Growing Into Stardom

EliGE has been with Team Liquid nearly since the beginning. We announced our first CS:GO team in January of 2015, and two months later Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski was brought in as an up-and-coming talent in the North American scene. We had high hopes the budding young star, and it was evident that he had the determination and work ethic we wanted, and needed. EliGE was only in his first semester of College when it became clear that he had to make a decision between playing professional Counter Strike and staying in school.

When we spoke to EliGE, he made it clear it wasn’t due to the workload, because he could certainly handle whatever his teachers could throw at him.

“My first semester of college, I ended up missing half of all of my classes just from going to so many LANs. It wasn’t like I was there and skipping classes for practice or anything like that. I was making everything work into my schedule and everything was fine when I was actually there but the problem was, I just wasn’t physically there. I was going to Europe, and all these different places for weeks and honestly it was really hard, especially getting all my professors on board. It wasn’t that bad for four of them but one gave me a really hard time keeping my grades up in that class. He was one of those zero tolerance types of guys. He didn’t care what I was doing and especially not if it was for video games, so he wasn’t giving me any leeway or helping me make up my work.”

EliGE would ask his teammates at the time, nitr0 and Hiko, for help with his homework, specifically in his intro to programming course where the two of them both had knowledge. Even on nights before matches in different countries, EliGE would diligently work to ensure his school work was done on time and submitted. The stress of trying to improve in CS:GO and maintain his grades took its toll though.

He’d be up stressing out, trying to make sure his programs were working and that he had everything done for his classes during an event — only to have exams waiting for him when he returned. The amount of stress weighed heavily on him and impacted the quality of his practice. He had little time for himself as his entire life revolved around going to tournaments, doing school work, practicing, and making sure to find time to eat a quick meal in between.

“I think that’s why nitr0 and I, after we stopped doing college, we got a lot better at a much faster rate at CS because we didn’t have those worries anymore and we could dedicate all of our time to getting better.”

Though he was finally able to allot all of his attention to CS:GO, EliGE still faced a giant wall. North American CS:GO was generally considered an extremely weak region back then. There were no teams or players capable of fighting — and most importantly, winning — against the European teams that loomed above them.

When Team Liquid qualified for their first Major, DreamHack Cluj-Napoca, EliGE stated their goal was to beat a European team, or best case scenario, to make it out of the group stage. While Liquid failed to beat a European team in the group stage, they did force Virtus Pro into overtime, which was considered a success on its own for a North American squad. Six months later, EliGE would get that win over a European powerhouse at a Major — and so much more. On home soil to boot.

MLG Columbus marked a change for Team Liquid and for EliGE. Not only did they take down Fnatic in the group stage, they also beat FaZe Clan and then advanced to the semi-finals after beating fellow NA team CLG in the quarter-finals. As EliGE put it, after each win their confidence grew. The crowd cheered for them as the home team, and it was something they had never experienced before and it drove them to new heights. The environment of the tournament was perfect for Liquid to succeed and if it hadn’t been for those two painful overtime losses against LG in the semi-finals, EliGE believes they would have been able to win the whole tournament.

When asked why Liquid had a problem with choking under pressure, EliGE was extremely transparent stating: “I think the problem in the past, when we would choke in those situations, was really just inexperience. I don’t think we were too disciplined with the way we were playing and if things stopped working in the way we had planned, we didn’t really have any fallback plans. I think that’s why we’re now able to stay composed and close out all these games we should win now.”

EliGE credits one more team for Team Liquid’s success, and the North American region in general, because of their ability to compete against the best teams in the world consistently. When he saw what the LG/SK roster was able to do, he studied them and thought to himself that he and the rest of Team Liquid could do the exact same thing. EliGE was able to emulate a better playstyle by practicing against them and likened them to role models for the entire scene. If they could become champions, there was no reason he couldn’t do it either.

He went on to comment on how information flow across the region was also getting much better. Teams learned how to play better as a team, focused on becoming more disciplined, and studied a more efficient way of playing CS:GO than they had before. With everything happening at the same time, there was a whirlwind brewing in NA CS:GO and EliGE was at the center of it, evolving as a player at a rapid rate through a tremendous amount of practice driven by his competitive spirit.

The next challenge for EliGE and Team Liquid would be ESL One Cologne 2016, which he sites as the best tournament he’s had in his career. “I think the best moment for me was the Cologne run we had. It was a really bad ending in the finals but I think it was the best tournament run we’ve ever had because we beat all of the good teams in that event and that was really awesome.” Once again EliGE stepped up big in the group stage during that event against EnVyUs, delivering one of the more memorable aces of the tournament.

Everyone could see that EliGE had matured into one of the best riflers in the game, and as Team Liquid continued to take down world class opponents he continued to improve and impress us all with his play.

It was only a few months later that Team Liquid made another big addition to the team by hiring zews as the team’s coach. They’ve now spent nearly two years together, and EliGE told us exactly how important zews has been to Team Liquid’s continued success.

“zews is the person who gets the team back on their feet. I think that he’s the only person on the team that really gets everyone back into the game if things are going bad and we need to refocus. I think he’s one of the most integral parts of the team and it really kind of sucks the way the coach changes happened. He’s only able to talk during 4 pauses and I think that really limits the amount of things he can do, so when we’re struggling with anything, be it mental or tactical, he’ll be using those time outs and giving his input and he does a really good job with both of those. He’ll tell us if there’s any opening he sees or tactic he thinks will work. He’ll call a timeout and call out if things aren’t going well or if we’re mentally starting to get out of the game. He’ll always get us back into it.”

For EliGE, zews isn’t the only integral part of the team that has been brought in recently. When asked what he thought about the new Alienware Training Facility he responded that it isn’t just the facility that has helped them improve (when they are able to actually use it due to their constant travelling to tournaments around the world). He also mentioned that having a sports psychologist has helped him tremendously this year, along with the more professional atmosphere in the office.

“It feels like a job when we play from there and I think that’s a good thing. Being able to completely separate work and playing from home I think is really cool so when we’re actually going to the office and practicing until you know, work is over. It’s a really good way to separate things, it makes it way different from just playing in your bedroom.”

The improved practice regiment from Team Liquid, along with a fresh perspective brought in by NAF and TACO, EliGE’s new teammates, have helped push Liquid to the finals of three separate tournaments in recent months. Astralis has been the gatekeepers to EliGE and Liquid’s success, but considering the non-stop travel Team Liquid has been doing to get from tournament to tournament, EliGE believes they’ve been losing to Astralis in the same way each time because they haven’t had the time to improve their gameplay and address the mistakes they’ve been making.

From the bootcamp, Team Liquid was able to watch North defeat Astralis in the final of DreamHack: Stockholm. Certainly, EliGE, nitr0, Twistzz, NAF, TACO and zews all feel more confident heading into London — even if they have to face Astralis again.

“I think now that we have time before the Major we’ll be able to match up against them better and we’ll finally be able to take them out.”

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