daps: "It's not Liquid's job to stay in North America and keep North America alive"

The European-majority roster of Liquid has finally debuted and the new lineup looked very strong, beating G2, who didn't change a single piece during the summer break, in a pretty convincing fashion, despite some errors. Dust2.us' Gonçalo "GoncOak" Carvalho talked with the team's Canadian coach, Damian "daps" Steele, about the series, the new players, and the apparently very hot studio the teams have been playing in.

First series with this lineup, first win and you showed up very well on the first map. The second map was a bit iffy but you end things on Vertigo. How do you feel after seeing this lineup start off on the right foot?

I feel amazing. Even on Mirage, even though we lost the game, we lost most rounds we shouldn't have lost, and even G2 would admit that they shouldn't have won Mirage. Maybe it was the lack of experience together, we were just losing a lot of rounds that we should close out and Vertigo, just showed our mental resilience, we lose a bad map on Mirage and then we come into Vertigo down by a lot, we mount the comeback CT-side. Overall, it's probably one of the best debuts that you could ask for for our team, but also we are not getting ahead of ourselves right now. Early wins at the start of the season don't mean as much, in my opinion. We are just going to take this win and keep focusing on getting better.

I want to talk about Vertigo, because actually Liquid never played Vertigo during this year until today, and Rainwaker never played Vertigo on officials with 500, and Patsi only played the map 21 times during his time with Spirit. What was the thought process in leaving Vertigo open?

The thought process is that, since we are a new team, we didn't write any map off. We did play all seven maps and, while we are not most likely going to do a seven-map pool, Vertigo ended up being the map we were more comfortable on in practice before this event. Patsi was one of the best Vertigo players, correct me if I'm wrong, on Spirit, and even though Rainwaker hasn't played Vertigo recently, at least on his last team, it's a map he even said he prefers over some other maps. It's just sort of a map that fits well with the players we got and the roles and that's the main reason we went with Vertigo.

I want to talk about YEKINDAR now. He has had more time to settle as the IGL of the team. Would you classify him as the leader? Very hands-on?

Yeah, there's always been this notion that YEKINDAR is coming in as this new IGL that's never called a game in his life, but the reality is that even when YEKINDAR first joined Liquid, about a year ago, he and I and nitr0 also, wrote the whole gameplan together, the whole playbook, and YEKINDAR was a huge part of that. Even though he wasn't necessarily IGLing the whole time nitr0 was on the team, there were some times on maps where nitr0 is IGL and YEKINDAR would take over calling and he had a huge voice in the macro as well. He is not as an inexperienced IGL as maybe what is seen in public, he's had a lot of experience calling high-level, and some of our best results of last year were because of the calls he made. We are all very confident in him and he has shown good form while doing it.

Talk to me about Rainwaker and Patsi. Were you expecting such strong showings early on?

We have only practiced for a week, roughly, together but just coming in, Patsi, super impressed with him, he probably, out of the game, has the worst English out of anyone on the team, but in-game he actually is our second voice. We told him that our expectation of him is going to be the second IGL, trying to make mid-round calls and he has stepped up to the plate and made himself very vocal. With Rainwaker, he is more on the quiet side but he is also in roles where he doesn't need to be the second voice or anything like that but he makes the calls he needs to make, and he has been super consistent with us so far playing with him. We are really happy with both players.

Rainwaker showed up in a very strong way today. Is this why you brought him into the team?

Our scouting process took a while. We were doing it over Dallas, after the Major, to replace nitr0, trying to find nitr0's replacement, which was Rainwaker. Honestly, out of all the players we watched, even maybe some higher-known names, people who have more experienced, we enjoyed how Rainwaker played on his previous team, even though he is not as known, he hasn't played tier one. Even though yes, it is a risk to some extent, getting him, just us watching him in-game, we didn't feel like it's much of a risk. Unless he completely crumbles mentally, which he is not that type of person, he is very consistent in his game, he is very composed and I think he's going to have no problem going forward.

Everyone is looking comfortable, but I have to mention NAF. It feels like he has more freedom to do what he wants, is that your game plan going forward?

Rainwaker had some role conflicts coming into the team. NAF has always been someone who's been more vocal about how he doesn't need to be in the roles he was on, he's more willing to do other things, be more supportive even, rather than hard-lurking, so that sort of freed up Rainwaker to go to some of his older roles and NAF is on some of EliGE's roles on some maps, other roles he stayed the same. Obviously, we are still tinkering and figuring out what's best. At the moment, NAF has a little bit more freedom, more supportive roles than he was in the previous lineup.

And oSee is more of a supportive AWPer but today he showed a lot of initiative, can we expect more of that in the future?

oSee is someone who has gotten a lot of flack, especially early on, when YEKINDAR and I joined, but even before Paris, oSee made up a lot of progress in my opinion and that's something we have been working on with him. He is getting more confidence and he has earned the trust of the whole team, he's more willing to go for plays, things he likes to do. We are still figuring out our playbook with the new guys, but oSee is just continuing on an upward trajectory so far, and we want to make sure it continues.

How is it like being the North American villains for the fans, after so many years being the region's #1 team?

I understand the fans' sentiment about us leaving North America. But if you are being super objective with the position Liquid was in, and even our scouting process we didn't completely write off NA, we considered all options. The reality is that, while Liquid "abandoned" NA, really the focus should be more on the tournament organizers. It's not Liquid's job to stay in North America and keep North America alive. When I was playing, North America was alive because the tournament organizers were there, and there was NA Pro League, there was ECS, there were StarLadder qualifiers, there were all these things and that was a reason for staying. Now, if the only reason, and I see a lot of people post this, is to make the Major for free or whatever, that's not our objective. Our objective, while it's nice to guarantee the sticker money and everything, our objective is to win events. And the reality is, being in Europe full-time helps you stay more consistent, you are not constantly going back and forth traveling and jet-lagged. We are going to get better practice, and that's our game plan at the moment.

One last and kind of unusual question. Yesterday, ropz complained about the temperature inside the studio, during the first day HexT was seen struggling a bit with the warmth. Is it very hot inside the studio?

At the first map it was okay, obviously, because no one had been there yet and the PCs weren't running for a while but yeah, I would say the second or third map it was pretty hot. I am standing and I was sweating, I think everyone else was pretty hot, but overall no one really complained though, we just battled through it. Our practice rooms are also hot so I guess we are used to it to some extent. It was hot but not to the point we were complaining or asking for fans, we dealt with it.

So it's not a problem?

For us, today, no.

Liquid will now face FaZe on Monday, in a series where the winner advances to the group finals, just one win away from the Fall Final.