Twistzz: "Sometimes I'm the one dampening the good mood, these young players don't deserve [that], so now I'll just bring in the good vibes"

FaZe have likely done enough to salvage their invite to the PGL Singapore Major after beating Alliance and K27 at RLG Tesla Cup, sitting at a 97.1% chance of qualifying on HLTV's simulation page.

Back-to-back last-place exits at FISSURE Playground 3 and Stake Ranked Episode 4 left FaZe with a hole to climb out of ahead of the November 2 VRS update, but a title victory at Roman Imperium Cup IX and wins over Envy and HEROIC at DraculaN Season 7 went a long way in their recovery effort.

"Even though we lost these past events, I think it was really good experience, because you look at teams that are on the rise, you look at 1win, you look at Nemiga, these are teams that play a lot of officials, a lot of in-server experience online against other teams," Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken told HLTV in Belgrade. "And this experience is also benefiting us right now, giving us the benefit of playing together and creating more synergy in the server."

The Canadian captain also spoke about how he and David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský are trying to be better role models for their younger teammates.

"Me and David [frozen], we have high standards for how the team should play, and when things are not going well or mistakes are made, both of us have a really bad habit of getting down in the dump kind of," he said.

"These young players don't deserve to have bad vibes around them always, so now I'll just bring in the good vibes."

We are at RLG Tesla Cup, and now you should be now around 99% chance to go to Major by HLTV VRS predictor. It is only obviously going to get official on November 2nd, but how happy are you with how far you advanced in these standings with these results?

Very happy. The whole focus at this event was that it's an event to win. There's, of course, a Major benefit of having to play well and qualifying, but for us it was not looking at that. For us, we always go to these events and we want to win. We want to prove ourselves and show others that we're here to play. It's a nice bonus, and our form is going up right now.

Do you feel like you're the favorites to lift the trophy?

Honestly, before entering the tournament, I would not say so. FaZe is always a big name, so people expect to see us really far in the tournament always, and we're held to high standards as we should be. But any event win is really big for us. It would go a long way with confidence, but also reassurance that we're doing the right things and going in the right direction.

You've had two really convincing back-to-back wins today. You appeared very energetic; a lot of positive attitude could be seen. How did you put yourself in that state?

I'll be honest and say that sometimes I'm the one dampening the good mood. Me and David, we have high standards for how the team should play, and when things are not going well or mistakes are made, both of us have a really bad habit of getting down in the dump kind of.

These young players don't deserve to have bad vibes around them always, so now I'll just bring in the good vibes. It doesn't matter if I'm 4-15 or if I'm having a good game; I want to make sure these kids are feeling the game and feeling good about themselves, and they play with confidence. I want the best for them.

Do you feel any pressure here, or are you rather confident? If the latter, how did you guys prepare yourselves for this event?

We'll focus on recovery after this event, so mainly it was me and enkay J working in the background after DraculaN. Maybe ironing things out in the playbook, meeting together a lot more, and letting the guys just rest. There isn't really a new approach for the team per se; it's just my vision, I suppose, in how I want to set people up and the energy that I bring, and I think that's a big change. I know David is also working on himself to be a better role model for the guys, so there was an honest reflection after the past events.

Even though we lost these past events, I think it was really good experience, because you look at teams that are on the rise, you look at 1win, you look at Nemiga, these are teams that play a lot of officials, a lot of in-server experience online against other teams. And this experience is also benefiting us right now, giving us the benefit of playing together and creating more synergy in the server. It's also very useful for me to see how the team is operating on a consistent basis.

It's a little bit of a different type of schedule that you were having with these tier-two LAN events. How was it for you and how comfortable are you in such an environment?

Honestly, very comfortable. People can say what they want to about DraculaN, but honestly, if there were not three BO3s in a day, then what would be the special experience of going to those events? Each of them needs to find something that separates them from one another, or else they're just all the same, and I think these events are doing a good job at that.

It's different formats, it's high-octane CS, it's chaotic, it's a nice LAN environment. I enjoy it, even though the goal is to eventually not be at those events, but it's not something to be ashamed of to play these events. I think it's fun and it's part of the process.

And speaking of tier-one LANs, you will be playing in Beijing. Do you think you are ready to go back into the tier-one circuit and be competitive there?

I think we can be competitive there, for sure. Honestly, you look at these teams and at the end of the day we just have to play our own game, and we need to trust and believe in what we're building. Everyone is doing a great job of that, and it doesn't matter if we're playing like Sangal or whatever team; we play our game the same way that we would play our game against Vitality or Spirit.

Overall, that's the goal: to not be shocked by the names on the server or what they might bring. At the end of the day, it's up to us to really show ourselves the way that we want to play, and that's what matters most.

It's the opponents that need to be shocked by your name, right?

(laughs) Yeah, at the end of the day, we accept where we are. Obviously the more momentum that we build in the server, maybe people start getting worried about us a bit, but the goal has always been to play CS that we're proud to play and we're taking pride in that. We're trying to block out the noise. Of course, we have analysts, we have anti being done in the background and stuff, but at the end of the day, we just need everyone to stop overthinking and let's just roll with what we got.

Envy

Bryan 'Maka' Canda

Lucas 'Lucky' Chastang

Kévin 'misutaaa' Rabier

Jeremy 'Kursy' Gast

Filip 'Graviti' Brankovic

Damien 'wasiNk' Dufour

FaZe

David 'frozen' Čerňanský

Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken

Ryan 'Neityu' Aubry

Jakub 'jcobbb' Pietruszewski

Jason 'JBOEN' Boe Nielsen

Niclas 'enkay J' Krumhorn

Alliance

Simon 'twist' Eliasson

Sean 'eraa' Knutsson

Jonatan 'bobeksde' Persson

Markus 'upE' Johansson

Arvid 'avid' Åberg

Simon 'Hawk' Vävinggren

David 'frozen' ČerňanskýPast 3 months

K27

Timur 'clax' Sabirov

Daniil 'X5G7V' Maryshev

Aleksey 'xeedo' Mikulich

Danila 'kashl1d' Dronov

Daniil 'qw1nk1' Kabilov

Dmitry 'Twizell' Rygin

Russel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenPast 3 months

HEROIC

Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin

Linus 'nilo' Bergman

Tim 'susp' Ångström

Antonio 'MartinezSa' Martinez

Christoffer 'Chr1zN' Storgaard

Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer