Twistzz on the match against The MongolZ: “I felt like the team was playing at 20 percent of its potential.”

FaZe Clan’s CS2 captain, Russell “Twistzz” Van Dalken shared his thoughts in an interview at BLAST Bounty Summer 2026 following the team’s victory in the event’s quarterfinal match, and also discussed the atmosphere and team spirit during their clash with The MongolZ.
On Nuke
We didn’t perform well on Nuke as the attacking team. I feel like it was a combination of bad calls on my part and our general nervousness, which made us move poorly around the map. Once we switched to defense, we took our last remaining timeout, and the coach and I managed to rally the team. I told the guys that even if we couldn’t win, we needed to at least keep the score close, because it seemed like we weren’t putting up any resistance at all. That wasn’t like the team that had won two matches and advanced to the playoffs.
On the team’s preparation and level of play
To be honest, throughout the entire series, I felt like the team was playing at 20 percent of its potential. And I’m very happy that we managed to win despite that, because, as far as I’m concerned, we simply couldn’t have sunk any lower. Overall, things didn’t go according to plan on Mirage; we knew about our struggles on that map, even though we’d been doing well on Nuke during practice… Maybe it’s some kind of “preparation curse.”
On the atmosphere between maps
I won’t lie—I didn’t hold back my frustration during the break between maps, and neither did my teammates, because no one was satisfied with how the series was going. In the end, we pulled ourselves together for the final map, Ancient. I told the guys that we didn’t even need to play at 100 percent—just a measly 20 or 30 percent would be enough to win. That’s exactly how it turned out; we pulled it off.
Today, FaZe Clan defeated The MongolZ in the quarterfinal match at BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 with a score of 2–1 in the best-of-3 series, securing a spot in the event’s semifinals, where they’ll face either Team Spirit or MOUZ.
Photo — StarLadder.


