NertZ has been in stellar form since joining Liquid, so far recording a 1.18 rating across all of his games in 2025.
However, despite his strong individual form, Liquid have so far failed to turn that into consistent results and were eliminated from BLAST Bounty and IEM Katowice before the playoffs.
Now in his third tournament with the team at ESL Pro League Season 21, NertZ awaits his first playoff game versus Vitality, and we caught up with him to talk about the results so far, his form in a new role, and the advantages and disadvantages of the VRS system.
You're at ESL Pro League currently, awaiting a quarter-final against Vitality, how are you feeling about your time there so far?
I'm feeling good, we had some ups and downs during the tournament, but overall we've played good for most of the time. Maybe against MOUZ we were a little off, though.
You made it to the playoffs through the 2-2 bracket, what was that final game like?
There wasn't a lot of pressure, at least I didn't feel it myself, but the Swiss system is something I really like, it brings a lot of hype.
In terms of your time with Liquid so far, how are you finding it compared to your former teams?
If you go back two years ago, I played with ENCE as a full passive lurker, and then in HEROIC it was something in between and now with Liquid I'm full aggressive. It's pretty different from team to team and I'm getting used to it, I'm in the spot now where I've learned how to play the role.
I don't feel any pressure from people here, I like playing for the org.
How do you feel about the results so far?
The results aren't the best, but I can't complain about them. In the first tournament we were one game from playoffs, and we've made the playoffs of our second one. Maybe we'll go even further.
We're in a decent situation, we just need to go up and up in the rankings now.
Can you feel the progress with every game? What does the team need to go further up the ranking?
We just need to trust in ourselves and our teammates, we'll know from there how to win against any opponent.
You've played with Snappi who is a very experienced IGL and now Twistzz who might be an experienced player, but doesn't have the same experience as an IGL, how do the two compare?
I would say that Snappi was insane as an IGL, he knew how to utilise the players around him. This is something that was his special ability as an IGL.
But also, Twistzz knows exactly when to listen to his teammates, and he also knows how to adapt to different teams and how they're playing. He's shown me a lot of things I didn't know before.
There's a lot of differences between them, Twistzz is an experienced player but not an experienced IGL. That said, he played for some of the best IGLs, so he will get there.
In terms of rankings, you're 12th on HLTV and 15th in the Valve standings, how are you feeling about that? Do you think it's fair?
I liked the HLTV rankings before, you could see consistency and you weren't in a rush to play every event.
For me, there are some advantages for VRS. For example, for new teams, it's so easy for them to climb up the rankings if they qualify for an S-tier event and managed to beat a decent team. They're like top 15 in the world just from that. So for tier two or three teams, I'd say it's pretty good.
But, for the top tier organisations, maybe it isn't the best for the players.
You mentioned advantages for lower ranked teams there, but that doesn't seem to be the case considering orgs like Endpoint who you previously played for have already backed out of CS due to some of the changes. How did you feel about Endpoint backing out when you saw it?
I can understand why they released their team, even if it's sad to see it. But what I'm saying can also be a disadvantage for tier two and three teams, it's hard to climb there because you won't get the invites or the points for the VRS system.
A lot of the orgs dropped their rosters, and it's sad to see. But, if they show good process during 2025, they will find themselves around the top 30. If you're doing bad for two or three months, it will suck, so consistency is really important. It's just hard to be consistent in CS2.
It's good to be tier two or three, but it's also shit for the organisations.
Your next game at Pro League will be against Vitality, one of the top three teams in the world, how are you feeling about it?
I think it's a good test, I would say they are maybe top one after winning Katowice. All of their players are sharp and in good form. But, in my eyes, we have a good chance to beat them, it's the best veto we can ever ask for.
When I played against them with ENCE or HEROIC, we didn't have easy times, but it was always good for me to play against Vitality, I always did well. I have a good idea of how to play against them as both individuals and as a team.
I think we will show some good CS, regardless of the result, that's all I want to see.
Your next event is BLAST Open Lisbon, how are you feeling about it?
I'm pretty hyped about the way it works, flying to Denmark for groups and then on to Lisbon for playoffs is cool.
From the teams we could potentially face, it should be a very good event.
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