Keith “NAF” Markovic, a long-time standing member of the Team Liquid CS:GO roster, admitted in a recent interview that he’s had his doubts about sticking around with the team long-term.
In an interview with Alex “Mauisnake” Ellenberg, NAF spoke candidly about his issues with Liquid that reportedly led to him considering a move to Evil Geniuses at the start of 2022, namely “how the team was being run, how it operated at times, how some players could act sometimes.” According to him though, the conversation he had with EG at the time prompted him to quickly reconsider.
“[Talking to EG], that was some of the worst management I think I have ever talked to probably in my life,” NAF told Mauisnake towards the end of their interview. “Not to be too blunt about it. EG surely knows that as well. They’re clearly not handling their team properly at all. And me talking to them for about an hour changed my mind.”
Regarding the conversation, NAF said that he thought to himself that Liquid was “light-years ahead of this organization,” and that he would “be an idiot to go and join this team.” He added that after this conversation, he changed his mind about Liquid, deciding to “make things work” and “get this going.”
The viewpoints claimed by NAF will not help public perception of the current state of EG CS:GO following a wave of fresh criticism after the team failed to qualify for the Americas RMR qualifier for the BLAST Paris Major. In a recent statement, coach Daniel “Vorborg” Vorborg took the blame for the team’s recent performances, saying that “the team should be performing better, and it’s my responsibility we haven’t,” and adding that management has been “extremely supportive.”
EG’s management has come under fire recently from other personalities in the CS:GO scene as well, perhaps most notably by former coach and current analyst Aleksandar “kassad” Trifunović, who says that while the players and coaches are doing their best, the issues are “100 percent” due to “incompetent upper management.”
Both the EG main roster and EG Black compete today, with EG taking on Cloud9 in ESL Pro League season 17, while EG Black faces Davenport University in ESL Challenge League, after decisively beating Mythic yesterday.
