Team Liquid battled hard in a back-and-forth final game versus FaZe Clan to make playoffs at IEM Katowice 2023, an improvement on their showing at BLAST Spring Groups. With a big scalp under their belt and some strong performances now behind them, we caught up with Keith âNAFâ Markovic after the FaZe game to discuss Liquidâs expectations going forward in the tournament and for 2023 as a whole.
Sam âAN1MOâ McKenzie, BLIX.GG: Youâre back in the Spodek for the first time since 2020. What are your expectations?
Keith âNAFâ Markovic: I think with how weâre playing recently, especially after last year, we had a lot of good results outside of the Rio Major. Some top twos, top fours, and one top 6; we wanted to bring all the progress we made in the last year into this year, so I think our expectations for this year are to at least get some trophies. I think if we were to end this year without any trophies, it would be a massive disappointment. Right now, of course, weâre happy to make the main playoffs, but we would appreciate it a lot more if we could go deeper and win a trophy.
BLIX: You beat FaZe to make the playoffs. What does that mean for the teamâs confidence?
NAF: Itâs huge. I believe on Inferno, I messed up, I played my two clutches wrong, and those are big rounds to win, and they didnât go my way. There were some rounds when karrigan called halls pops and I was in transition of doing something, and they caught me off guard both times, so when we lost Inferno, I felt a lot of responsibility and disappointment in myself, so going into Overpass itâs about blocking that out and trying to reset. Overpass was our map pick, and we were playing pretty confidently, and everything went well. Mirage, you know, we had a strong T side, and then they came back and made it 11-10, and I think a lot of us were losing pace, but we all stayed in it, but we had some good calls, some good reads. Damien [daps] had a good call about placing oSee to AWP ticket, and we just adapted later on in the half to figure out how to play and get the right kills. In the end, it was a grind, it was a brawl, but luckily we were able to come out with the victory.
BLIX: FaZe has been struggling for a while now. What do you think their issue is?
NAF: Iâm not really sure. I believe they honestly have a really sick lineup, and you can see that in their past results from last year. I donât even want to think about a roster change for them or anything like that. I donât know; maybe there are just some personal issues for themselves. I know rain just had a baby, and they had to put es3tag in as a stand-in at BLAST, so I donât think theyâre at 100% right now. At the end of the day, theyâre a super-stacked lineup, and they’re all super-talented players; theyâve been a consistent top-three team for like a year now. Itâs hard. Making it to the top is one thing, but staying consistently on top is completely different. So, I think theyâre still doing great. I think they came up a little short here; the game was a grind, and it was a brawl, but I think weâre just a little more hungry as a team because, as individuals, we havenât achieved much in the recent years, so weâre really hungry to climb back to where we were in 2019. Iâm not too sure what to say about FaZe, they played good, and theyâve played better, but at the end of the day, weâll have to see.
BLIX: You struggled in BLAST Spring Groups recently. Whatâs changed between then and now?
NAF: I think BLAST Groups, we were experimenting a little bit because, in BLAST, you get a lot of chances. I think we beat ourselves in the ass at BLAST, but then again, I donât know if I can say that because I feel like a lot of the things we did there gave us a good eye on what we needed to do here in Katowice and I feel like a lot of things we worked on there helped us achieve what weâve done here against FaZe and the other teams. We need to keep going and see, but we learned a lot from BLAST, and unfortunately, we didn’t qualify, but at least we have a Showdown to redeem ourselves.
BLIX: Youâre next opponents are Vitality. What are your feelings for that game and particularly ZywOo? Do you think the ZywOo vs. oSee battle will be the most important?
NAF: I think a really big thing is that oSee is performing really well right now. At times he was maybe uncomfortable and more inconsistent last year, but heâs really starting to find his stride and his groove now. I can see that Josh [oSee] is playing really well. Heâs finding a lot of impact with his AWP and even with his rifle; I remember in the Spirit game, he had a lot of rifle plays. I think heâs starting to feel good. YEKINDAR had a really good series here against FaZe, so heâs feeling good; heâs feeling confident. I think the rest of us are feeling confident, especially with the win over FaZe, so we just have to see. I know Vitality will be a strong team, they have ZywOo so we just have to wait and see. He [ZywOo] seems to be their best performer right now but I havenât really focused too much on Vitalityâs game, so weâll just have to wait and see but itâs a confident match-up for us.
BLIX: You said a while ago you feel like youâre not so much a star on this roster. Does the same still stand, or have you put more back on yourself?
NAF: I think, at least back in the day, when I was playing 2018/2019, I was playing more rotator roles, more AWP positions as well, switching hybrid constantly. Whereas now I feel like I have strict guidelines to follow, I want to just follow the game plan that Mareks [YEKINDAR] wants to set up and how he wants to play, I play sites with him so I want to play how heâs feeling. Right now, Iâm strictly playing anchor roles and just lurking, just doing my thing. I donât have any involvement in gameplans or anything like that, I just need to show up and perform. At the end of the day, my job is to perform because, besides that, Iâm not bringing too much else to the team. I just need to show up, play, anchor the bombsites, get my one or two kills, buy time for the team, and just do my thing. Iâm just a lot more restricted individually, but Iâm cool with that; I have no issues with doing that; I feel like Iâm a very adaptable player, and I can find things where I can get kills and have strong performances. If that’s what the team needs from me, then thatâs what I need to do. At the end of the day, I just have to play and do my thing, obviously, itâs a lot different from years gone by but if itâs what the team needs from me, itâs what Iâm going to do.
Cover Image: PGL/Joao Ferreira
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