Russel Van Dulken, better known as Twistzz, is a Canadian player currently playing for Team Liquid. He has previously played for top teams such as Team SoloMid and Misfits. Twistzz was named the MVP of ESL OneNew York 2018 and IEM Sydney 2019 by HLTV.
Early life
Twistzz 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. 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 once again. His mom was supportive of him playing CS:GO because she was aware of where he was at all times.
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.
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 organisation, Team SoloMid, along with another veteran In-Game Leader Sean Gares. Eventually, Twistzz was signed by TSM on a permanent basis.
2017
In January, TSM released Twistzz along with his teammates allowing Misfits Gaming to pick up the roster. In April, Twistzz joined Team Liquid after the departure of Jacob "Pimp" Winneche. On Liquid, Twistzz and Liquid placed 2nd at two big events, ESL One New York 2017 and ESG Tour Mykonos. In November Twistzz's Liquid won the.
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. 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. His performance helped Liquid secure. Twistzz continued his performance in the FACEIT Major: London 2018 against Winstrike and Ninjas in Pyjamas. Liquid were unable to beat their rivals Astralis in the semi-finals and as a result Liquid finished in 3rd/4th place. Even after a loss in the finals at ESL One New York 2018 to mousesports, Twistzz still won the MVP award.
2019
In January, HLTV named Twistzz the 12th best professional player of 2018. Liquid were finally able to beat their rival Astralis in a best of 3 final at the iBUYPOWER Masters 2019 tournament. Team Liquid would place 5th-8th at the major, losing to the underdogs ENCE in the quarterfinals. 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. 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. At ESL One Cologne 2019 Liquid won the Intel Grand Slam worth $1 million in addition to the tournament itself. 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.
