Twistzz

Russel David Kevin Van Dulken (born November 14, 1999), better known as Twistzz, is a Canadian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player for FaZe Clan. He has previously played for top teams such as Team SoloMid, Misfits and Team Liquid. Twistzz was named the MVP of ESL One New York 2018[1] and IEM Sydney 2019 by HLTV.[2]

Twistzz
Twistzz during Intel Extreme Masters Chicago 2019
Current team
TeamFaZe Clan
RoleRifler
GameCounter-Strike: Global Offensive
Personal information
NameRussel Van Dulken
Born (1999-11-14) November 14, 1999
NationalityCanadian
Career information
Playing career2015–present
Team history
2016Team AGG
2016–2017Team SoloMid
2017Misfits Gaming
2017–2020Team Liquid
2021–presentFaZe Clan
Career highlights and awards

Early life

Twistzz was born on November 14, 1999.[3] He began playing video games with his dad and his first FPS game was Quake. After his father moved away, Twistzz started playing games for longer periods of time. Twistzz and his mom eventually moved in with her boyfriend and Twistzz started playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). His mom's boyfriend started verbally abusing Twistzz which stalled his progress in CS:GO. In 2014 his mom chose to leave her boyfriend and Twistzz was able to make progress in CS:GO once again. His mom was supportive of him playing CS:GO because she was aware of where he was at all times.[4]

Career

2015

Twistzz joined his first professional team Tectonic in October 2015. In December 2015, Twistzz joined SapphireKelownaDotCom along with veteran In-Game Leader Kyle "OCEAN" O'Brien. SapphireKelownaDotCom were signed by AGG in February 2016. Even at this early stage people would start seeing that he is a promising up-and-comer.[5][4]

2016

In March, team AGG released their roster and Twistzz joined team KKona with his ex-AGG teammates for 1 week before receiving a stand-in offer from his first large organization, Team SoloMid (TSM), along with another veteran In-Game Leader Sean Gares. Eventually, Twistzz was signed by TSM on a permanent basis.[6]

2017

In January, TSM released Twistzz along with his teammates allowing Misfits Gaming to pick up the roster.[7] In April, Twistzz joined Team Liquid (Liquid) after the departure of Jacob "Pimp" Winneche.[8] On Liquid, Twistzz and Liquid placed 2nd at two big events, ESL One New York 2017[9] and ESG Tour Mykonos.[10] In November Twistzz's Liquid won the Americas Minor Championship for ELEAGUE Boston 2017.

2018

In January, Twistzz's Liquid placed 14th at the ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 with their coach Wilton "zews" Prado standing in for Lucas "steel" Lopes, due to roster-lock rules at the time. In February Twistzz's Liquid beat Cloud9 in the finals to win cs_summit 2, which would be their first win at an event in 2018.[11]

In April, Twistzz's Liquid ESL Pro League Season 7 final. Liquid continued to place 2nd against Astralis at the ECS Season 5 Finals and ELEAGUE Season Premier 2018.

In the second major of 2018, The FACEIT London Major, his performances helped Liquid secure 1st place in the new challenger's stage by going 3-0. Twistzz achieved a Performance Rating 2.0 of 1.47 against HellRaisers which Liquid won 16-9 and an even more impressive Performance Rating 2.0 of 1.54 against Vega Squadron in which Liquid won in Overtime 19–17 in the New Challenger's Stage.

Going into the New Legends Stage, Team Liquid would go 3–0, beating Winstrike, where Liquid won 16–7, Twistzz achieving his most impressive Performance Rating 2.0 in the tournament of 1.79. This would be followed by a 16–10 win over NIP, Twistzz getting a Performance Rating 2.0 of 1.44. Team Liquid would then go onto beat HLTV's #1 Rated team at the time, Astralis 19–15, Twistzz having a quiet Performance Rating 2.0 of 1.06.

The next stage of the FACEIT London Major was The Playoffs. Liquid would face HellRaisers yet again winning 2–1 with Twistzz amounting to a Performance Rating 2.0 of 1.16, going through into the Semi Finals of the second Major of 2018. Liquid would go up against Astralis in the Semi Final, this time losing 2–0, going out of the Major. However Twistzz would still get a Performance Rating 2.0 of 0.92.

After the FACEIT London Major, Twistzz and Liquid would go on to place 2nd at ESL One New York 2018 (Twistzz receiving the MVP award), IEM Chicago 2018 and at the ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals. However, Liquid would win SuperNova CS:GO Malta which did have the caveat of not having Astralis in attendance and was not considered a High Tier tournament.

2019

In January, HLTV named Twistzz the 12th best professional player of 2018.[5] Liquid were finally able to beat their rival Astralis in a best of 3 final at the iBUYPOWER Masters 2019 tournament.[12] Team Liquid would place 5th-8th at the major, losing to the underdogs ENCE in the quarterfinals.[13] In May, at IEM Sydney 2019, Liquid went undefeated and secured 1st place, and Twistzz won his first big event. Twistzz was named MVP at this event and had an average HLTV rating of 1.25.[14] In June, Liquid won DreamHack Masters Dallas 2019 and the ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals, beating their rivals Astralis in the round of 6.[15] At ESL One Cologne 2019 Liquid won the Intel Grand Slam worth $1 million in addition to the tournament itself.[16] Despite Team Liquid coming into the Starladder Berlin Major as heavy favorites, they scraped out of the group stage 3–2, and lost to Astralis in the quarterfinals.[17][18]

2021

In January, Twistzz joined FaZe Clan, replacing Kjaerbye⁠.[19] Twistzz had mostly mediocre results for the rest of 2021 with FaZe Clan other than an impressive showing at IEM Cologne 2021, finishing in a respectable 3rd-4th position in the first CS:GO LAN event since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic[20]

2022

In January, HLTV named Twistzz the 17th best professional player of 2021.[21] Going into 2022, FaZe Clan removed long time player Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer in favour of four-time HLTV Top 20 player, Robin "ropz" Kool.[22] Following the addition, Twistzz and FaZe got off to a hot start, finishing 1st-4th in the BLAST Premier Spring Groups, advancing to the Spring Finals, 1st in IEM Katowice 2022 and 1st in ESL Pro League Season 15.[23][24][25] In May, Twistzz won his first Major championship at the PGL Major Antwerp 2022, making him the second North American player (other than Stewie2K) to win both a Major championship and an Intel Grand Slam in his career to date. After two disappointing results post-Major,[26] the FaZe team played in the online Roobet Cup, where they finished second, losing to BIG Clan.[27] After the successful Roobet Cup run, which was used to enlarge FaZe's map pool, the team went into IEM Cologne as favourites despite dropping to the #2 team in the world[28] by HLTV. They would meet #1 ranked Natus Vincere, where Faze won 3-2[29] (On Maps), becoming the first team in CS:GO history to win all 3 of: IEM Katowice, The Major, IEM Cologne in one year.

2023

In March, FaZe placed 1st in ESL Pro League Season 17 and won the Intel Grand Slam Season 4, making Twistzz the first player to win two Grand Slams.[30][31]

Tournament results

2018
  • cs_summit 2 - 1st
  • IEM Katowice 2018 - 3/4th
  • ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals - 2nd
  • ECS Season 5 Finals - 2nd
  • ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018 - 2nd
  • FACEIT London Major - 3/4th
  • ESL One New York 2018 - 2nd
  • EPICENTER 2018 - 3/4th
  • IEM Chicago 2018 - 2nd
  • SuperNova CS:GO Malta - 1st
  • ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals - 2nd

2019
  • iBUYPOWER Masters 2019 - 1st
  • IEM Sydney 2019 - 1st
  • DreamHack Masters Dallas 2019 - 1st
  • ESL Pro League Season 9 - 1st
  • ESL One Cologne 2019 - 1st
  • BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles 2019 - 1st
  • IEM Chicago 2019 - 1st
  • StarLadder Major: Berlin 2019 - 5-8th
  • ESL One New-York 2019 - 3-4th
  • DreamHack Masters Malmö 2019 - 9-12th
  • BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen 2019 - 5th
  • ECS Season 8 Finals - 2nd
  • ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals - 5th-6th
  • BLAST Global Final 2019 - 2nd

2020
  • IEM Katowice 2020 - 5th-6th
  • ESL Pro League Season 11 North America - 1st
  • ESL One: Road To Rio North America - 4th
  • Dreamhack Masters Spring 2020 North America - 2nd
  • BLAST Premier Spring 2020 Americas Finals - 4th
  • cs_summit 6 North America - 3rd
  • Dreamhack Open Summer 2020 North America - 2nd
  • ESL One Cologne 2020 North America - 2nd
  • ESL Pro League Season 12 North America - 4th
  • IEM New York 2020 North America - 5th
  • IEM Beijing-Haidian 2020 North America - 3rd-4th
  • Dreamhack Masters Winter 2020 Europe - 13th-16th
  • IEM Global Challenge 2020 - 2nd

2021
  • IEM Katowice 2021 - 9th-12th
  • ESL Pro League Season 13 - 17th-20th
  • Dreamhack Masters Spring 2021 - 13th-16th
  • Flashpoint 3 - 13th-16th
  • BLAST Premier Spring Final - 7th-8th
  • IEM Cologne 2021 - 3rd-4th
  • ESL Pro League Season 14 - 13th-14th
  • IEM Fall 2021 Europe - 9th
  • PGL Major Stockholm 2021 - 9th-11th
  • BLAST Premier Fall Final - 5th-6th
  • IEM Winter 2021 - 9th-12th

2022
  • BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2022 - 1st-3rd
  • IEM Katowice 2022 - 1st
  • ESL Pro League Season 15 - 1st
  • PGL Major Antwerp 2022: European RMR A - 3rd
  • PGL Major Antwerp 2022 – 1st
  • IEM Dallas - 5th-6th
  • BLAST Premier Spring Final 2022 - 5th-6th
  • Roobet Cup 2022 - 2nd
  • IEM Cologne 2022 - 1st
  • SteelSeries Nova Invitational - 1st
  • BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2022 - 4th-6th
  • ESL Pro League Season 16 - 5th-8th
  • IEM Road to Rio 2022: European RMR A - 1st
  • IEM Rio Major 2022 - 15th-16th
  • BLAST Premier Fall Final 2022 - 2nd
  • BLAST Premier World Final 2022 - 3rd-4th
  • Born To Be Brave 2022 - 3rd-4th
  • GOAT League - 2nd

2023
  • ESL Pro League Season 17 - 1st
  • IEM Sydney 2023 - 1st

References
  1. "TWISTZZ EARNS ESL ONE NEW YORK MVP MEDAL". HLTV.
  2. "TWISTZZ SCOOPS IEM SYDNEY MVP AWARD". HLTV.
  3. Biazzi, Leonardo (January 20, 2019). "Twelve top CS:GO players who are younger than the franchise itself". Dot Esports. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  4. "The Story of Twistzz". theScore esports.
  5. "TOP 20 PLAYERS OF 2018: TWISTZZ (12)". HLTV.
  6. Mira, Luis "MIRAA". "Official: Twistzz joins Liquid". HLTV. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  7. "Misfits acquires TSM's former CS:GO roster". Misfits Gaming. February 2017.
  8. "OFFICIAL: TWISTZZ JOINS LIQUID". HLTV.
  9. "ESL One New York 2017".
  10. "ESG Tour Mykonos 2017".
  11. "cs_summit 2". HLTV.
  12. "iBUYPOWER Masters 2019". HLTV.
  13. Chiu, Stephen. "How ENCE beat Liquid at IEM Katowice 2019". VPEsports. Archived from the original on 13 February 2021. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  14. "IEM Sydney 2019". HLTV.
  15. "DreamHack Dallas 2019". HLTV.
  16. "Intel Grand Slam the latest achievement in Team Liquid's banner year". ESPN. 8 July 2019.
  17. Shields, Duncan "Thorin" (10 August 2019). "Thorin's Top 10 Biggest Favourites to Win a CS:GO Major". Dexerto. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  18. "Astralis beat Liquid in two maps; to face NRG in semi-finals". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  19. Švejda, Milan. "FaZe sign Twistzz *". HLTV. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  20. Miles, Lucas. "NAVI defeat FaZe to set up Grand Final Match against G2 *". HLTV. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  21. Švejda, Milan. "Top 20 Players of 2021: Twistzz (17) *". HLTV. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  22. Rizzo, Marco. "Official: FaZe complete ropz transfer *". HLTV. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
  23. Allana, Danish. "FaZe beat BIG to advance to BLAST Premier Spring Finals *". HLTV. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  24. Miles, Lucas. "FaZe sweep G2 to win IEM Katowice *". HLTV. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  25. Švejda, Milan. "FaZe win ESL Pro League Season 15 *". HLTV. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  26. "IEM Dallas 2022". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2022-07-28.
  27. "HLTV.org - The home of competitive Counter-Strike". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2022-07-28.
  28. "HLTV.org - The home of competitive Counter-Strike". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2022-07-28.
  29. "HLTV.org - The home of competitive Counter-Strike". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2022-07-28.
  30. "HLTV.org - The home of competitive Counter-Strike". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
  31. "HLTV.org - The home of competitive Counter-Strike". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2023-03-29.
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