team. And it was exactly the situation
that I said would happen. Like this is a miserable environment for everyone. No one feels
good about this. It's also weird because people know things are happening with the
roster, no one's talking, everyone's silent. It's a very awkward environment. I talked with
Jason and Steve at the same time and I gave them two situations where I stay on the team.
I say we relocate in Europe cos this is where the game is gonna be all the time,
and we play at the highest level we can and I think it gives our team a better chance. And
the other situation was making a roster change, with a person on the team I wasn't
particularly happy with. That was the talk and they said neither of these things
are possible. I was like, okay, I'm out. Jason if you're mad at me for any of this, tell
me to my face, it's fine, I'll deal with it. You can beat me up, it's cool. But he was saying
he felt bad for you because he felt like you were in an awkward position as well and he felt
similar that it was hard to force that change. Why FaZe? Why was that the choice, and was that
clear cut, like you already had it lined up? Well I was looking at Mousesports
and then I found out Karrigan was leaving so I was like okay I'm not
going to Mousesports with no Karrigan. I remember I also approached Complexity
cos I liked the organisation and Jason Lake really cares about CS and at the time
their roster looked pretty good to me. It was starting to become something for sure. I was like maybe I can be a good piece
for this team. And then I was trying to find out where Karrigan was going, so I
got into talks with FaZe and then I found out Karrigan was going to FaZe. So I was
like ok, yeah this is where I want to be. Going to FaZe with some of those issues in Liquid, you want different roles, you wanna have
more responsibility on the team if you will. Are you getting that now,
is that something that's changed? I'd say like the personal situation was okay but
it's tough when, before in 2020, it's tough when your every day job is bad. It's bad for your
health and environment and you feel bad from And it's hard to play well in that environment. Yeah. I was struggling in only North
America, and looking back now I'm like, these players aren't on my level. In no way. here's confidence, let's go. So right now when I look back I'm like yeah,
I'm where I'm supposed to be. This is for me. I feel rejuvenated as a player and when
I first joined FaZe I was immediately given that space. Like okay I can play outside
on Nuke, okay I can take the most important spot on Mirage, the connector player and
even with Karrigan joining afterwards I was still given a lot of that space and
even on our CT sides right now a lot of the players look at me to make the calls and
adjustments for whatever's going wrong. Coming out of the pandemic, you go into the major,
had you slotted as a realistic potential for a semifinal. With the Swiss system it's a lot of how
the cookie crumbles, it's who shows up on the day, especially this major with a lot of
inconsistency. But it does feel like getting back on LAN you guys are heading in the
right direction. How do you feel in that regard? Yeah definitely. Even when Cologne started as
a studio event I felt we were already heading in the right direction. We barely made it
to the Cologne play-in due to ESL ranking, and then we had a pretty amazing event which I expected us to have this good event. It's
LAN, everyone's super motivated to get back. Especially Olof and Karrigan,
that's like their life right? It's the environment we thrive in, so ever since
then I feel like we've been on the up with a couple bumps in the road. Coming into next year
we've had a lot of time in the top 5 this year, but next year the goal is number one. And whatever
we have to do to make that happen I'm all for it. Best of luck in 2022 man Thank you.
