Twistzz: "NEO doesn't want to come into the team and heavily implement his style"

FaZe come into IEM Cologne with their sights set high, with the European side aiming for back-to-back wins at the landmark event after laying claim to the trophy on German soil last year. Despite an early loss on the opening match of Mirage, FaZe managed to kick off their IEM Cologne campaign with a solid start, sweeping NIP in the latter two maps of the series to allow Finn "karrigan" Andersen's men to secure a place in the upper-bracket semifinals of Group B.

Shortly after the win versus NIP, Dust2.us' Gonçalo "GoncOak" Carvalho spoke with Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken regarding the series, the recent departure of longtime coach Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström, and his thoughts on the team's impending matchup versus G2.

You guys started off IEM Cologne with a win. It seems you only needed one map to warm up and get into your groove. What can you say about the series versus NIP?

I think we could have had Mirage, I just think our T-side wasn't as we practiced, and we know that if we play the way we practice it would've been a way smoother game. We had a good CT-side recovery, I think we won some half-buy with a saved AK and AWP and we had a good CT-side after that round. The other two maps went as planned. Obviously, they were comfortable on Nuke as well, that's probably why they wanted it as third most likely, and then I think they're just not very good on Overpass at the moment, so we just kinda abused it.

I want to talk about the coaching situation since it's your guys' only change. What do you think of the new style of NEO; how does he compare to RobbaN?

He's just taking it very slow right now. NEO is a very calm person, but he has a good mind for the game and he was a player a couple years ago still, so he understands how things are and he remembers all of his nade lineups and everything, so when he's explaining stuff to us it's a bit smoother than when RobbaN did it. But, at the moment, it's going to take a while to get the comfort level that RobbaN had with us. We're the same people around NEO as we were with RobbaN, and it's more just him getting used to the team and how we are. He doesn't want to come into the team and heavily implement his style, because this is his first time as a coach and he wants to make sure he does it right. We didn't really want that of a coach either, we didn't want a coach to come in and have a style and such a big say in the way we do things, because when you look at our team we already have a very strong core, we've been together for a while, so we don't need someone to come in and have leadership. NEO is doing a great job so far, it's been enjoyable to be with him in the practice room and be in the server with him explaining things, it's nice.

What would you say is the role NEO is playing in the team?

At the moment, just keeping us comfortable and reminding us of the small things. NIP start their gun rounds slow, so NEO on the first timeout was just saying 'Remember guys they have a slow playstyle, make sure to save nades and don't be scared early on'.

Last time we spoke regarding the coach role you said that RobbaN was like the dad of the team. How much of RobbaN and innersh1ne's influence is still on the server?

Oh, I mean innersh1ne was only doing analytical stuff; he was not responsible for any strats. Every strat you see in the server is made by the five players or by karrigan. innersh1ne was more like heatmaps, statistical stuff, AWP percentage, like 80% starting car, etc. RobbaN did pistol rounds for us, and we still remember a lot of the pistols that he said, so when he first departed we were still using some of the most recent pistols that he made for us. Now it's kinda NEO's role as well. RobbaN's pistol rounds may always be there, but for now it's NEO creating them.

You guys seem pretty comfortable not having a coach actively coach you inside the server. Would you say that you don't miss them?

I think the team is always going to miss RobbaN. As much as we can love NEO just as much as RobbaN, we're always going to miss RobbaN, that's just the way it is. He's a very special personality, he's very fun, and if you ever see our vlogs you only see 30% of the way he is around the team. I think innersh1ne, he just wanted to move on to a bigger role, he's a coach and I'm happy for him, he gets to do what he wants to do now. I don't think his stuff that he did for us is missed per se.

You'll face G2 on Monday for a spot in the Lanxess arena. Last time you played them at BLAST you beat them relatively comfortably; are you expecting the same on Monday?

No, when you play teams like this you cannot expect a comfortable win. It's really not supposed to be like that, one could say that they had a pretty big off day against us and we had a pretty good on day. I think this matchup is going to be a lot more balanced, and I think we're looking forward to a good series.

How important is it for you guys to reach the arena and potentially win IEM Cologne back-to-back with CS2 approaching?

It would be very exciting. Personally, I'm looking for a three-peat in the Lanxess, so I'm trying to keep a clean slate. Obviously, I know the guys are talking about how they want back-to-back Cologne, so I would say we want it just as much as any other team.

Is that the main objective before CS2 comes?

Yeah, I mean no one knows when CS2 is going to come. For sure before the end of the year I think that's how it's looking, they're updating the game quite a bit, and there's only three maps [we haven't seen], and after those three maps come out it may be rolled out pretty fast. For now, it's all CS:GO, all the strats we make, we're only playing CS:GO and it's going to be that way until there's an official release.

FaZe will return to action tomorrow at 10:00AM, with the squad slated to face off against G2 for the chance to lay claim to a playoff spot.