Following my interview with Twistzz I managed to pull Zews aside for a quick discussion on all things Liquid as well as the other teams in the tournament. This interview has been edited for readability, but I do leave it as uncensored as possible:

JR: So for the sake of a quick refresh, when exactly did you join Liquid?

Wilton: I joined Liquid on their last day of Montreal in November.

JR: And you literally just turned up after a days notice right?

Wilton: They were on their last match of the tournament and I just showed up.

JR: So I’ll skip past Immortals but what was it like to go from a team led by someone with a huge amount of experience like Fallen to a team who’s in-game leader has less than a year of leading at a top tier standard?

Wilton: I think Peter (Stanislaw) is doing a phenomenal job. The problem was when we didn’t have Peter, because when I joined we had a team with zero leaders in it, right. The reason I came over in such a hurried fashion was because, Steve Arahencet (one of Liquid’s owners) realised they needed a leader and they wanted that from me. I was able to a lot of that, but at the same time you can never do the same as a play inside the server. I mean even less now because you’re muted inside the server.

JR: How does that actually work, do they mute you or do you just have to be quiet?

Wilton: It’s completely muted. When it starts you’re muted and only in pauses do they unmute you. To be honest, some organisers get lazy leading up to that point so for the first 30 seconds we can still talk. A little feedback for them down the road.

JR: I’ve got favourite videos of you behind Liquid.

Wilton: The fuck yeah Josh?

JR: And the one that was released last week that shows you after Twistzz gets the CZ triple on inferno against Mousesports.

Wilton: In that video the camera guy captured that perfectly because that was the situation. We were all like, what the hell are they doing. Mousesports is a great team but that was a huge fuck up.

JR: There has always been a discussion about who is the greatest NA team. Right now I would consider there to be four in Liquid, C9, Optic and now CLG.

Wilton: I agree, ever since they got their new coach and FNS over there. Things are really working out for them and they’re on a good rise right now.

JR: When I spoke to Russell (Twistzz) he said that you are a quite a strict coach and that all teams should have a strict coach like yourself.

Wilton: I don’t think that it has to necessarily come from the coach, I just think that you need that strict figure within the team. In Liquids case that’s what they needed so I adapted to it. While I’m coaching I try to adapt to the teams and personalities need to create success.

JR: He also said that you guys have the potential to beat anyone in the tournament.

Wilton: I believe we can. I mean this is a really stacked tournament you’ve got FaZe, G2, Astralis, SK, Fnatic. Astralis is our first match and I still consider the number one team in the world. I feel like SK are on the rise again and getting back in to their old form.

JR: After Hiko left Liquid he went public about the issues Liquid were having before the current roster. A lot of those issues seemed to stem from arguments between Peacemaker and the team. Peacemaker was just let go of his contract from Misfits after Shazam was kicked. After Peacemaker had left Shazam had then come back to the roster. Would you be able to shed any light on what’s going on there? Is there any weight behind the accusations towards him that he is, in fact, damaging to a team’s mentality?

Wilton: It would be false of me to say that people are lying because if you study the time line you’ll be able to find some level of truth to it. But people forget that every story has 2 or 3 sides to it and everyone has a different version of the truth. Peacemaker is one of those strict figures we talked about, he doesn’t really adapt too much from that. But there are teams that need it. Liquid needed him and thats why they had so much success. I feel like Peacemaker expresses himself in such a strong fashion that he forgets we’re dealing with players..

JR: Who are usually quite young too…

Wilton: Not only that but players in general have an entitlement aspect to their personalities. I don’t mean that in a harsh way but just that they feel that every thing should be the way they think it should be. If you constantly keep butting heads with them friction is going to come out with it. From what I heard some organisations have promised him he would have the power to make decisions he had to act, but oftenly nothing would happen from it. But at the same time he should also understand that if this continues to repeat itself then he not only has to look what’s wrong with everything around him but should also look inwards at himself aswell.

JR: Elige has always kept up a consistently good performance throughout his time with Liquid. However Nitro and JDM have both been pretty inconsistent with their performances in the past year. How is their form looking going into this tournament?

Wilton: With JDM a lot of it was that people didn’t know how to usually utilise him, I have no idea how it was before I joined Liquid but he literally had no set roles as an AWPer. JDM is a dedicated Awper, he works on his Rifle but he is a Awper by trade. If he’s not set up economy wise and things like team mates flashing for him, he’s going to have zero effect on the game and he’s going to have no confidence which will snow ball down from their. As for Nitro, he probably has a few good performances and others he will have rough ones. People have to remember that Nitro is our entry fragger. If you look at any other team in the world, Taco for SK, Apex for G2, if he’s dying a lot it’s usually because either he’s not getting support or he’s doing his job perfectly by sacrificing himself and gaining space for the rest of team or causing the enemy team to feel mixed up. It’s not all about the kills, it’s the same as the In-Game Leader mentality. Entry fraggers and IGL’s in NA I feel are in the same boat in the fact that no one wants to fill those roles. Players think “oh I want the stats” but they forget that when you look at every team, they have those team players who are willing to take that bullet for their team mates.

JR: One thing I used to love about watching Liquid play in those majors was the Elige and Nitro entry combo. Is that something you are still trying to utilise?

Wilton: We are yes, I think that they’re one of the coolest duo in the world to watch play. But we try to mix it up because it was getting a little bit predictable, if you saw one you knew the other was there. So we have to mix it up, give it a bit of that Astralis factor of keeping teams on their toes and keeping them guess what we’re doing. But every time we can we try to use it and utilise that combo.

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