Twistzz on burnout: "exiting Rio fast may have been for the best"

FaZe might have finally secured their Intel Grand Slam at ESL Pro League Season 17 but they have not had a great run of form since, going 2-3 in the RMR forcing them to qualify for Paris through the last chance qualifier and then exiting early from IEM Rio.

The early end to their run in Brazil has given the team a small break from competition, and now refreshed and ready they look to tackle what is the last CS:GO Major at BLAST Paris. Dust2.us' Arnie Petty spoke to Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken before the tournament starts to discuss the teams recent results, the packed schedule and the Canadian stars favourite memory in the game.

Off the back of completing the Grand Slam, there is little the FaZe team hasn't accomplished. however, becoming the last team to lift the Major trophy in itself doesn't seem to be a particularly motivating factor for Twistzz instead he's more focused on ending their recent poor form by having a strong event.

We just want to treat it like any other tournament. Its going to be the last CS:GO major but it wont be the last major of CS the franchise. I think we are more motivated to bounce back from IEM Rio and show what we have been working on in our bootcamp and to have a good event.

FaZe's route to Paris was not easy, after going 2-3 the team had to battle through the last chance qualifier where they ended up beating Cloud9 in the final match despite being 14-5 down on map one of the series. Twistzz believes that the RMR result was a wake up call for the team, but they always believed they would qualify.

I think the wake up call was when we eventually ended up being 2-3 and the shift in mentality went to being able to prepare better for the last chance qualifier. We put our best step forward and worked on many things, I think once we got to the last chance qualifier we always knew we could win and qualify.

After IEM Rio the Canadian rifler tweeted about suffering from burnout, largely due to the packed schedule the team had been forced to play due to them wanting to close out the Grand Slam. Twistzz reckons that their early exit from Rio was actually a blessing in disguise as it allowed the team to refresh and reset ahead of the Major.

I feel better. I think maybe exiting IEM Rio fast might have been for the best because unfortunately, I didn't see a reason for us to even be there because our schedule was so packed. It feels bad as a professional player to say that because you feel like you have just wasted an event. Maybe in hindsight it could have been dodged but obviously, that wasn't possible because we had to accept every event given we hadn't completed the Grand Slam at the time. Exiting Rio fast and having time to rest I think was definitely a refreshing feeling, but that doesn't change the fact the schedule is a bit messed up. I think that's mainly because of the Summer break change because it crammed all the events in basically.

Twistzz also believes that if there aren't alterations to the packed schedule more top teams will pull out of events to avoid exhaustion/burnout.

Probably, but the problem with that now is that the tournaments are just longer. Like Pro League is long, the Majors and the RMR's are long. I think its hard to say because back in 2018 the schedule was packed there was EPICENTER, Starladder and everything you wouldn't realise because there's always another event. Where as now if someone skips a even the quality drops off if a g2 or NAVI isn't there. I think in the future if the schedule is going to be like this you are going to see more teams take precautions on what events they accept and yeah, we would of done the same if we had completed the Grand Slam last year.

At 24 Twistzz has already won everything there is for a player to win, some of it twice over, but that hasn't effected his motivation or desire to win.

I think its just, I want to see what more I can do. I want to keep building and building until, you know in my eyes there is no ceiling, I just want to keep building until I decide enough is enough. For me its just winning, the feeling of winning, I personally hate the feeling of losing more than I like to win. I couldn't imagine doing anything else if I wasn't playing CS.

In a recent HLTV article rain was listed as one of the top 'big game' players, Twistzz attributes this to the Norwegian's calm approach to the game.

rain's a very calm player, he is very meticulous in the way he approaches things. So I think his calm personality and the way he is in game benefits him in pretty much every situation, staying cool. Every team needs that player for G2 jks is that kind of player, we have rain and he's very calm he's not making many calls or stuff in game, he just plays his game and focuses on his role. He plays a pretty difficult role, entrying can be pretty demotivating sometimes because you don't get many opportunities but he finds himself in big matches and he capitalizes on the mistakes other teams make.

As a player who has accumalated a handful of titles and clips over the years, it's no surprise it was hard for the FaZe star to pick his favourtie memory but he did list of a few of his top moments from Global Offensive.

I think, like for my favourite memory in CS if i had to list three it was probably winning our first big event in Liquid, which was IEM Sydney. Then it would have to be, i mean its hard to rate events, winning Katowice for the first time was definitely top three because all of us hadn't lifted a trophy in a while and it was a very redeeming feeling for us. Winning the Grand Slam with FaZe at Pro League, but I think I would probably have to say the Cologne win with FaZe is probably my number one memory.

FaZe's first match of the Major will be against Monte, one of the surprise teams from the RMR and the top seed in the Challengers Stage.