EliGE looks back on 2021: I was definitely a part of the bad environment on Liquid
The North American rifler opens up about a tough year for both him personally and Liquid in a recent statement.
Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonkowski – An Intel Gram Slam Winner and arguably one of North America’s most profiled CS:GO players in history. However, 2021 wasn’t as giving and successful for the superstar and the rest of Team Liquid.
The lacklustre year meant that Liquid felt needed to initiate a substantial rebuild of the roster this off-season, with Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Michael “Grim” Vince and Jake “Stewie2K” Yip all leaving the team.
"We are not getting along"
Before BLAST Premier Fall Final, we spoke to EliGE who explained that the Liquid “wasn’t getting along” and there were internal problems not being fixed within the team.
In a Twitlonger, EliGE has decided to open up about the troublesome year for Liquid but especially also for him personally.
- To begin with, I wanted to say that this year was a really big disappointment for me; not only results-wise, but personally as well. Every year you want to always feel like you're moving forward and improving and I think that throughout my career it has been a constant progression of that (…) This year, however, was the year where it has very clearly been steps backwards, and that has been really difficult for me.
The 24-year-old star rifler also touches on the environment within the roster, where he openly takes some of the blame on his shoulders.
- It was a year of many ups and downs and looking back, it was easily the hardest year of my professional career. I wish that I handled things better and I wish that I could say that I was a positive mental factor for my teammates during it. However, I can't say that and it was a big disappointment for me to not be able to rise to that standard.
(…) There's no secret the team environment wasn't perfect throughout the year and I definitely was a big part of that. I learned a lot last year from the experiences on the team and how I could've handled it better.
- I learned a lot during the year, especially from Fallen, on how he handled the year himself. He was always positive, affecting the team in a positive way no matter what was happening. All in all, he is a role model and he is the teammate I am striving to become for the team in 2022 and going forward, EliGE wrote.
