Top 20 players of 2018: EliGE (15)

Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski clinches 15th place in the Top 20 players of 2018 ranking powered by EGB.com for playing a pivotal role in Liquid's successes throughout the year with several standout performances.

Top 20 Players of 2018: Introduction

After transitioning from StarCraft to CS:GO, EliGE first appeared in our books in late 2014 with Justus Pro before switching over to ELEVATE to play with veterans Tyler "⁠Storm⁠" Wood and David "⁠Xp3⁠" Garrido in early 2015, with that team making top four at the then-17-year-old's first international event, Clutch Con.

Less than two months later, EliGE made his way to Liquid as a replacement for Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic, joining forces with his current teammates Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella and Eric "⁠adreN⁠" Hoag. With them, he would go on to play his first Major at DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca to gather more experience in the top-tier scene to set himself up for his best year up to that point in 2016, during which the team bolstered by Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev made semi-finals and second place at the Majors, MLG Columbus and ESL One Cologne. It was then that EliGE began looking like a star of the future and one of North America's best with an impressive outlook in the latter half of the year.

In 2017, the core of today's roster formed as Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken joined Liquid in April, with EliGE at the helm, leading them to the semi-finals at ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals and runners-up finishes at ESG Tour Mykonos and ESL One New York. A flawless record at his 14 LAN tournaments attended saw him secure 12th place in Top 20 players of 2017, becoming only the fourth North American player to make the list in CS:GO.

"Liquid has always been an organization that I have respected since I was a kid from the StarCraft days, so when I saw them enter into CS:GO in 2015, I immediately had aspirations to join. Coupled with the fact that we have been a top NA team during our whole time together and an organization that I really love being a part of, it has made me keep wanting to win with Liquid. I feel really comfortable with the playstyle that we have had and it's shaped how I am as a player and how I think about the game."

Liquid's issues with roster locks at the ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals in December of 2017 continued at the ELEAGUE Major in January, with coach Wilton "⁠zews⁠" Prado stepping into the team for the second time as their latest addition, Lucas "⁠steel⁠" Lopes, was once again not allowed to play alongside them in Atlanta. While EliGE put up a consistent showing to kick off the year, the North American side scraped through the newly established New Challengers stage, thanks to a ninth slot becoming available as 100 Thieves dropped out at the last minute, and went out after a 1-3 record in the New Legends stage. Still, it was enough to meet the main goal to avoid going through the entire cycle next time, given the circumstances.

"We went into the major with the goal of making it out of groups so that we wouldn't have to go through the Minor qualification. zews was going to do everything for us: dropping guns, running out first to take away their aim, anything he can to get us an advantage. We practiced weeks before the Major preparing with zews, making sure that we gave it our all and we ended up with good results relative to our situation because of it."

The earlier struggles dating back to late 2017 resulted in a lineup change early on in 2018, as NAF replaced Josh "⁠jdm64⁠" Marzano after the Major, returning to the organization he had briefly represented in early 2015. Success came immediately; the new roster went on to give the organization their first international victory at cs_summit 2 after beating SK and Cloud9 in the last two stages, and EliGE was awarded his first EVP of the year as a key player in the run, while his new teammate outdid him in the MVP race.

"[NAF's arrival] didn't have a direct impact in terms of changing spots, but the way that I played some of my spots changed because of it. Specifically, on Cache and Mirage, I became more of the get-info-and-survive guy for the middle of those maps. Nick [nitr0] swapped to our AWPer full time and was doing things differently than jdm did, so I adjusted to compensate and make sure he is as comfortable as possible with his new role. So while I might not have changed positions or roles, the style in the way that I played them changed."

The first big events followed and Liquid added two top fours on top of their first title by the end of March, losing to the eventual champions in the semi-finals of both StarSeries i-League Season 4 (MOUZ) and IEM Katowice (fnatic), while also taking the scalps of SK and FaZe at the former tournament and Cloud9 at the latter.

"I think that [our improvement] was a combination of a lot of things: NAF coming into the team that brought a lot of firepower and clutch ability to win the big rounds, Twistzz beginning to play really well and consistently, nitr0 getting more comfortable with his calling since he only began in late 2017, and everyone being on the same page. steel was really good for his consistency and he got a lot of map control and information for us late-round on CT, which really helped. Not having to worry about a specific part of the map because of the information he would get really bolsters up the rest of the sides of the map. Our teamwork improved a lot this year and we learned exactly how everyone likes to play."

EliGE played well across the team's wins at both events, but some poor lows in the losses to Astralis and the aforementioned Swedes set IEM Katowice as his lowest-rated event of the year (0.95).

"To be honest, I don't remember the specifics of the game, but, for me, Astralis has always been a really rough opponent. I think it has always just been a playstyle thing, but, usually, when I am having a bad game or something like that I try to do what I can to make sure everyone else on the team is having a better game to compensate."

Despite the improvement, steel left two months into the new roster and Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo, who had just departed SK at that point, filled his shoes just in time for DreamHack Masters Marseille. The first event did not go well, as Liquid's one-sided rivalry with Astralis started to take roots with another series going the way of the Danes and Gambit surprised them with a close win in the group's deciding match.

"TACO happened to be playing the exact roles we needed, so that didn't change too much. I think we had some changes position-wise, but nothing drastic. TACO had really good communication and was a lot more instructive on sites, which was needed. Every bombsite should have someone in general that is going to be leading and saying what they want, and TACO was that guy for us on his sites when he came on the team."

With just one poor map out of seven, EliGE kept a consistent level throughout the French tournament and followed it up with another good showing at ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals in May to secure his second EVP mention, while Liquid made their first big-event grand final in Dallas after beating top-five sides MOUZ and Natus Vincere.

The 21-year-old then led his team to the quarter-finals at StarSeries i-League Season 5 with a 1.20 rating, suffering a loss to domestic rivals NRG in the last-eight stage, before the North American side returned to the podium with another second place at ECS Season 5 Finals. Awarded his third EVP, EliGE scored his highest rating in 2018 (1.27) in London as Liquid took revenge on fnatic for Katowice and NRG for the Ukrainian tournament, but they still couldn't overcome Astralis despite the star's efforts on Dust2 of the grand final series.

A few days later, the squad traveled to Belo Horizonte to add another top-four finish to their resumé, beating only BIG twice while conceding series to the teams who ended up clashing in the final, MOUZ and FaZe, both of whom played the tournament with stand-ins. That was just weeks short of Liquid's biggest blow of the first half of the year, which came at ESL One Cologne, as they exited the German competition in last place after losing favorable matchups to BIG, whom they had just defeated in Brazil, and the struggling North. The disappointing result initiated a serious conversation :

"There wasn't anything emotionally wrong in Cologne, but I think the main thing was preparation and practice. We weren't putting in as much as we could and we had a very serious talk afterwards about the severity of what happened and other things that made us flip a switch afterwards. It was a really hard tournament result for sure, the second worst of the year."

And that seemed to have done the trick. Liquid ended the first part of the season with another grand final run at ELEAGUE Premier, adding another couple of wins against MIBR as well as one versus Na`Vi, while also conceding two more best-of-threes to the best team in the world, who had already accumulated a scary record on the North American side by that point.

This was not a particularly good period for EliGE, who recorded somewhat average ratings in Belo Horizonte and in Atlanta with 1.04 at each of them and a 1.14 rating during the early elimination in Cologne.

However, he was back in better form after the off-season, with Liquid deciding to skip DreamHack Masters Stockholm to prioritize the FACEIT Major. That decision was paying its dividends across the first two stages in the UK; the squad kept a perfect record up until the playoffs, even defeating Astralis to reach the quarter-finals from the first seed, though not before the Danes almost pulled off a massive comeback on Inferno. EliGE had been having a great showing and continued to do so in the playoffs against HellRaisers, adding two more good maps, but he and the rest of the team eventually dropped off in the rematch against Astralis, who, as the American himself put it, looked out of their league in the semis.

"I don't think that we felt any extra pressure at the Major. It was a tournament like always and I think our confidence was really high especially after our group run and how well we were playing against everyone. Coming off of a bootcamp and seeing the results showing very clearly is a good feeling for everyone. Astralis almost coming back in that Inferno game didn't have any impact on the following series. We talked about it after and the loss to them in the semi-finals had nothing to do with emotion or anything. We gave it our all and were playing at our best for the time, but in the end, they just were still out of our league.

"Our run at the Major is my best memory from 2018. It wasn't one of our finals runs, but to me it just showed a confidence in our game that I hadn't felt before that. We went into that tournament with the intention of winning and everyone believed it through and through. It showed the advantages of taking some time off, doing a bootcamp and really focusing on improving the team's results instead of going to every tournament possible and to me, that is the main takeaway. I want that to be the example for the team and me to look back on, that confidence that we had in ourselves and as a team."

That practice continued to yield fruits at ESL One New York only a few days afterward, with Liquid flying through the competition despite an early loss to NRG on Overpass. In the grand final against MOUZ, they had a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five and were up 13-4 on the fourth map, Dust2, but a huge comeback from the European side saw Liquid's prospect of winning their first big event slip from their fingertips, as they also lost the deciding map to go down 2-3. Despite a good showing from EliGE over the course of the tournament, which yielded another EVP for him as the third-best player within the team, he could not help but blame himself for the loss.

"That loss on Dust2 was definitely a choke no matter how you look at it. We were up, we were playing better and I think the pressure just got to us as a team. I don't think choking in general is as relevant to us as it has been in the past when looking at us recently, as we have had a lot of comebacks and stayed in a lot of games, but for this game, it came back to bite us.

"That is my worst memory for sure. That was a tournament that really killed the team morale and hurt the team mindset for a long time. I personally had a bad final as well and I felt really lost. I had never felt worse after a tournament before in my life. I blamed myself a lot after that tournament and I was really sad.

Over the next three weeks, EliGE committed to a switch to the AUG and SG in online play, which became cheaper at the beginning of October. If it affected him negatively early on as he says, it did not show at EPICENTER, as he piled on his fifth EVP award there, although admittedly due to decimating some lower-tier competition in Swole Patrol and AVANGAR before losing to FaZe in the semi-finals.

"I definitely took a hit in performance where I would miss some kills because of the lack of skill in the guns, still. I was really committed to swapping to the superior guns because I knew if I get good at them before everyone else, then I will be the one who is really ahead later on. It made me start holding angles more than I should, as well, which I noticed. If I were to go back and do it again, I would have situationally used the guns more often so I can more comfortably play and get used to them while not taking a performance hit."

At IEM Chicago, Liquid returned the favor to Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač & co. in the semi-finals despite looking somewhat shaky beforehand, with a loss to the new fnatic team in groups and a close encounter with LDLC in the quarter-finals. Thanks to an impressive level leading up to championship Sunday, the 21-year-old looked set for another award, but a sub-par performance in the 0-3 final series against Astralis saw him fall short of one, in the end, and finish the event with a 1.07 rating.

ECS Season 6 Finals followed in late November and became a blip on an otherwise admirable resumé post-off-season, with the North American team ending up dead last in Arlington after a run reminiscent of ESL One Cologne — as NRG and North sent them home — and EliGE recording his second event in the red with a 0.99 rating over the three maps.

"ECS I believe was because of burnout and not following our gameplan. We had a lot of things we were prepared for that caught the team off-guard when we started playing. It had nothing to do with mentality or anything like that. It was a really big tournament of the year, so it really sucked going out last like that."

That only turned out to be a temporary setback for both the player and his team, who were back in great shape at a rather less-contested SuperNova CS:GO Malta, which awarded them their second title of 2018, and at ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals. Liquid looked fantastic in Odense while they faced anyone but Astralis, destroying BIG, Na`Vi, and MIBR before suffering their fifth grand final loss of 2018 to the aforementioned Danes. Still, EliGE rounded out the year with perhaps his best performance against Astralis (1.24 rating in the 1-3 loss), as well as with two EVPs from those events.

Why was EliGE the 15th best player of 2018?

As Liquid's second-best player of the first half of the year and the third-best in the second, EliGE was a highly valuable member of one of 2018's best teams, contributing to that success with ratings above the team's average at 15 of their 18 events. His seven EVP awards — five of which he earned at Big events — speak to his consistency over the course of the year. At the same time, he was rarely the leading figure during his team's deep runs, with that being the case only at ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals.

Playstyle-wise, EliGE was one of the most aggressive players of the year with very high involvement in opening duels (once every four rounds, ranking first among the top-20 players). In that role, he dealt the 10th most damage per round at Big events (80.3), which led not only to a high amount of kills (0.73 per round), but also to a lot of damage assists (0.15 per round, 10th most).

"It has always been my playstyle in any game that I have ever played in my life to play aggressively. I like taking the calculated duels, or even just the crazy ones to get in people's heads. I know from our team and from me that if you die in a stupid way or someone does something crazy, people can get tilted from that and it can dissuade the other team from doing certain things if you can get in their head early. I don't think the team has ever asked me to be aggressive specifically. They know that it is what I like doing and how I play my best, so they help and support me in the ways they can."

All in all, the amount of standout performances and better consistency set the American apart from the previous members of the Top 20 list, while a drop-off in playoffs matches similar to Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi (1.16 in Big event group stages vs. 1.06 in the playoffs) kept him from reaching a higher placing.

"In 2019, I want to make sure that I am prepared for every single important match that I play. I know that when I am at my most prepared individually, where I know what the other team does and how they like to play, I am more confident in the plays that I do and I help more with calling as well. I know what I want and what I have to do and that improves my game. I have been thinking a lot recently about the conditions I was in when I was playing my absolute best — what I was doing and how I was thinking. So after determining this, I need to be sure that I do exactly that to play at that level as much as I can."

Bold prediction

When asked for a prediction of a player who could surprise with a place in the Top 20 players of 2019, EliGE was truly bold with his pick, as he went with Owen "⁠oBo⁠" Schlatter. The 15-year-old played in Adaptation in 2017, making it to ESEA Premier in Season 25, and in 2018 he qualified for FACEIT Pro League, in which he has topped several weeks.

Owen "⁠oBo⁠" Schlatter

"oBo isn't old enough to play until the middle of next year on a professional team, but he has a lot of potential and is one of the most skilled up-and-comers that I have seen. I think when he is able to play, he can become a top player for sure!"

Stay tuned to our Top 20 players of 2018 ranking powered by EGB.com and take a look at the Introduction article to learn more about how the players were selected.