Twistzz: "As long as NA want me as a representative I'll proudly represent the North American scene"

For Dust2.us' final player interview of IEM Cologne 2022, Liam "Slevo" Slevin got a chance to speak to the legendary Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken following FaZe's action-packed victory over NAVI in the grand finals. They discussed the nail-biting match, being the best team in the world, and what it would mean to win the Intel Grand Slam and the Rio Major to end the year.

What a way to end the season, how are you feeling after that best-of-five against NAVI?

It's an incredible for myself and the whole team. Maybe a bit more for me because It's a super special feeling to win this trophy again with a different team and do it in an even more exciting fashion. This is what everyone wants, this is what we want, and this is what the community wanted, an amazing best-of-five final between the number one and number two teams to decide who's the best going into the second half of the year. This might be the best final ever in Counter-Strike honestly.

Like you said there, one of the best finals in Counter-Strike history, going all five maps. What can you tell us about the comms and the energy throughout the finals?

We told ourselves we got this, we just have to keep believing. At the very last half of Nuke, karrigan asked us, "please I just want everyone to give only 20 minutes of everyone's full energy, full focus, full everything and can be happy with whatever result we get." That's what we did, we gave it everything we had, honestly this series showed how close both teams are.

We both had terrible T-sides on Ancient, leading to such an insane game and we got the upper hand on Mirage. We caught them off in the veto by not wanting to play Dust2 against them and you couldn't ask for anything better than a 16-14, all 30 rounds played on Nuke on the final map.

Speaking about giving your full energy, can you tell me about that insane play where you went over Mini where you got two kills to seal the round?

For me the strat that was called pretty much back-to-back but had different variations. It was actually a strat I created a while ago but we don't really use it often. It's called "Canada" and yeah I was pretty upset with an earlier 1v1 I lost against Perfecto. I felt like that was the round that wins the game if I win that. Maybe I shouldn't put that pressure on myself but we took a tactical pause and RobbaN called my favorite round on Nuke and made it happen. Hearing the crowd chant after every entry kill are the moments I live for and my team lives for. I can say my team worked endlessly night and day from Roobet Cup to the end of now, we worked every minute.

This match was built up as being the decisive duel that would decide who the best team in the world is. Can you tell me about that rivalry with NAVI?

karrigan was talking about NAVI's impressive comeback in the practice room earlier, and that this final is going to be one for the history books. This final proves that we're the number one team. The least close scoreline was on Mirage so that one is the deciding factor and then we just pulled through and proved we are the number one for this season.

Katowice, Pro League, Antwerp, and now Cologne. All eyes on the Intel Grand Slam now?

Yeah pretty much. It's still going to take a lot of work and we know how player breaks can be. But I think everyone has it in their mind that we'll end the player break a little bit early and put hard work in for one week, go into the season feeling good, and win some more fucking events.

Rio is coming up after the player break and FaZe are in a prime position to take the Major and the Grand Slam in close succession. What would that accomplishment say about the team and for you as an individual with all of your accolades?

A second Major, a second Grand Slam. To do it at the exact same time would be phenomenal. That actually might be an achievement that would never be accomplished ever again in CS if we make that happen. Maybe again but many years from now. What a feat for an international team to rack up all those accolades and for myself as a player to keep grinding, as long as NA want me as a representative I'll proudly represent the North American scene, I do play for an EU team but we all represent our own countries on this team and that's the best part.

Twistzz and FaZe head into a well-earned vacation confident in their position as the world's best CS:GO team.