EliGE: "Even since joining Liquid I've had a lot of self-confidence issues"

Liquid's dismal season has come to an end with the team suffering a humiliating loss to FlyQuest to end IEM Cologne 2026 with a 2-3 record in Stage One. Following this loss, Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski spoke to HLTV's Harry "NER0" Richards, revealing a team wracked by nerves and pressure while EliGE himself has dealt with self-confidence issues since rejoining Liquid last year:

I think it's been kind of a roller coaster, even since joining Liquid, where I've had a lot of self-confidence issues, I'd say, having a lot more doubts in myself and kind of building that back while also not trying to overstep.

It's not hard to see why EliGE has struggled with confidence since rejoining Liquid in June 2025, with 2026 representing a career-worst season individually per HLTV's career stats.

While EliGE himself has struggled to be the star Liquid needs, there have been broader problems in Liquid, with EliGE speaking at length about Liquid's struggles to pick a direction and sticking to it as a team.

Because there was a lot of different voices, a lot of different ideas of how we wanted to approach the game on this team ever since I joined, essentially. And we went in multiple different directions. I kind of just wanted [laughs] everyone to be happy.

So whatever direction we went, I just wanted to just do that, but it always felt like whatever direction that we went, we weren't fully going into it. So it kind of felt like there was a lot of wasted time in that regard. Like I said, even since the beginning, where we were half doing this, half doing that, trying to make this kind of work with that and this kind of working with that thing.

Well, like I said, I think it's just picking a direction and sticking to it because I think that many things can work. I've been on many, many different rosters and lineups where we played differently, even going from FaZe to here.

In the very beginning, it was very different, but I think anything can work as long as everyone believes in it and we do it. But if there's doubt and we're not fully doing it... I think that in the last month, we were fully in a certain direction, and I think that was good for us. And that's why during this stage, any interviews that we've had, we all felt good about what we're doing, because we're all doing something together and we know it's going to be like this.

This lack of direction has seen Liquid end the season 37th in the world on the Valve Regional Standings (VRS) with Liquid already missing out on an invite to EWC 2026 as a result. With more invites being lost due to poor performances, all eyes will be on Liquid in the off season to see what changes, if any, can restore ElIGE's confidence and give Liquid some desperately needed direction.