Twistzz

Russel David Kevin Van Dulken (born November 14, 1999), better known as Twistzz, is a Canadian professional Counter-Strike 2 player for Team Liquid.

He has previously played for top teams such as Team SoloMid, Misfits, and FaZe Clan.

Twistzz was born on November 14, 1999.

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.

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.

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.

In January, TSM released Twistzz along with his teammates allowing Misfits Gaming to pick up the roster.

In April, Twistzz joined Team Liquid (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 Americas Minor Championship for ELEAGUE Boston 2017.

Twistzz was named the MVP of ESL One New York 2018 and IEM Sydney 2019 by HLTV.

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.

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.

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.