nitr0: "EliGE's always wanted another aggressive rifler so we got YEKINDAR"

Liquid made waves before IEM Cologne with the announcement that Latvian star Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis would be standing in with the team for the event. Sure enough, there were many bright spots delivered from the European talent and his team in their debut.

After a grueling three-map loss to Spirit, Dust2.us' Liam "Slevo" Slevin had a chat with in-game leader Nick "nitr0" Cannella to discuss the loss, finding positives in the loss, YEKINDAR's addition, and much more.

I'm here with nitr0 after a very tough loss to finish out the day here, very close game on Ancient against Spirit. Walk me through the series, what was going through your head and with the team?

I think we had a good game plan going into the series, we knew what the maps were going to be, at least two out of three 100%. So we went through all of the scenarios, we got the maps that we wanted, we couldn’t close on Overpass, and on Ancient we got so many chances and it was just little micro details. So, once we watch it back we just need to fix all of the mistakes and then just improve on from there.

Obviously, you guys added YEKINDAR, which makes four players that could possibly be star players on other teams in your team, with you as the IGL. On Dust2 and throughout the entire series you were really putting frags on the board. How does that feel for you personally as an individual?

It feels good. It’s not something that is as consistent as I’d like it to be but I think that practice has been going pretty well for me individually so I was definitely confident coming into this event, individually and as a team. I think it showed in some rounds here and there that I still have what it takes to be on the top of the scoreboard whenever I have a good game. I didn’t do anything special I was just feeling the game.

You guys have brought in daps recently. How much has he been able to implement in the short time he's had with you as an IGL?

He’s been great. He’s provided a lot of structure and just a lot of different ideas. He obviously stayed inside of CS for a decent amount of time while I was in VALORANT and then he swapped to VALORANT for a little bit, didn’t like the game, and then swapped back to CS and made a team and caught back up with how things are in CS. So, he’s been in CS pretty much the whole entire time and I think what he provides for us that is really nice is an open environment where we can constructively criticize each other, have discussions better, have results from those discussions, and then, agreeing on stuff, and then just providing more structure on how we play.

What is it like working it daps to make sure all four of your star players can shine?

Obviously, YEKINDAR and EliGE had a little bit of a role clash there in the beginning so we had to work out some kinks here and there. But, obviously, everyone has talent on the team and it shows almost every round. We can turn any round around, that’s the beauty of having individual talent around your team. But, everyone is good at this game nowadays and anyone can hit shots, and it feels like everyone is so good. It’s not like back then NiKo and s1mple really stood out as riflers but now it’s like everyone is pretty good at rifling.

You mentioned the role clash. What specifically did you have to work out to accommodate the two of them?

Obviously, both of them are innately aggressive, so one of them had to take a step back. Jon (EliGE) took some steps back in some roles, and he’s learning them, and he’s just done his roles his whole career and he’s always wanted another aggressive rifler so we got YEKINDAR. You can’t just have two people in the same role, so one of them has to, checks and balances sort of thing, and I think he’s doing great.

Coming into the event with a stand-in on short notice all things considered, what were the expectations heading in to this tournament?

After the boot camp we had, which ended up about nine days of practice, we were feeling pretty confident. We had really good results in practice and YEKINDAR is an amazing player and he’s been helping us a lot. I think we have a really good chance of making it to playoffs and go on from there. Whatever happens from there after that happens and we will keep rolling with the confidence.

Last question, looking at your countrymen in Complexity that got sent home early from the Play-In. There are great talents in the team, but why do you think they haven’t been working out as a team in your opinion?

That is hard to say. I think their mentality is in the gutter right now and if you read their interviews you can see glimpses of a loser mentality. They just need to have a really good bootcamp and go from there. Obviously, roster changes are a last resort. I’m not going to sit here and say they need roster changes, they are still a team. If I were them, that’s what I would do.

Liquid will begin their lower bracket run tomorrow versus the loser of FaZe/00 Nation tomorrow at approximately 06:30AM.