EliGE: "We have a really good structure that everyone feels confident in"

Liquid's debut game in the knockout stage of the BLAST Premier Fall Groups slated the Americans against NIP after the Swedish organization beat Evil Geniuses. Ahead of this match, long-time Liquid star Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski spoke with interviewer James Banks, with the two touching on the vibe of the team after Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis' addition, how Nick "nitr0" Cannella has returned to his old form, and how NIP has been performing at this event so far.

What's the feeling of the team and the general vibe of it all, because I would say for me this is the first time I’ve been excited about Liquid in a long time, so I’m guessing you guys are feeling that as well?

Yeah, we definitely are, I think that we have a really good structure that everyone feels confident in. I think it’s easier to play with the structure we have as well, compared to, you know, the first couple of months of the year. So overall I think that we have a good system going on.

And what I’ve definitely seen is nitr0 coming back, he looks like he is back in his element now, but also since daps has been there for two months. How much is that helping, what kind of changes has he been able to implement, is he going in a different direction than you guys wanted to see?

Overall, the name of our game so far has just been adding structure, so that’s been the main focus for daps, for YEKINDAR, for nitr0. So overall that’s been the goal and I think that it’s been the most impactful thing we’ve had, just making sure we have a good foundation, making sure people aren’t able to read us well, and hitting the timings we need to or knowing what timings we need to break. I think all of that has been really important to how well we have been playing.

Looking at NIP, yesterday’s game versus EG, obviously was closer than what many of us expected, but how much can you read into that going into this one, because that didn’t look like the NIP we normally see and normally I would be saying this kind of matchup should be close between you too.

Yeah, I thought that NIP was gonna come into this tournament pretty hot, because they have a really good-looking roster, but ever since they started playing here, they didn’t have a good group stage so far, they didn’t look that strong against EG. I mean, we have moments like that but I think we have looked better than them, I think they are definitely going to feel like they are on the back foot and we are also going to have an advantage coming into the vetos so I think it’s gonna be a hard game for them.

oSee is going up against Es3tag. Is oSee going to be farming or we are giving es3tag some respect now as the AWPer?

I have a lot of confidence in oSee right now. I think that he has a lot of moves he can do against them and really put his foot down on them.

Liquid ultimately won their game over NIP 2-0. The American side will now continue on in the BLAST Premier Fall Groups to face Heroic on Saturday at 10:30AM.