EliGE: ‘We are 100% the best team in the world’

Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski spoke to HLTV after he was named the MVP of the last ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals – the tournament where Liquid beat G2 in the BO5 final.

Liquid beat Astralis, mousesports, and G2 in the playoffs of ESL Pro League Season 9. In the finals, EliGE had ratings above 1.20 in all three maps Liquid won. In addition, during the tournament, the rating of the 21-year-old player averaged 1.29.

CHAMPIONSSSS WOOOOOO. So proud of everyone ❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/pfEWaa0fgM

— Jonathan Jablonowski (@EliGE) June 23, 2019

During the interview, EliGE shared his thoughts on Inferno, the 4th map and final game against G2, the team’s world No. 1 ranking, SG553 habits and what will happen with Liquid in the future. close, including ESL One Cologne and a chance to win the Intel Grand Slam.

Let’s talk about Inferno, the map has three extra innings. Indeed, this map brings a lot of excitement to the audience. And how do you feel?

The first half was terrible, our economy was not good at all, and we had to half-buy a lot. Some people have guns, others don’t. As nitr0 said, he didn’t have a real gun until round 8 or 9. That was very annoying.

We made small mistakes, communication errors happened and the team lost rounds because of that. But when we went to T, the opponent also made the same mistakes that the team made. We played slow and controlled the map a lot by reading the situation, and Stewie2K played great. Stewie called a lot in the middle of the round. He takes this position on every map and does a great job at it.

The game was quite tight, especially the 1HP clutch from Twistzz, but the team seemed to have the upper hand for most of the overtime. How confident were you then about your ability to finish the map?

I feel so confident, as soon as I get to OT, I’m sure Liquid will win. I feel like when a team comes back and gets the game to OT, they’re always the team that gets the psychological advantage, knowing what helps them get to OT. We kept our plan on the T side. In CT, the members had a bit of a gap before, but as soon as everyone fixed it and started playing slower, the team gradually read the game’s position to play better.

Liquid finally got a big BO3 win against Astralis, they won the final against G2, beat mousesports – the team is playing very well at the moment. So where does EliGE find himself right now? Do you consider Liquid to be the number 1 team in the world?

We are 100% the strongest team in the world. I think people just saw us beat Astralis, and we did it. HellRaisers, mousesports and G2 all played really well against us. So I want to rank all the teams that I’ve played against as great teams. With our performance, especially coming from the losing bracket and facing strong teams in BO3, it’s impossible to say that we don’t deserve to be the #1 team.

Likewise, in Dallas, Liquid beat FaZe, FURIA and ENCE. They are all formidable opponents. As for you personally, you got yourself your first MVP just a few weeks ago, now you have your second… How do you feel about your personal play?

I feel great, like everything I do is working. As long as I get into a situation where I can shoot back, I’ll win that shootout. I am very confident in everything I do and my teammates also help me a lot. In other matches, they even threw SG553 to me, similar to picking up AK. When they saw the SG553 on the ground, they were like “I have this for you, Jon”. So I feel great when my teammates always support me..

Talking about the SG553, I really enjoyed using it. At first, everyone liked the AUG and everyone started using the AUG, but now, he’s using the SG553. Actually, he used to use it before, but now it seems he is using it more and more. Is this when other players realize its power, or is it just his own preference?

Actually, people need more time to get used to it, of course, the reason I use it a lot is because I’ve gotten to know it before. I started using AUG and SG553 when the update came out. I think the SG553 requires more skill, so if you don’t shoot the SG553 well and don’t practice properly, you won’t know how to unleash its power.

Next up is ESL One Cologne, the biggest tournament of the season outside of the Major, how do you feel about this tournament?

Very good, especially since Liquid just won two tournaments in a row and beat all the strong teams. I think the only strong team that I have yet to meet and win is Vitality. I don’t think I’ve played them in a series. The members are very confident and have a lot of things to fix – things that happen in the game that need to be pointed out – and as soon as we fix it, Liquid will be even stronger. And yet, if we can win more pistol rounds, the score will be much different!!

Last question, Liquid is currently on three wins at the Intel Grand Slams. Will that award give you more motivation?

Of course, we’ve been constantly thinking about the Intel Grand Slam since the team won the first tournament in Sydney. Everyone on the team wanted to know how many awards they were going to win before the break. And as you know, we’re on the right track, almost there! Liquid will have another chance in Cologne, then Chicago and I think the team will have a good chance to win.