siuhy: "I think reaching the Major pushes us forward"

Liquid had a true resurgence at FISSURE Playground 2, as they've gone from being 0-2 in the group stage, to locking in top four. On top of that, the four victories conquered in Serbian soil practically guaranteed their spot in the StarLadder Budapest Major, which was notably in danger before.

All that happened amidst the chaos created by the announcement that Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken is leaving the team post-tournament to join FaZe. This probably could have broken the team for good, but Kamil "siuhy" Szkaradek said everyone was professional about it, and they're relieved that their Major spot is practically sealed.

"I think reaching the Major pushes us forward," siuhy told Dust2 Brasil after beating Aurora. "It kind of relieved a little bit of pressure from our shoulders, knowing that we are in a somewhat good spot at the minute. I don't know if it's yet fully 100% confirmed, but definitely, we're in a better position than last time."

You can read the interview in full below, which was conducted by Dust2 Brasil's reporter Vitoria Von Bentzeen. All questions and answers were slightly edited for the sake of clarity and length.

I want to hear your thoughts on this game versus Aurora. It was a bit of a crazy game. You guys won Inferno, which you hadn't done in a little while.

Starting with Mirage, we played kind of like how we wanted to play, how we prepared, how we set ourselves up for this game, and not many expectations.

I think we're just playing a lot of risky Counter-Strike at the minute, and obviously, it's working. There are some rounds that we are losing, which are maybe crucial rounds or some rounds that could be 50/50, but that's part of the game. We're playing like we have nothing to lose at the minute.

Going into Inferno, I was a little bit skeptical going into that map because, obviously, it hasn't been our greatest map recently. But again, we took a little bit of a different approach. We didn't aim to play perfect Counter-Strike. There were some messy rounds won, and there were some really nice rounds won. A little bit of everything, and, as a captain, I'm very satisfied with what the team showed, especially resilience.

I think that a player like NertZ, who didn't have the best game on Inferno, gave us two winning calls on T-side and CT-side. So, yeah, sometimes you don't see that on the server, but he definitely deserves some credit for that.

You didn't have the best start in this tournament, but you turned things around. How did you do this?

If I knew, I would do this at every event. Obviously, we were 0-2, and we kind of knew that at this moment, it was like all or nothing, so we may as well play with no pressure. Play risk-free and just see how it goes. I think that's the approach we took, and slowly, game by game, we started coming back.

Before this tournament, you were having a little bit of a hard time, and you were actually in danger of missing the Major. But now you did very well and won a lot of points, and you can still win more. You're going to have a smaller LAN to play on as well. How are you guys feeling about the Major?

The Major is important for every team. So, obviously, us missing out on it would be devastating. We knew that it's a big goal for us to reach the Major this year because we knew we had a lot of struggles, and we knew it was going to be very difficult.

Maybe not that difficult, but right now we're realizing that it's still possible. And it gives us a really good feeling. I think reaching the Major pushes us forward. It kind of relieved a little bit of pressure from our shoulders, knowing that we are in a somewhat good spot at the minute. I don't know if it's yet fully 100% confirmed, but definitely, we're in a better position than last time.

So yeah, it relieves some pressure, and maybe that is also a factor to consider why we went 0-2 and then suddenly started winning games.

Was not making the Major a real concern for you guys, or did you always believe that you would turn things around and qualify?

We are competitors, and for us, winning means the most. Missing out on the biggest event of the year would be very tough, not only individually, but also as a team.

So yeah, we made sure to do everything we could to get that spot, and I think everyone feels that relief of pressure and a little bit of nerves. It just feels good.

Besides winning those VRS points, you also beat some of the top teams in the world in this tournament. When you changed your region to Europe, you had some hard games, you know, you lost some open qualifiers, and lost to an academy team. Do you think that what you have done so far gives a boost in confidence that maybe you were lacking a little bit?

Definitely. We were going through a very tough period, and we were trying to find out like what kind of team we are and what kind of philosophy is in the team, what identity we have.

And, going through all of this, learning the same base fundamentals of the game, it's tough to be consistent when you're going through that period. You need to kind of just work through it, and we're still working through it. It's not like just because we're winning now, it means that we're not working on what we started with.

It's just that it means that now we are at a better spot, and we understand the things that we were learning at the beginning, and we can use it a lot more to our benefit, more unconsciously on the server.

You mentioned that you're playing like you have nothing to lose. Do you think that, maybe, the announcement of Twistzz joining FaZe affected the team in a good or bad way? Do you think that maybe you're playing more freely because of this, and with less pressure? How do you think it affected the team at all?

I think it affected the team, let's say it, in both ways. What I really liked was how professionally we took it despite knowing the news mid-tournament. It can be a big hit for us, but Twistzz himself and the whole team were very professional about it, and how we want to finish this tournament off.

We set ourselves some goals and some rules, let's say. And we just talked through them, and it worked out. So yeah, I think, despite the situation, we got the most out of it.

Do you think, maybe not now because the Major is so close, but do you consider going back to the Americas, and getting some South American or North American players, to go back to the Americas VRS next season?

I'm not sure, I don't think that's in our thoughts at the minute. Right now we're just focusing on the next day, because it's working for us. When we get back from this tournament, we're going to think about it, and we're going to see what the possibilities are.

You said the team heard about it mid-tournament. Was this decision to make the change made by Liquid, or by Twistzz?

I don't think I'm the person to answer that, so I don't know.