Cover-Credits:
- Twistzz talks about why he left Team Liquid right after their defeat to Astralis in the grand final of IEM Global Challenge 2020.
- Twistzz says that during his time in Liquid, he felt that the team after achieving success stopped trying out new things and became stagnant.
- One of the main reasons why Twistzz joined FaZe Clan was knowing that karrigan was also on his way.
Canadian rifler Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken who is currently a member of FaZe Clan had left Team Liquid in December last year. The 21-year-old Twistzz was not immediately picked up by FaZe and was inactive for about a month on Liquid’s bench. It was around this time that rumours had initially started to surface about why Twistzz had left the North American organization all of sudden, right after their defeat to Astralis in the grand final of IEM Global Challenge 2020. This was a huge blow for Liquid at the time as Nicholas "nitr0" Cannella, a long-standing player for the side had also left the team just a few months back.
In a recent interview with Dot Esports, Twistzz came forward to give an extensive explanation as to why he left Team Liquid and what inspired him to join FaZe Clan a month later in January 2021.
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Twistzz Reveals Why He Left Team Liquid
Team Liquid might not be the best team in the world right now but they are definitely still one of the powerhouses in competitive CS:GO who back in 2019 had managed to win five tier-one tournaments in a row, including the prized Intel Grand Slam Season 2.
However, even during that point in time, there were some internal problems within Team Liquid according to Twistzz. But these problems could not be identified because everything the team did was working out for them.
Speaking to Dot Esports on the topic, Twistzz indicated some of the reasons behind him leaving Team Liquid and the North American organization faltering earlier than expected at the StarLadder Berlin Major 2019. The talented rifler felt that “People were scared of change” because they felt that whatever it is that they were doing seemed to be working out for them.
Twistzz narrating a personal anecdote around his situation said that “I remember around the last event of the year, I was trying to express to the team that I felt my role was becoming useless. Everyone knows how I play this support lurker role, and the only way I can change my playstyle is if the team adjusts its playstyle, so what I’m doing isn’t so obvious. It was hard to express that to the team, even now how I just explained it, there was no way I could have expressed it like that to my team because I couldn’t find the words.
I couldn’t ask them to help me find a way to make things better and I didn’t know how to be more selfish. I was used to giving up my spots I was comfortable in.”
The Canadian rifler did say that this was not always the case and that during the start he felt as if his inputs mattered, but as Liquid started to achieve victory they stopped trying new things and grew stagnant. This had a direct impact on Twistzz’s decision to step down from the roster.
“I felt whatever I recommended was kind of neglected. My opinion wasn’t valued, and I felt they didn’t have confidence in what I was saying. Especially after nitr0 stepped down, I didn’t have much to say, and I felt if I did have something to say it wasn’t going to be heard. And if there’s not that mutual respect, you kind of lose confidence individually. That’s why I felt like my time in Liquid came to an end”
Twistzz Explains Why He Joined FaZe Clan
With his time at Liquid coming to an end Twistzz received some offers and finally decided to join FaZe Clan in late January 2021. The biggest reason was knowing that Finn “karrigan” Andersen was also on his way to join the team.
In the interview with Dot Esports, Twistzz revealed that despite the team not having achieved anything significant so far he is happy and satisfied with his role on the team.
“So far I’ve felt my impact has been felt a lot more with FaZe than it was with Liquid. In FaZe, I’m a much better individual player, and my potential is much higher here than it was in Liquid. I’m still evolving and talking a lot more, and that’s crazy because before my job was just to headshot things, but now I help dictate the pace of the game and help karrigan call mid-round.”
Appreciating karrigan’s captaincy and how he utilizes him, Twistzz also put in a few good words about nitr0, who also did use him to Team Liquid's benefit during their 2018-2019 phase. With the new renewed lineup at FaZe Clan’s disposal, it will be interesting to see if they are able to turn things around or do they still continue to struggle.
