EPT
I’m here with EliGE and Peacemaker from Team Liquid who fought through their quarterfinals match against Na’Vi with a 2-1 victory in a nailbiting series. So guys, can you walk me through this series; how it went and how you felt through it and through the maps.
EliGE: As soon as we got the veto down and everything selected, we were really confident just seeing the three maps. Because we knew they were gonna pick Train, we did a lot of stuff on Train for them; we obviously knew our pick. If they were going to ban Cache we would pick Nuke, and if they banned Nuke we would do Cache. And then, Cobblestone is a very strong map for a lot of us, so really confident going into it. The first map was on Train and we got a really good CT side half. But as soon as we got to the T side, we couldn’t really get anything going at all. Like, every strat that we tried just didn’t work, and we just hit a brick wall; we couldn’t do anything. As soon as we got to Nuke, we felt really good on our T side. We played them in scrims before, and everything we always did worked. Our executes were solid and we had a lot of confidence. We got seven rounds on the T side and that’s insane. Then CT side… I don’t have anything for that…
Nitr0, right…
EliGE: Nitr0 has been a god this whole series, he’s been playing really well this whole major. Everyone has been playing well this whole major, but Nick [E/N: nitr0] especially.
There’s S1mple and jdm, obviously the headlines for Liquid that major. Jdm was picked up recently and an excellent awper, as showcased on CLG. S1mple, everyone knows about that guy, he wins round by himself. Hiko, the best north american player in the eyes of many. You EliGE, a rising star of North America. nitr0 though has been a bit more in the shadow, but this major, he’s been really stepping up! How do you feel about the fact that everyone on Liquid showed up, and this hasn’t been a 3-man game?
EliGE: So with this roster, like, this is honestly the biggest dream team lineup that we could have ever hoped for. You got me and Nick doing the entry stuff, and we’re really confident with that, and we’re really good at it; we like doing it, it’s our thing. You got Hiko to close out every round. You got Josh [E/N: jdm], best AWPer in North America, and then you got S1mple, who’s just an all-around good player. So, all of us can step up at any moment. If any one of us is cold one day, someone else is gonna pick it up, and it goes for every single map. So we’re confident, just with everything we’re going to do.
Alright. I’d like to go back to the picks & bans in that series. When you picked Nuke as second map, were you actually very confident about the pick of Nuke against Na’Vi especially?
Peacemaker: Actually yes, we practiced a lot of Nuke during our bootcamp. We had two weeks of bootcamp. And we kinda knew that Na’Vi doesn’t play Cache. We practiced against them online on Nuke, and it didn’t seem that they were really confident on it. So as soon as we knew they would veto Cache., I mean, we had a good gameplan going into Nuke, and thus we were really confident.
Talking about gameplan, we could notice that in the plays Liquid was making there were some strategies that were reminiscent of SK. Coming into this, did you really take the strats you had, from discussing with FalleN for example, that you put into place in Tempo Storm when you were coaching them and try to see if it could work with Liquid, apply it to Liquid?
Peacemaker: Yeah definitely. In Tempo Storm, our best map was Cobble and I was calling 100% of the time, so I was very confident. I pretty much made all the strats, and the only thing that... when I came to this team, was to pretty much like do some new strats, but I mean we definitely have some of my old strats from Tempo, something from SK as well. Both teams used to be very good on Cobble, Brazilians are used to being good on Cobble, so yeah definitely. But I mean, when I joined this team, it was pretty much adapting, and I had to find out like, how EliGE likes to play on Cobble, and adapt their styles. And nowadays, we can see that we have a very strong Cobble. So it feels good.
So kind of the perfect blend of the Americas then.
Peacemaker: Yeah, exactly! [laughs]
Alright, then, tomorrow you’ll fight against the winner of that match right now, Gambit versus Fnatic. How do you feel about that match?
Peacemaker: Well, it’s semifinals, and people kinda trash talk Gambit because it’s their first time in quarterfinals, they’re a new team as well. But in a Counter-Strike match, anything can happen. It’s a Best of Three, so I’m pretty sure that Gambit had a good preparation for this match, and anything could happen. But to be honest I’m really looking forward to play Fnatic. That would be my first time and I really feel confident about this matchup.
I see. Coming back to you EliGE. You are, after all the roster shuffle Liquid went through, one of the most longstanding player on it alongside nitr0. Looking back at your career on Liquid, making it the semifinals for the second time at a major, how do you feel about your career on Liquid so far?
EliGE: Hmm, I think we made a lot of changes for the better over time, obviously with Hiko being our best pickup yet. Ever since he joined, we’ve made a lot of decisions for the better, like, overall. This is our second semifinals in a row, we’ve been doing very good at a lot of tournaments, like not super good but just standard, considering we fought some roster issues obviously, but I feel that, now especially, we have the best roster we could have asked for, and we’re all super confident with it.
Ok. Now I’ll mention the future a bit. After the major, what happens? People are expecting that you could keep S1mple in the end, maybe you won’t and then everything changes. Do you think about that or right now you just play and that’s for later?
EliGE: Nothing is going to change, the plan is still how it’s gonna be, we’re still having Pimp right after, as soon as the major is over.
I see. That brings the question: How do you practice for a major with a lineup you know you won’t keep? Does it change anything or do you just practice as usual as if nothing’s going to change afterwards?
EliGE: We’re trying to do everything we can to win this major, so we took practice as we always did, try to get as much done as we can, get as prepared as we can. We’re trying to win this major, we aren’t trying to save strats to, like, not let S1mple know or whatever. We can do that later, it’s whatever. It’s going to be a totally different lineup, we can change stuff later. For now, our whole focus is to win this major.
I see. Alright, do you have any last word?
EliGE: I want to give a big shoutout to Joka, Peacemaker and the rest of the team. Steve [E/N: joka], and Peacemaker have done a good job when it comes to preparation, obviously with the strat-calling. Shoutouts to all our sponsors, Victor [E/N: Nazgul] and Steve for the support and being around us, and all the fans who support us as well.
Peacemaker, any thoughts on your first major as a coach? Your first semifinals even!
Peacemaker: Yeah it’s been amazing, it’s like a dream coming true for me. I think that right now we have a really good atmosphere in our team, so I have to thanks those guys for believing in me and my project. And yeah, I really think we are ready to win this major and I wanna thank all of Liquid sponsors and all our fans. This crowd has been amazing, with so much energy. And yeah that’s it.
This is quite a feat I feel, that you say there’s a good atmosphere in the team, a team with S1mple, given his reputation. This seems like a big achievement actually!
Peacemaker: Oh yeah! It was actually my biggest challenge coming to this team, I was like, I’ve heard a lot of bad things about that guy, but I came to this bootcamp and to this team like, “I want to know this guy, I want to see if he’s really that bad or not”. Obviously, he’s a very tough person to deal with, he’s very strong minded, but still, coming into this tournament, he’s doing his best. He’s playing good, he’s very calm, and nowadays I’m very proud that we have S1mple on the team.
Alright! Well, congratulations again to both of you and obviously to the rest of the team, and let’s hope for the best for tomorrow!
Peacemaker: Thank you!
Interviewer: ragnarork
CSS: FO-nTTaX
Graphics: David-Scott
