Liquid NAF at ESL Pro League Season 19 – “We need to start showing results”

Team Liquid’s NAF is Counter-Strike’s Mr. Consistent. Having been a constant on the roster since 2018, NAF has seen it all with Liquid, with a 2019 Intel Grand Slam win being his peak achievement.

We were lucky enough to speak with NAF prior to the beginning of Liquid’s Group C run at ESL Pro League Season 19, bringing a ton of interesting insight into the team as it stands right now.

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Daniel Morris: Last time out on LAN at IEM Chengdu 2024 was probably the best showing that we’ve seen from this Liquid roster so far.

What have you guys been working on to make sure that you keep making good progress?

NAF: So obviously, just like you mentioned with Chengdu, I think that was a good result for us. We’re really happy even though we definitely felt like we maybe could have gone forward with how close we were able to play FaZe. But then again, losing to FaZe in the Playoffs in the arena is nothing to be ashamed about. Of course, we were really happy with what we got done in Chengdu.

NAF: Unfortunately, when we went back to Los Angeles, we all had to play the qualifier for the EWC. That was disappointing, not being able to qualify and losing to M80. We just try not to think about that. That was an online event, now we’re back at a LAN event and you know, we’re really confident, especially with the group that we have. We’re feeling confident, we’re all working hard to improve upon our losses and you know, just move forward. Right now, the fanbase for Liquid and the criticizers definitely have a lot to go off in terms of our disappointments. Of course, we want to look for things that people can talk highly about, when it comes to us here at Liquid. Yeah, we’re excited, we’re ready to play and we wanna just show a good face.

Daniel Morris: Just touching on one of those of those disappointments. Obviously, you didn’t qualify for the Major.

How did you guys bounce back from that mentally?

NAF: Of course, losing and not qualifying for the Major was very disappointing. The last time I missed a Major was in 2017, so, you know, obviously as a player, it sucks. Financially, in terms of stickers, and all that for players, and for the organizations it’s very important. Especially for the orgs, when it comes to money and revenue, and, you know, return on investment. I was very disappointed in myself, for my teammates and for my organization.

So yeah, ultimately it just sucked. At the end of the day, you just need to move forward. Luckily with CS, it’s very forgiving, there’s lots of redemption that you can look for, there’s a lot of events compared to other games. Say for example, like Valorant, there’s a lack of games, lack of events. If you do end up losing at the final hurdles of big events you have to wait a while, so luckily with CS there’s a lot more events to redeem yourself in. We’re still moving forward, we’re still doing our best to adapt and improve. Even though going from event to event so close to each other, it can be hard. But yeah, we’re excited to play here at Pro League.

Daniel Morris: You’re by far the longest-standing member on the current Liquid roster. You obviously see a young guy like skullz come in from a South American team into a totally new environment.

With being on Liquid for so long, did you feel like there was any extra responsibility on your shoulders to help him adapt quicker, and if so, how did you take up that responsibility?

NAF: For the most part, I’m pretty to myself. Honestly, I have three very vocal players that like to express how things should be played, how roles should be played with YEKINDAR, cadiaN, and Twistzz. They have a lot of input. Of course, I think skullz took a lot of my roles that I was playing before as a lurker. I’ll have my opinions there but at the same time, he was already doing things that he enjoyed in his roles when he was playing at paiN.

I think, skullz, he’s a very confident player in terms of his abilities and his way of thinking about the game. I don’t wanna like, criticize him, or you know, throw him off page. Sometimes, especially with young players and more inexperienced players, from what I’ve learned in the past, you kinda just wanna let the player play the way they wanna play. Of course, you can share ideas and say what things have been done from experience of playing in the past. So yeah, I share a few tidbits, but my teammates, the three vocal ones, they usually have a lot of things to say. The last thing I wanna do is tell him more things! For the most part, for me, I’m just focusing on my game and the things I should do. If I feel like something is wrong and no one’s saying it, then of course, I’ll share my opinion.

Daniel Morris: It’s FURIA up first for Liquid at ESL Pro League. They got the better of you guys at the RMR, but they’ve had a big roster change in benching arT.

What are you expecting to see from them in your matchup?

NAF: Going into our first matchup versus FURIA, it’s obviously very interesting. As you mentioned they did replace arT, who was their primary in-game leader. Now, FalleN is IGL, and of course, for me, I’ve played on a team where FalleN was IGLing as well. I have some sort of an insight or understanding for the way he likes to call. It’s very exciting; I love Gabriel as a person and as a player; it’s always nice to play a fellow friend and ex-teammate.

NAF: I’m pretty confident; it’s always tough to change a player, that player being your IGL, so that means the system somewhat changes. Of course, they have had prior experience with FalleN – I’m sure IGLing and sharing a lot of his ideas even when arT was on the team. I have my history with him, so I’m sure I have some things and some tendencies to expect and obviously I can share with my team the way I believe he’ll think about the game. For us, here at Liquid, we need to start showing results, so hopefully we can come out of the gates swinging and give us some confidence going further into the event. We’re excited to play, and we’ve just gotta see how the cards fall – we’ll just wait and see.

Daniel Morris: Touching on that need for results…

What would you consider to be a strong result for Liquid this time around?

NAF: I would definitely say that we need to at least reach Playoffs. My personal goal… I’m not sure; my teammates might feel the same, but, I would at least say like a top 6 would be really good. Of course, a top 8 would feel good.

I think we need like a top 6 or top 4, somewhere in that range. It’s very important for our own expectations, our own results and our own mental capacity with the amount of losing that we’ve had to deal with.

It’s also very important for points. With the changes that we made to the team, we lost all our points with Liquid. As a lot of people have seen, it’s been a struggle for us to regain points. When it comes to the points system and the ESL circuit, it’s very important. The higher the placing, the way better it is for us, in terms of invites – just to get the stress off our backs.

Daniel Morris: I wanted to get your opinion on the new map pool, too.

Dust 2 in for Overpass, what’s your take?

NAF: Me, personally, I’m not a huge fan of it, because I didn’t really like Dust 2. I think it’s a very boring map to play. It’s kinda rough to have so many maps that in my opinion that are like, kinda rough. There’s Vertigo, there’s Anubis, even though I know Anubis is a new map. I feel like there’s a lot of changes, especially the B bombsite on Anubis that needs to be changed. Vertigo hasn’t been changed in forever, so there’s nothing new about the map. Aim fights and all that are just very boring. You pretty much just hope for the best that you do win your fights at Ramp or win your fights popping at B.

Now you have Dust 2, where you’re just going to be doing the same old repetitive sh*t. You’re either… you have spawns for Long, you’re taking Long. You have spawns for B, maybe you do a B-rush. You have no spawns? Okay, you’re taking Cat control then you’re making a decision: are we splitting B or splitting A? It’s just the same repetitive garbage.

The fact that they don’t bring in like a new map, or one of the better old maps they used to have in the pool, like Train, or Cobble… of course they ruined Cobble with some updates and it’s just been in a graveyard, completely. But there is Cache, there is Cobble, there is Train. There are way better maps that they could be picking from. I’m sure they’re going off statistics in terms of casual  play. I think I read somewhere that Overpass was one of the lowest-picked maps in matchmaking. If that’s what they’re going based off of, then sure, they can cater to the casuals. If that’s the way it is, that’s the way it is. In terms of the competitiveness… I have to say my opinion, I think it’s probably the worst map pool in my entire CS career to be honest. We just have to live with it, and play with it, be professionals at the end of the day and yeah, just keep on going.