Twistzz returns from AFK for revenge against FURIA and an IEM Global Challenge playoffs spot.
Twistzz posts an MVP performance vs. FURIA after being nowhere to be found vs. NAVI.
Liquid finally beat FURIA.
It was a match-up no one really wanted to see—Liquid traveled to their training facility in the Netherlands to spend December finally playing EU competition, only to draw regional rivals FURIA multiple times in multiple tournaments.
Liquid had played FURIA eleven times, already, in 2020 and had lost ten of those matches in pretty ugly fashion. A rivalry that one-sided isn’t much of a rivalry.
But Liquid was out of excuses, and if they wanted to prove to the world they still had the talent to be a top 5 team, they needed to win.
Finally, they took revenge with a convincing, Brazilian-tilting 16-3 beat down on FURIA’s map pick, Inferno. The Brazilians were absolutely fried and basically stopped playing in the last few rounds.
I have to give it up to the Liquid boys—they never got tilted like that vs. FURIA, despite losing ten times out of eleven. CS:GO is a game of momentum, and big time comebacks are always on the cards for a team with confidence.
Speaking of confidence, aim-God Twistzz posted an MVP performance with a 1.43 rating across both maps and a 1.82 rating on Inferno. Phew.
Where the f**k was Twistzz vs. NAVI?
Compare that to yesterday, when he posted a 0.64 rating across both maps and a 0.48 rating on Mirage vs. NAVI, where Liquid started out with a great 10-5 T-side.
As good as he looked, today—he looked that bad only yesterday.
It was a map they simply should not have lost—their own map pick—dropping several rounds where they held an advantage on the way to an ugly overtime. Many of those round advantages seemed to be lost because Twistzz was wandering around with zero map awareness or aim.
Twistzz? Really? What the f**k was that? 70,000+ viewers on Twitch wanted to see that go at least three maps, if only to watch s1mple play more rounds.
Could’ve been bad luck. That’s certainly what I call it when I get tilted in silver rank.
But for the sake of a thought experiment, at least, I wonder if his stream the night before had anything to do with it.
It might be wrong of me to read too much into it, but chat motivated Twistzz to screw around with different screen resolutions while he was practicing (4:3 stretched vs. the 16:9 he’d been using) and unwinding with deathmatch on Mirage. It caused him to uncharacteristically miss heads.
Nothing against the man streaming—looks like the stream set-ups at the Liquid EU facility are dope, and it’s a definite perk of being on Team Liquid. Earn that money while you practice. Build your brand. No problem with that—and no problem with playing EU FPL pick-up games to stay sharp, either.
But fucking around with your game settings for shits and giggles in the middle of the tournament? That’s not practice—that’s self-sabotage.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it. Eventually, he switched back and played well in a pick-up game on Train. But he uncharacteristically bottom-fragged in his second PUG on Mirage, then ended the stream saying his stomach hurt.
Could’ve been just that—maybe he just wasn’t feeling well and it carried into the next day. But it’s not out of the realm of possibility that screwing around on Mirage ended up throwing him off, on Mirage, vs. NAVI.
It calls to mind s1mple’s advice to always “play your hundred percent level,” as he said on a stream back in 2019. “How do you want to be consistent in official games if you don’t know or if you can’t be consistent in any other matches? I don’t understand the question ‘how to be consistent.’ Just play at your max level every time.”
No doubt, that’s part of why s1mple pulls down 50,000+ viewers for his on-stream pick-up games, which are similar numbers to a professional match. You won’t find him dicking around, ever—certainly not the night before a tournament game.
Twistzz made up for it, today—absolutely putting down FURIA. They’re still in the tournament, and everyone’s on level footing headed into the semi-finals.
No harm, no foul?
Not to disparage the man with the best hair in counter-strike, but let’s continue that thought experiment—from an organizational stand-point, would Liquid be a stronger team for responding to that ugly Twistzz performance?
Frankly, did coach Moses have something to say to Twistzz after yesterday? He didn’t stream or play FPL, last night, and he played like he had something to say, today.
Alternatively, if it was just that he wasn’t feeling well, should the NA super-team make the move towards a six-man lineup like Vitality and NAVI?
BIG weekend, ahead—for end-of-year rankings.
On Monday, December 21, the last major tournament of the year will be over, and we’ll have end-of-year rankings from HLTV.
Does it matter, more, where you end the year in the rankings, compared to where you were the whole year? Maybe not technically, but psychologically—closing this ugly year with a decent ranking has to be a confidence boost.
And there should be a good amount of late movement with these results—World #5 BIG took down the World #1 Vitality and World #2 Astralis on the way to the IEM playoffs, plus Astralis knocked Vitality out of the tournament in the group stage.
World #4 Heroic should fall thanks to crashing out of the tournament in the weaker group, and Liquid should bounce up significantly from #17 thanks to wins vs. Heroic and World #6 FURIA.
Taking down BIG on their current run would put Liquid firmly back in the conversation as one of the best teams in the world. That’ll be at 1:30PM, Eastern.
NAVI-Astralis is also a five-star match-up. It’s going to be an outstanding day of counterstrike, tomorrow.