Liquid CadiaN on Twistzz’s renewed motivation, YEKINDAR’s potential, zews’s leadership and Liquid’s future in CS2

It’s time for a brand-new era of Team Liquid Counter Strike.

Has there ever been a Team Liquid Counter Strike team with this much hype surrounding it? The return of the prodigal son, the perfect opportunity for a young Brazilian, and the chance for a world-class coach to work with another incredible AWPing IGL.

There’s too many storylines to choose from, but the best place to start is at the heart — and “heart” is what Casper "cadiaN" Møller is all about. The new Captain and IGL of Team Liquid is a screaming and shouting force of nature who creates a team environment where every player is ready to go to war for one another. Now he has the chance to create an international powerhouse as Liquid return to the Americas.

He sat down with Monster and spoke about his transition into Liquid, what he hopes to achieve, how CS2 has changed his calling style, and which player convinced him to join.

Congratulations on officially joining Liquid! What enticed you to join Liquid over, say, staying in Denmark?

For me joining Liquid, there were a lot of things that had to align in order for it to be a perfect fit. There's no denying that I was talking to different organizations but Liquid is an organization that I've always had tremendous respect for. I knew that Liquid would definitely be interested in trying to regain the position they have been in before.

I saw that I could be a good addition for the AWP role, and I knew that they would probably need some new leadership in order to make YEKINDAR comfortable again and make him the player that he can be. So there were a lot of pluses for going there. When I figured Twistzz was also interested in coming, I had some initial talks with him [and] that's when I knew that this would be my next step.

You mentioned the leadership aspect there. Coming in, what's the one thing that you really want to work on as an IGL?

I want to [introduce] my philosophies and I want to learn new aspects of my philosophy too. I want to get tested, I want to get challenged, I want to improve, I want to make sure that it's a team with a lot of energy and that there is this feeling of friendship and camaraderie. I know how much it means to have good people around you, and I think the group of people that we have collected here is giving us every opportunity to move in the right direction.

Coming into this team, can we expect to see a very similar system to what you had with heroic, or do you come in with a new mentality?

Even though I'm going to try to bring my thoughts and my philosophies, it's also four different players and a different coach, so everyone needs to be comfortable. Everyone needs to believe that it's the right way of playing.

So I think that people will definitely see some similarities, because as a captain, and as a player I am very vocal, and I know what I think is the right way to play, and I'll try to push that

as much as possible. But I think there will also be maybe 5% more freedom in this team, due to [having] a lot of experienced players and people who I can trust on making decisions.

In terms of YEKINDAR, what do you think you're going to do to unlock that next level in his game?

I think we need to just make him confident again, and understand what his strengths are, and maximize that potential. It's not easy to become an IGL, even though you have the right ideas, and you know how to play the game, and you're very clever about it. You also need to be a leader outside the server, and you need to do it day in and day out. That is very hard when you're young.

YEKINDAR has a great mind for the game, but I still think that for the time being his strength lies in entry fragging and initiative in the right moments, and not necessarily having to call every round.

EliGE has also been very vocal about YEKINDAR’s game sense and knowledge.

Have you had much of a chance to talk with Zews? And if so, would you say that you have a joint vision for the team?

I talked with him a few times before putting my signature on the paper, because I think that it's very important that the coach and the in-game leader have a similar vision, not just of how to play the game, but also how to handle things outside of the game. I think he's a guy with tremendous experience, both in-game and in life. He's the guy you can lean on, he's the guy with authority and respect, and you can feel his passion for CS and for this project. He's already now pushing me to become better, and that's exactly what I need. I am not done learning yet.

What is the first target that you're setting for your team?

The first target might not sound so ambitious, but it is qualifying for the Major in Copenhagen. I don't think I need to speak about the results of the players who's coming here. But we're starting from scratch, right? It's the first time that skullz is playing in an international team, YEKINDAR is moving away from the IGL role, it's the first time in five or six years that I'm communicating in English in the team. There's no foundation. There's only NAF and YEKINDAR who have played together before really. 

So I think right now it's one step at a time, practice has been going really well. We started out with a bootcamp where we went to a retreat and we defined the team culture, and got to know each other very well. We have connected with a mental coach, Mind Body Esports, and he's been doing a great job. 

The clean slate that you have as a team, do you see that as a positive?

Yes, because everyone has a good chance at defining themselves as the player and person they want to be. No one is judging and no one is coming in with a feeling of "you are this way" or "you have to be this way." 

I'm especially feeling that Twistzz is also very re-energized. He's feeling that he has a bit more of a say in the play style and how to do things, and he's been really good at helping us transition into CS2, because he's by far the one who had the most success and the most experience in playing it. He's shown a lot of heart outside the server too.

Speaking of your ambitions with Liquid, you've set the expectations quite low for now, but just to set them a bit higher, Liquid haven't won an offline trophy since 2019. When do you expect to end this?

[Laughs]. That's a long while, and it's a good question. I don't want to put a timeline on it. [...] I think that there's going to be a lot of expectation for this roster and we're working the best we can to try and manage those expectations. Expectations are also coming from people knowing that it's a good captain, it's good players, it's a good organization, and it's a good coach. Time will tell.

An easier question to answer might be what do you see this team's ceiling as?

There's not a trophy that this team cannot win. A lot of it is about continuing the trend that we have already started in terms of work ethic and team culture. I mean, Twistzz has won more or less everything and NAF won a lot too, including the Intel Grand Slam. I had some very good wins in Heroic too, and I think that kind of experience combined with YEKINDAR and skullz being very hungry to prove themselves at bigger LANs is what is going to drive this project. 

Moving away from the team expectations. This is a return for NA for you, how would you say the scene has changed since 2016, 2017, 2018 when you last played in NA on Rogue?

I think that the NA scene was actually really strong the last time I was playing in Rogue. It had Liquid, Complexity, NRG, Rogue, and there were like four or five more American teams that were really good. Then there were all these strong South American teams back then, with LG, SK, MIBR, Immortals. I think the Pro League was really strong back then.

That also helped the practice environment be better in NA. So that has probably dropped off a bit, but it's too early for me to paint the bigger picture until I've stayed for long durations. [...] I'll do my best to put Liquid and the NA fans in a good spot.

At Heroic you built a legacy around having the out of server camaraderie that you mentioned, what legacy are you hoping to build at Liquid?

I want to build a legacy with the big trophies. I think that a lot of the trophies that we won at Heroic were not the two or three biggest trophies that you could win that year. We had multiple stints at world number one, so I'll try that too. 

One thing is winning the big trophies, but another thing is also keeping a healthy team environment in terms of making people enjoy coming in everyday for work and for grinding. I want people to have fun. I want people to respect me as a captain. Overall for sure in my career, I would love to win Cologne, Katowice, and the Majors, but I also think creating something that everyone in this room is going to look back on with a lot of pride is also a goal, and it's a goal that is hard to measure by results.

Let's talk about Valve's newest game. The switch to CS2, would you say it has impacted the way that you call?

Yeah, I would say there's some things that are definitely different in terms of tactical opportunities, mostly it's the sky box, and nading the smoke. You can make some more small gimmick plays with the nade now. Other than that, for me as an AWPer I'm still trying to find my groove with the AWP. It has definitely been a bit more difficult than in the previous iteration of CS, but I think a lot of the knowledge I have of how to play and how to move in the map and how to play in specific scenarios is very similar.

Compared to your initial thoughts on CS2, how do you find the game now?

I think I expected things to be worse honestly, but I also see that there are still quite a few areas where they can improve the game drastically. The only thing that can annoy me a bit is not so much the progress of the game in its current state, but it's more like, why can you change the cl_lefthand and these other smaller commands. Because in theory, they should be pretty easy to fix, whereas some of the bigger ones like peekers advantage and movement, maybe that is a bit more difficult. I'm not a game designer or anything, those are just my thoughts.

You mentioned your last dance in Copenhagen there, obviously the end of Heroic wasn't exactly straight forward, would you say that gives you extra motivation to succeed now with Team Liquid?

For sure, but I also think that I want to settle in. It's a lot of change for me. Speaking in another language, meeting all the people here in the organization, both teammates and staff. Wearing a different jersey for the first time in more than four years was also a difficult feeling in the beginning, though I'm getting more and more used to it day by day. 

My motivation is at an all-time high, I still feel like I have a lot to give, I have a lot to learn still. I couldn't have wished for a better place to continue my journey.