NAF: "More free-flowing" siuhy already opening Liquid back up as Austin Major approaches

There aren’t many names more synonymous with Team Liquid than Keith “NAF” Markovic, who has been a part of the organization since replacing Josh "⁠jdm64⁠" Marzano in 2018.

In this move from Aussie squad Renegades, NAF fulfilled the rotator roles on the CT side where he could use his voice to influence team decisions.

Fast-forward to 2025, and the Liquid of today uses NAF in anchor roles on CT and the primary lurk spots on T side, which the community has come to identify as his preferred roles. NAF himself, however, sees that as a misnomer.

“It's always an interesting storyline” he tells DFRAG, “because a lot of people say I'm playing the roles that I want to play. But on CT side, I'm not playing any roles I want to play, to be honest. Ever since we had YEKINDAR join in 2023 or so, I moved to being an anchor.”

It’s hard to believe that we are over half a decade on from NAF’s ESL Grand Slam feat, where in 2019 they became the fastest ever team to achieve the feat. However, many newer viewers of Counter-Strike may genuinely have no idea that he used to be a lot more mobile in the server.

“As the years have gone on, and the new fan base that has come in, they obviously know me as an anchor player. [But] when I had my best individual years, I was known more as a CT rotator, and I had more impact in calling, making my own plays and decisions.” It is something NAF will have to get used to as he doesn’t see that changing any time soon.

“Honestly… probably not on this team, unfortunately,” he says in response to questioning on whether he ever sees himself returning to those roles. “But I love playing for Liquid, and my career, I think, will probably end here. But maybe in another life, I guess.”

It was a candid response from NAF, who spoke to DFRAG following the aftermath of losing their quarterfinal match-up against The MongolZ at IEM Melbourne. 

The Australian crowd has a particular reputation for being loud and rather humorous in their chants and caught Liquid at an awkward time—less than a month after removing Aussie golden child Justin “jks” Savage from the team. So, naturally, Melbourne let Liquid know about it.

NAF took it all in stride. “I thought it was super funny,” he laughed. “I thought it was really fun to play, hearing the ‘f**k you Liquid’ chants… I could hear it a little bit through my in-ears. I was like, ‘Is that what they're saying?’ The crowd is always fun, no matter what. If they're against you or with you, it's always a good time.”

Jks’ benching brought in Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek to relieve Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken of IGL duties, something the community had seen coming ever since the Canadian chose to take up the responsibility. Their first event with siuhy—PGL Bucharest—was nothing short of abysmal.

“It didn't go too well. We went 0-3 without winning a single map,” he says with a smile. NAF exited PGL Bucharest as the worst-rated player at the event, with a 0.69 HLTV rating. 

But the progress with siuhy is already evident. While they lost to eventual ESL Grand Slam winners Vitality, they showed improvement in series wins over Virtus.pro, Natus Vincere, and MIBR. Even though it is early days, NAF already notices some differences on the server.

“I think [siuhy] is doing his best to let the players make the plays that they want to make. He's not too micromanage-y, pointing everybody in the direction where to go, where to stand and do everything. He's giving us the keys to the kingdom in terms of looking for our own kills and having our own impact.”

Comparative to Twistzz’s tenure as IGL, siuhy is “more free flowing” in terms of his calling to NAF, where Twistzz “maybe wanted to be more direct and have people in certain areas at times.” While that didn’t necessarily contribute to a lights-out performance from NAF at IEM Melbourne, who finished with a 0.91 HLTV rating, he did finish with seven out of thirteen maps at the tournament with a positive rating.

The move has undoubtedly brought Twistzz back to life. After much conjecture about NAF’s teammate hampering his own individual output by IGLing, now free of the shackles, Twistzz finished as the ninth highest-rated player at IEM Melbourne. NAF agrees that it definitely helps his fellow ESL Grand Slam-winning teammate.

“It's made Twistzz’s life, I think, easier for him to perform and have more impact in the games,” he said. Now, with their star player relieved of calling duties, NAF and Liquid have barely over a month to make it work before the season finale of the CS circuit: The BLAST Austin Major.

When probed about what is needed between now and then to make the most of the major, NAF was simplistic in his response, suggesting that all is needed is just time with siuhy to make it all come together.

“I think… there's not necessarily really big challenges, I just think we just need to put more

time and practice in. I think from Bucharest… we only had about like two weeks or so of practice, and we had our Bucharest result compared to our result that we've had here, was just X amount of practice.

"I'm sure we can achieve more, and hopefully we can… I hope we can do better. Of course, for myself individually, I hope I can do better as well.”