Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken gave us an interview following Liquid's survival in their elimination series against FaZe, speaking on topics such as his individual form as of late and his personal view on the Astralis matchup.

The Canadian star commented on the series against FaZe, who made the affair very close despite slow starts on Mirage and Nuke, with Twistzz noting that Liquid were surprised by how differently Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač & co. played on the former map in particular.

Twistzz explained why his numbers have been down lately

He also went on to defend his underwhelming statistics in Bahrain and in Odense, and we asked him about the upcoming consolidation final against NiP, as well as a potential rematch with Astralis should the North American team beat the Swedes.

Going back to yesterday's series against Astralis - again close but no cigar. After the match they were talking about how it was obvious you approached Nuke differently than usual, can you talk about that from your perspective?

Yeah, I think all of our matches on Nuke against them were helping us find ourselves and our footing on the map. We've been trying to play it differently, it's a map we want to be good at, but I think especially next year it's going to be hard to get practice on it because not many NA teams practice Nuke.

There were some rounds where coldzera was upper B even though he's the A player and things were just different, FaZe weren't playing like we expected them to. Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken

Mirage against FaZe today ended up being a bit too close for comfort after that strong start from you, what happened towards the end of the first half and the rest of the map?

We had watched how they played, but they didn't really play how we expected. They changed things up. There were some rounds where coldzera was upper B even though he's the A player and things were just different, they weren't playing like we expected them to.

What about on Nuke, where a good start ended up with a really close first half again?

Our CT side got a little close, I don't think we could adapt to what they were doing. The solution for me was that we needed to aggress somewhere because we are getting used to not rotating, not biting on things, so I think we just need to push somewhere, and we weren't really doing that.

I haven't been finding the opportunities I usually get. I feel like some of the situations I'm in are pretty impossible. Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken

As the year is coming to a close it seems like you're running out of steam, you've had some unremarkable tournaments back at EPL and here so far until this last map, what do you think that's down to?

I think one thing people don't really notice is that my role has been changing. I feel like I've been developing into a great support player over time, but, as I said in my Tweet yesterday, I haven't been finding the opportunities I usually get. I feel like some of the situations I'm in are pretty impossible. Say I'm in halls on Inferno, we throw pit smokes, and I'm left in like a 1v4, just unwinnable things. So I feel like some of my starts have been pretty unlucky, too, I get killed by someone full blind, spammed through a smoke... And that's something that analysts don't really catch on, that the player may not just be having a bad game, he just hasn't had the chance to actually get into the game. Also, Astralis is really great at making me feel useless, I feel like I just get isolated so often versus them, and it's more that we need to change up our playstyle a little bit towards them.

There are rumors around f0rest leaving and they're probably just trying to go out with a bang. [...] They picked Vertigo on FaZe, that's a gimmick pick, and I bet they wouldn't do that if they were still an actual team. Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken

NiP surprised FaZe at the start of the tournament, for sure, and you're going up against them tomorrow in the consolidation final. How much resistance do you expect from them?

We're usually pretty good. Obviously, there are still rumors around f0rest leaving and, honestly, they're probably just trying to go out with a bang. It's kind of like we were last year when we knew changes were being made, trying to have a great run, upset some teams, do some things that you're not expecting. They picked Vertigo on FaZe, that's a gimmick pick, and I bet they wouldn't do that if they were still an actual team. I think it's going to be a clean game.

Well, if that is the case, what about if you go up against Astralis again? Have you learned enough from that first series to finally take them?

dupreeh said it in his interview, our approach to both maps versus them is very different. It's not like we're catering to just countering Astralis, but if you play to counter Astralis it should also work against every other team because you're trying to counter the best team in the world. We're going to change some things up, both teams are obviously going to watch demos, pretty sure we all know what the maps are going to be already...

device was talking about you guys probably picking Vertigo this time after Inferno didn't pan out...