NertZ on Liquid's struggles: "The overall thing I would say is conflicts between players"

Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" of Dust2.us was able to speak with G2's newest addition, Guy "NertZ" Iluz, ahead of his team's debut at BLAST Rivals Season 1 2026 in Fort Worth, Texas.

NertZ spoke about getting his confidence back, the team environment in Liquid, and his expectations for G2's level.

Find the full video interview below with a full transcription underneath. All questions and answers have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

How does it feel to be back in America?

Feeling good, I like being here. Especially in Dallas. I'm super happy to compete here.

Hopefully, the weather isn't treating you too poorly. I know yesterday it was like 35°C, and today it's thunderstorms and hail, so maybe not the best environment to be outside. Fortunately, you're here to play a LAN tournament. How are you feeling about your opening match tomorrow at Ft. Worth? Now you've got huNter- back in the roster when you fielded tAk back in Rio.

I feel super motivated, I would say. For me, I'm happy that tAk did a good job. Now, I'm super happy to compete with huNter-. We did a lot of adjustments, and now we have the main roster like how it used to be. I hope we will show good CS.

Now it seems like you're pretty comfortable with your place in G2 after being swapped for malbsMd mid-season. Do you feel confident in your position in G2? Have there been any more role changes to better accommodate you? What's going on with your introduction into G2?

The team is trying to accommodate me more. There were some things where I didn't feel comfortable, and some things that we changed. More specifically, the way that people are playing around me. This is big for me. I'm getting confidence back. I'm on the right path, and so is the team.

You mentioned getting your confidence back. Does that imply you lost your confidence during your time with Liquid?

Definitely, yeah.

Why do you think that happened? That's something many people are trying to figure out. It seems like players go to Liquid and something happens to them there; they leave the team and start performing better.

One example is YEKINDAR; he had a really tough time there, then he went to FURIA, and he's doing fantastic now. What do you think happened to you, and is there a larger issue we can extrapolate from it?

I think it's a conflict of personalities I would say. I don't think it's about the management in Liquid. For me, it's something with... players, coach, that I cannot point out, what was the reason and how I turned it around, I just started to lose confidence. The overall thing I would say is conflicts between players.

That's quite hard to hear. That seems like a problem that's hard to fix. Do you think there's anything from your teams before that you would recommend to Liquid to get out of this personality funk? What would you do to try to fix the mental attitude at Liquid?

I think you need... I'm not gonna take anyone, I feel like every call Liquid made was really good.

In my opinion, you have big personalities in the team, and you need to have a hierarchy. If you bring a top two coach in the world, this would make the team be on the same page and will know how to handle the big personalities.

For me, this is something that we were missing during my time in Liquid. Again, this is my point of view; maybe I'm wrong. Liquid has incredibly good players, but this is something that could maybe help.

Conversely, maybe G2 is a better environment for you. Do you think that everyone is more compatible personality-wise, they feel more equal to each other? You seem pretty comfortable in G2, and things seem to have been going better.

For me, G2 and Liquid, I can't point someone out. Everyone was nice. For me, it was about the hierarchy.

In that regard, it's good that you've moved on to a team where you can excel. We're going to see you take on Astralis tomorrow in your opener. That team has also had a good season after going international. How do you feel about your chances against them and getting back to that top five position that we expect from G2?

I think Astralis has become a really good team. It was great for them to go international. I haven't played against their international team. Overall, I feel comfortable playing against them. As you said, G2 belongs in the top five. Without a doubt, we will be there. For me, the goal is to be top-five consistently, and I know we will be there.

NertZ and G2 topped their opening series against Astralis with a 2-0 win.