With five new partner teams making their debut at BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024, there was plenty of intrigue coming into the event about how those teams would fare in the BLAST circuit.
Despite this, there was perhaps no more intrigue than there was for Liquid, whose new roster would be making their LAN debut here in Copenhagen.
Following a tough opening match against Spirit, we spoke to Liquid star Twistzz about the game, the differences between cadiaN and karrigan, and what it's like to be on a team with zews again.
That was a difficult game to kick off your campaign here at Spring Groups, how are you assessing it straight afterwards?
To be honest, it was just very fun to play with these guys. Sure, it was a close game, it was tight, it's our first LAN match together and through the process we're still learning everything, to be honest, but what matters for me is that the vibes were really good and towards the end of the series our teamwork got much, much better and that just shows that we have it in us to perform well from the jump.
They had a coach, and, yeah, it's different. I think it might've been really tough if they had their full lineup, they could've hit a lot harder, but even with their coach and baz they played pretty well, to be honest.
What will you take from this match moving forward?
There's definitely stuff to learn, we have to rewatch Anubis and analyse what happened there, and also our T side Ancient we need to look at. But with every step, we're going to get through it and we're going to learn. We've only been playing CS together for about 28, 29 days or so, so it's just learning everything and fixing our mistakes as we go on.
Moving away from the match, as you've said you've now had some time to get a feel for the team, how does this Liquid compare to the Liquid you were part of in the past?
The teams are completely different, and it's good this way. It's refreshing, there's a reason that this lineup was something that I wanted to be part of. I know it's going to be a project that takes time, but it's just fun. It's fun to be in a different role both inside and outside of the server, and I'm really enjoying it.
It's just about progressing with this lineup, we have so much chemistry outside of the game, we have so much fun, the people really like each other, so it's just converting the fun outside of the game and the closeness to in-game and having it correlate there.
cadiaN is the second Danish IGL you've played under, how does he compare to karrigan?
I haven't had as much time with him, obviously, I played with karrigan for three years, but both of them have really good qualities as an IGL. karrigan has really good organisation and cadiaN's mid-round calling is excellent. They work in different ways, but they both get it done in their own ways and that's what makes them special.
We don't have the most thorough playbook at the moment, it's just about having the things we've done so far work really well, and as time goes on, I think cadiaN's individual and calling performances are only going to get better.
Liquid put out a video of your first retreat as a team and you could see how much it meant to you to be back on a team with zews, what's it mean to you to be back on a team with him?
Being under him as a player again, we've both grown a lot as people, and usually once a year we would end up talking at whatever event we happened to be at, but it's nice.
I can tell that he's evolved in a mental way, and he still has some cool in-game stuff that he shows every now and then, but we're still working out everything in terms of the IGL coach dynamic and how much zews can really do in terms of sharing the workload across the team and the leadership parties. Everything is a work in progress.
Looking at the rest of the year, what are the goals for Liquid in 2024?
There could be time frames for everything. Of course, I'd want to win events within this year, however many that is. I'd like to be really, really ready for the second Major. Of course, Cinderella runs can always happen, if we start working and getting everything through, maybe we can be a good underdog for the first Major, but definitely, we want to win in the first or second half of the year. It doesn't matter to me, I know things take time.
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