EliGE on facing Grayhound: "I think it's a good matchup for us"
Liquid had a horrible start to the Major, a surprise loss to Apeks in game one was followed by a close loss to FORZE which sent the team down to the 0-2 bracket. Going into their first elimination match Liquid were heavy favorites against a Fluxo side who looked lost. However, the NA side were taken to the brink by the Brazilians, squeezing out a 2-1 win in unconvincing style.
That match set up a NA derby and rematch of the PGL Antwerp 1-2 game between Liquid and Complexity. Liquid looked like a completely different team in their match today, steamrolling their fellow North Americans in a convincing fashion.
After the match, Dust2.us' Arnie Petty caught up with Liquid star Jonathon "EliGE" Jablonowski to discuss the team's shaky run at the Major, the mood inside the team's camp and their opponent's development since their last Major duel.
After the shaky form Liquid had displayed a strong win was much needed for the team, and their dismantling of their fellow NA side proved a good step in re-installing some confidence in the team.
It feels pretty good, I mean we finally had a game we showed a convincing win over. So that feels good.
Turning the attention to their opponents, Complexity who had a tough run at the Challengers stage, beating out GamerLegion but losing against G2 and paiN. The dismantling by paiN may have robbed the young team of their confidence as they looked flat in the match against Liquid. However, EliGE did give them plaudits for their development since the last time they faced each other on the Major stage.
Honestly, I don't remember Antwerp that was way too long ago for me to remember. But Complexity have been getting better since the year started they were playing a lot better. They just kind of mellowed out, they lost the progress somehow. They started the year off really strong, but the last month has been a little bit of a difference, going downwards a little bit. Overall though they have made a lot of progress since Antwerp.
Whilst it was by no means an easy win, posting their first win on the board in the Challengers Stage seemed to have been an important psychological break for Liquid. The Liquid that turned up against Complexity was a completely different team that battled their way through a three-mapper with Fluxo. The additional confidence seems to have reinvigorated the side as they look to march on.
The main thing was just us getting the win under our belts against Fluxo. We were playing really well before this event, our bootcamp was really good. So it was more coming down to the pressure and nerves, getting the first win down. That was the main thing that changed. We did normal stuff, we did our prep, we were up in time and got to sleep, everything was normal and we just played our game and showed up today.
Shifting the focus to the veto, we saw Liquid play Anubis for the first time at the Major. After being early adopter of the newest addition to the map pool Liquid have seen little action on it over the past few months, playing it only twice in three months. Despite their lack of match reps, Liquid are feeling confident on the map.
We feel really good on Anubis, we haven't played it in a while because most teams wouldn't want to pick it against us. We were the first tier-one team to like, play the most. We had the most maps on that map for a while. So most teams don't want to pick it against us. I don't remember the previous events why we weren't picking it, but we feel really good on it. We felt pretty confident picking it against Complexity today.
With another win under their belt, and a very convincing one at that, Liquid will look to snowball their form as they move on to their 2-2 match and hopefully beyond. EliGE believes that now the team have found their feet at the event the fans can expect to see this version of Liquid moving forward.
You should, we feel really good about tomorrow, we have good matchups to get the last slot. It should just keep getting better and better from here on out, Everyone has found there comfortability. It's just up to us to keep the ball running we are the team that have the potential to go there, but we just gotta do it, that's it.
Asked about their 2-2 match up, Liquid will be feeling confident as they will face Australian underdogs Grayhound. The boys from down under already suffered a 16-0 loss at the event, just the third in Major history, and the North American team are looking forward to their match-up.
Yeah we feel pretty good about it. We haven't played Grayhound for a bit but we have played them in practice and we have watched the games before. I think it's a good match up for us.
Liquid will be playing for one of the final qualification spots in their 2-2 match tomorrow against Grayhound, who lost to NIP 2-0 to find themselves in the last-chance game.
