Jks on Twistzz as an IGL, following TL since StarCraft, and their rookie AWPer’s ultimate potential

Expectations. They can be something to push you forward as you strive to meet them or a heavy burden bound to crush you under its weight. For Team Liquid’s recently built Counter-Strike team the way to manage these expectations is to take each event as it comes. How do you manage a rebuild after a rough few years? You take it one map at a time.

Ahead of IEM Cologne 2024, CS2 fans are eager to see how the fresh faced Team Liquid roster will look. With Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken moving into the role of IGL alongside two new players and a coach recently joining the team, the roster is full of unknowns.

One of those new additions, Justin “jks” Savage, spoke to Monster Energy Gaming about what the expectations of this roster are, how Twistzz is faring on IGL, how the team is building its style, G2 vs. TL, how jks feels about joining TL, and the potential of Polish rookie Roland “ultimate” Tomkowiak.

How has the preparation gone for your first event with Team Liquid?

It's going really well, I think we've had about a week's worth of practice online and then five days of practice at the bootcamp so we've had as much practice as we could. Twistzz had a wedding and the team has been trying to replace two players and a coach, so it's been pretty busy and pretty chaotic, but I think we made the most that we could out of the time that we had. We'll just see how it goes at the first few tournaments.

You mentioned all the changes there, how has the team reacted to Twistzz's transition into the IGL role?

Yeah it's going really great so far. I think he's doing really well considering he's never done it before, he's got a natural feel for the game and of course he's played with FaZe under Karrigan, so he has quite a bit of experience there. Obviously there's going to be hiccups and stuff along the way as he's never done it before. 

It's more just about everyone else on the team trying to make him as comfortable as possible and helping out whenever we can, whether it's inside the server or outside preparing stuff, making new things, reviewing scrims and making changes on stuff we need to improve. It's going pretty well and it's just about us helping him improve as an IGL and take the load off of him a little bit because everything is pretty new to him, overall I think he's doing a really great job so far.

As someone who has a lot of experience in tier one CS, are you finding yourself being a loud secondary voice in the team at the moment?

I feel like that's more YEKINDAR on the team right now. YEKINDAR has obviously IGLed before on Team Liquid and he's come from Virtus.Pro where he played with Jame, who is a pretty decent IGL as well and is pretty smart at the game. 

I think he's [YEKINDAR] got a really good understanding of the game and what's going to happen during the rounds and also outside of the game he has a really good work ethic. So I would say YEKINDAR is that type of guy on the team. Of course I'm trying to pitch in here and there - things that I can do on my side of the map, finding new utility or watching demos and finding new stuff that we can take from other teams or just improving on our own stuff. That's where I shine the most. 

In the game I will always try and help whenever I see something that we can do during the rounds, but that is a work in progress for me just because it's not really something that I have been used to on my previous teams where I've had to help more than is required of me. It's something which I'm enjoying doing, but I wouldn't say I'm the best at it yet. It's something that I'm working on and trying to help him with because I think everyone on the team needs to pitch in and help quite a lot. At the moment we have a pretty good balance on the team with everyone helping, but I would say YEKINDAR is more the second IGL, helping Twistzz the most.

That's the way the team dynamic is right now, whether or not it will change in the future I'm not sure. I think everyone is just trying their hardest to pitch in and help. [...] That's the most important thing.

Have you felt that any individual has stepped up as a leader outside of the game?

I wouldn't say anyone in particular. I think everyone is doing a really good job actually. I wouldn't single anyone out, it's honestly pretty balanced across the board. 

Looking forward to IEM Cologne, how have the big changes in the team affected your expectations as a team?

We shouldn't think we are going to win the event, we should take it one match at a time and make sure we are improving everyday. When you are a new team the most important thing is to get the foundations down and the fundamentals correct, something that we can work on in the next coming months. It is more about taking one match at a time and, other than BLAST, it will be our first official tournament. Everybody wants to make it through the play-ins, of course, and make the actual event. 

I also won the last Cologne, so I would like to make the playoffs to go in front of the crowd. For me that's my main goal, but you just have to keep it realistic and we are just focusing on one map at a time and that's the best way to do things right now.

Team Liquid just had a roster with so much anticipation and hype around it that unfortunately didn't work out, what is the team doing different?

I wasn't on the previous teams so I don't know what the dynamic was or what the expectations were in the previous team. But I would say just going off how it's been going now we are giving a lot of freedom to everyone on the team and we are making sure everyone shares the same or at least similar responsibilities. Everyone's expected to help, give ideas, make suggestions, and just contribute to the team. I couldn't really compare the difference between both teams because I wasn't on the previous roster and I'm not quite sure how the dynamic was at that time, because I think it's quite different with the personalities that were on the team previously compared to the ones that are on the team now.

For you personally, how would you compare this current roster to the previous teams you have played for?

On G2 it was a lineup full of star players, so I feel like it's quite different in that aspect. Whereas on this one it feels more like everyone is trying to share the load, we are trying to play more team oriented. 

I like the way we are going right now because everyone has a lot of freedom on the team where I can contribute properly and evenly, and I think everyone is getting along really well outside the game with the chemistry that we have. I've only been on the team for a month or so, so the mood and the atmosphere is obviously very good and I'll be very pleased if it keeps going this way.

Going back to the origins of this team, when you first approached to join what stood out to you and what drove you to make the decision to join?

I think the roster has a lot of good players on it and a lot of good potential, that was probably the main [reason]. Secondly, of course Liquid is a very good organization and it's an organization that I've been following for quite some time. I used to follow StarCraft quite a lot back in the day. Liquid being a huge StarCraft organization and being founded in StarCraft was something that was pretty awesome for me as well considering this was in 2008-2009, or something like that, during Brood War tournaments where I used to follow Liquid. Then also in StarCraft 2. So having the opportunity to play for this organization is actually pretty funny considering that timeline. For me, that's actually really awesome. 

As I mentioned before about the lineup, you have Twistzz who's one of the most experienced players in the game, who has won everything you can win. So that was obviously a main factor. I've played with NAF before with Renegades back in the day, so I know what Keith is like and we've got YEKINDAR as well who is a very interesting player in the fact that he works very hard, he has a lot of impact in game and the way he plays the game is a lot different to a lot of different people - he's very aggressive. So I thought that would be pretty interesting to play with and I could learn a lot of things from him to develop my game. Lastly, we have ultimate, who is like the rookie in a sense. But he's impressed me a lot in practice and yeah I think he's a very good player and if he continues on the path that he is going he will be one of the best players in the game, in the future.

Those are the main two things, the players and the organization. They are pretty basic answers,but those are the two things you consider the most when you join a team. I have played with some of the players before so I have some experience with them and for mithR as the coach, we actually spoke to him when he was in Apeks. There was a period where they were looking at picking me up as well, but obviously it didn't work out. We had a very good conversation, I think we clicked on a lot of things.

It's great to see you have that connection to Team Liquid. You just gave some very high praise to ultimate there, he's a bit of an unknown entity for many fans. What is it you see in ultimate that makes you think he has this high potential?

I think he has all qualities of a great player if he keeps working hard the way he has been. He of course needs more experience at big events, but overall I think if he just focuses on one event at the time and focuses on improving himself within the team he'll be in a great position. He should try not to put too much pressure on himself straight away coming into a team like Liquid.