EliGE: "Map pool-fake cs2 case opening

Following Liquid's triumph over ENCE in the grand final of Dallas, we spoke with Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski to discuss his first MVP award, the team's form in Texas and the grand final series.

Liquid were crowned champions of DreamHack Masters Dallas 2019, following a nail-biter of a grand final against ENCE, where the local representatives managed to out-grind the Finns, securing a 2-1 series victory.

EliGE mentioned that cs_summit played a large role in the result in Dallas

Upon conclusion of the tournament, we spoke with EliGE to get his thoughts on securing his first ever MVP award, the team's approach to a difficult opponent in ENCE and his overall thoughts on the grand final series.

You are holding your first MVP medal after what proved to be a spectacular series against ENCE. Tell me what's going through your mind.

It feels really amazing. I've been playing this game for a really long time and I think that I've been playing good/decent for a little bit, and I think I still have a lot more to show. Being able to play really well and secure the victory for the team makes me feel amazing.

This victory could place Liquid at the #1 position of our rankings. If this happens, how substantial would you say this achievement would be for the team?

I think it's amazing, it would be the highest placement that we've ever had. Second place on HLTV has always been our peak, so even just touching first place is going to be amazing for everybody, it's going to give everybody a little boost in confidence by showing this is possible. Maybe it was in the back of other peoples' minds that we weren't able to do it, but now we're actually hitting number one, so it's going to be awesome.

This run in Dallas - you dropped as few as two maps over the entire event. In an interview with Twistzz, we discovered that the team wasn't too happy with the setups over the course of cs_summit 4. How did the squad manage to adjust to produce such a dominant showing in Texas?

I think it was actually a really good thing that we ended up going to summit. We got a lot of Nuke practice. Before the event, I think that our map pool wasn't looking that good, and playing so many Nukes, getting so many reps on it to expose our bad setups or the things that we need to work on, was a really good thing for us. I think it's what secured us the victory because I think otherwise ENCE would've picked Nuke, and we wouldn't have been as good on it. It would've been a different series.

Over the the past month, this is Liquid's second tournament title. It must be a monumental moment, particularly in the context of Liquid's "curse". The squad must be elated with the result.

When you're in a bunch of finals, and you don't get to actually achieve first place for a little bit, maybe some people lose confidence when you get to the finals, or get doubts in their head. Having two victories in really big tournaments - I think that's going to help everybody in the next ones to come.

ENCE have notoriously been a tricky match-up for you, ever since the Major quarter-final. Going into the series, talk to me about the approach you took on going into the grand final.

Honestly, we did a lot of homework, we already knew how they played on Inferno because of how we played at the Major. I think that they played pretty much exactly the same, and we were thinking that they'd pick Nuke or Mirage, and they ended up picking Mirage. I think that we've worked on our Mirage so much recently, that it countered the style that they were able to beat us with in Katowice. I think, just map pool-wise, we were feeling a lot better.

When we looked at their Overpass, we thought that we're going to be able to take that map. They actually put up a really good fight and ended up beating us on it, so I think that was really good from them.

Lastly, you are missing the upcoming ECS Finals in London after falling short in the regional qualifiers. What did you make of the new format?

I didn't really like it too much, because three weeks were the ones where you were able to qualify, and for teams that are going to be traveling so many weeks - we can't go to every single qualifier, especially online. I think that it's not the greatest, especially since other teams can qualify while we're not there. I think I would've liked something a little bit more condensed or just a completely different format in general. I didn't really like it.