NAF on first game performance: "I felt insane"

Liquid had the pleasure of playing first in the Americas RMR, taking on 00 Nation in their opening matchup. Although the game was thought to be an exciting and nail-biting match, the result was anything but. Liquid rolled out to an 11-4 half on their T-side, and didn't let a single CT-side round slip through their fingers to a dominant victory.

Spearheading the Liquid assault was Keith "NAF" Markovic, who ended the map with an astonishing 1.84 rating.

When I played the first round, I felt insane. I’ve already played a whole day of practice pretty much, like I’ve been DMing for the last ten hours. I noticed straight out of the gate I was feeling good, so I just ran with it.

However, the RMR hasn't been all dandy for Liquid. They, along with every other team in Monterrey, have dealt with technical issues the whole day, along with a slew of power and internet problems for a few days before the tournament. The technical issues caused Liquid's game to begin two hours later than scheduled.

A lot of us have been around for a long time, we’ve dealt with plenty of technical issues. Whereas 00Nation have younger players in latto and dumau. A lot of them probably haven’t dealt with this situation where you have to sit around for hours, start daydreaming and falling asleep. For us, we’re fine. We’re making jokes, we’re cracking up. If anything it gave us more energy to play.

Now that the first game is out of the way, Liquid look forward to their next match for the opportunity to go 2-0 in the first day and sit just one bo3 away from Paris. They won't know their next opponent until all the opening matches have been played though, but it will be a member of the 1-0 pool.

If I had to pick three [opponents], FURIA would be cool. I don’t remember the last time we played, so it’s always cool to play a team you haven’t played in a long time. paiN would be a nice to beat, I think they beat us the last three times we’ve played. We lost with shox, and then we lost to them in [ESL] Pro League and the online qualifier [for BLAST Spring Finals]. And then Complexity as a third. Obviously we have a lot of history with each other, a lot of the guys we talk to each other all the time. We usually have their number when we play, so I’m always down for a win against Complexity.

One team NAF specifically mentioned was paiN, who have eliminated Liquid in their last two tournaments, ESL Pro League and BLAST Spring Showdown. paiN have steadily improved through the world rankings in the past few months, taking big scalps and promising placements, even achieving playoffs in the most recent ESL Pro League.

They’re a team for us to beat. They’ve been kicking our ass so much. They’ve been playing really well, their players have been getting a lot better. Their AWPer, zevy, is usually pretty good. skullz too. biguzera coming up as an IGL, he wasn’t their IGL before. I think he’s doing a phenomenal job with how he’s running things. A lot of their players are stepping up and getting a lot better. Props to them, they’re playing really well.

Liquid's next match is indeterminate as of now, but they will play a BO1 later today as part of the 1-0 pool.