Team Liquid’s CS2 head coach Viktor “flashie” Tamás Bea was one of the reasons why Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski returned to Liquid after spending the last couple of years with Complexity and FaZe Clan.
In an interview on Liquid’s own website, EliGE talked about how important it is to have a good relationship with the coach.
Flashie and I already kind of knew each other because he was the coach of my fiancé’s team, CLG Red, in the past. We’re already familiar with each other, and I’ve always thought he was a smart guy.
We talked more about the game, how we see things, and just hearing about the structure on Liquid was really enticing to me, because I feel like we’re speaking the same Counter-Strike. I think that when we’re all on the same page about how we want to communicate ideas and how we want to go about things, it just makes things a lot easier.
EliGE likely had other offers since FaZe benched him in August, but perhaps he prioritized joining a team he’d fit in. After all, it’s clear that he left FaZe because he had different ideas than Finn “karrigan” Andersen.
The American superstar was putting great numbers on the server, even though FaZe were underperforming as a team. But karrigan himself admitted in an interview with HLTV that EliGE didn’t fit FaZe.
“It’s no secret that we weren’t on the same page,” karrigan said earlier in September. “We tried everything to work it out as a team, everybody sacrificed a bit, EliGE sacrificed, I sacrificed, everyone else did something to kinda make the philosophy and the vision work […] but in the end we always have to be on the same page.
So, the fact that EliGE and flashie sees the game the same way was clearly decisive for his decision to return to Liquid and replace Russell “Twistzz” Van Dulken.
EliGE won’t make Liquid accommodate him. Credit: Michal Konkol | © BLAST
Instead of making Liquid adapt to his needs, EliGE said that he’ll do whatever the team and flashie need.
For my role, I’m going to see what I need to do on the team, because I think I need to shape myself to be what the team needs. So, if the team needs someone who’s a louder voice, taking charge a little bit more, kind of how I was on Complexity, then I’ll do that. Obviously, I’m going to have my ideas — that’ll never change.
I’m always going to be trying to offer up solutions, trying to be really active for my position, being a very malleable person and player. And I really believe in the structure of everything I’ve heard on Liquid.
I’m just going to be trying to fit in as well as I can and have a good relationship with all the guys. The one thing that I really like is having a good relationship with the coach and the IGL, being able to talk to them as much as I can about different ideas that I have, or ways that we can improve things. And I think that’s also what flashie and siuhy want, too.
And, as we highlighted in EliGE’s announcement, the fact that he’s a world-class CS2 entry-fragger will transform Liquid.
This is something that Liquid have been lacking, as Keith “NAF” Markovic and Guy “NertZ” Iluz don’t go out first like EliGE does. Twistzz was the one playing more aggressively, and he was their best player.
EliGE mentioned that he’ll be “able to bridge the gap between” the more passive players on Liquid’s roster, which could benefit the team.
I don’t think that everybody is, like, crazy passive, but just having that extra bump of someone that’s down to go in, down to find different ways of how we can make it easier to go into the sites, or find openings — I think that’s where I definitely shine. And I think that it should definitely help, and that’s why I’m super excited to get started with the guys.
EliGE will debut for Liquid this Saturday, September 27, at Birch Cup 2025.
Feature image credit: © Team Liquid
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