MindBodyEsports: "skullz has been a sponge so far"

Liquid came into the Americas RMR a mostly unknown entity. A skill ceiling as high as any other team anchored by a skill floor that they seem to play nearly all the time, Liquid should still have had the raw mechanics required to get through the Americas RMR unscathed. However, unscathed is not the word anyone would use.

Closer games than they would like and a loss to FURIA put them in the 1-1 pool early on, but a victory against BOSS on the third day placed Liquid just one match away from qualification. After the match, Dust2.us' Daniel "Scoobster" Khurgin spoke with a high-profile member of Liquid's support staff, Edward Cleland of MindBodyEsports about his role in the team and his tenured resume.

Please note that the full interview can be found below on YouTube, while the transcript has some key snippets from their conversation.

People may know you for your resume with previous teams, but they may not know what it is you exactly do. Some may call you a sport psychologist but you don't like to call yourself that at all. So, what is it you do?

Well I'm not a sports psychologist. That's why I don't like that term. I am a mind-body medicine practitioner. It's a different form of education. It overlaps with psychology and sports psychology, it pulls a lot of elements from psychology, but we deal with the whole body. The body, the mind, nutrition, movement, mental health, all of the above.

How has it been working with Team Liquid over the past few months?

That's a pretty broad question. It's been great in a lot of ways. These guys are really incredible people. The organization is fantastic, the leadership is fantastic. I think we're all on the same page for what we want, driving the ship together. There's always bumps along the way but it's been a great trip so far.

With this Liquid team, there's four strong players who've had their HLTV Top 20 awards and then you also have skullz who is on the quieter side, picked up as an upcoming talent. How is it working with him and trying to adjust to working with big names?

He's been a sponge so far. It's been great working with Felipe, skullz. Really sweet, really open. Direct and honest and kind. Really great talent. I think it's important for us to continue to put him in the right position so he can thrive. I think we're doing a good job of that. He's not just taking a back seat. We really are striving for a quality on the team. He speaks up, he uses his mind. I think he's dong really well to grow with the group.

When you were working with G2, you said that m0nesy had a role model in NiKo. Does Felipe have someone like that on the team?

Good question. Yeah, certainly Russel, Twistzz, is someone who he looked up to before he came here. Even seeing them develop that relationship early on, that's a really nice mentor-mentee relationship they've formed. He's doing a good job learning from everyone, but I certainly see him and Russel bonding really well together.

Going back in time, you worked with the Nouns organization, both on the DOTA and Counter-Strike side, how was it working with them?

RUSH and I, Will, worked with the CS team. RUSH was their point person, along with Demonte who is a League of Legends guy, he worked with them as well. I was specifically with the DOTA team, but I did consult and help with the CS team as well. This is actually the first time I've met them in person, is here at this event. It was really nice to meet them, I was hoping for some better outcomes for them. I know how hard they've worked and made some changes to get here. That's a great organization, great people, Sasquatch and all below him, SEMPHIS and all those guys. Really good guys. I believe in their long term project. I think that they have a good group of people working towards a good long term vision.

Moving back even further in time, you worked with Evil Geniuses, specifically with their League of Legends team, but you also said that the Counter-Strike team wanted to work with you but there were some roadblocks in the way. Could you speak to that?

I had some players on the CS team that I had worked with previously and was close with. autimatic was one of my private clients for a little while. Tim and I worked well together. I believe what happened was they were needing some outside help and perhaps management put a block to that for whatever reason. They weren't interested in offering them more resources at that time.