Team Liquid
: 2015-01-13Team Liquid is a professional team, founded in the Netherlands in 2000. Originally a Brood War clan, the team switched to StarCraft2 during the SC2 Beta in 2010, and became one of the most successful foreign teams. On January 13, 2015, it was announced that the team had formed a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive division.[1]
Team Liquid is also strongly associated with its website, TeamLiquid.net. Launched on May 1, 2001, it has developed through the years into a focal point for StarCraft coverage, eventually became the most-browsed StarCraft-related website in the world, gathering thousands of members (including several professional players) and centralizing news about the global SC2 scene. The website also features a pro-gaming database, the TLPD, as well as a wiki dedicated to Brood War, StarCraft II, Hearthstone, Dota 2, Super Smash Brothers: Melee, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch and Counter-Strike.
History[edit]
Founding and Early Performances[edit]
On January 13th 2015, Team Liquid made their foray into CS:GO by signing the ex-Denial eSports lineup of Damian "daps" Steele, Keith "NAF" Markovic, Eric "adreN" Hoag, Nicholas "nitr0" Canella and Jacob "FugLy" Medina with compLexity Gaming veteran Matt "Warden" Dickens as their coach. The first tournament the team attended was MLG X Games Aspen Invitational where they replaced the recently banned iBUYPOWER. The team would finish 5th-6th with their only win being against Counter Logic Gaming in the Group Stage. The team competed at Clutch Con 2015 afterwards making their first Semi-Final appearance losing to eventual winners Fnatic. Despite placing relatively well in North American tournaments they were yet to crack the international scene with last place finishes at the FACEIT League 2015 Stage 1 Finals and the Gfinity Spring Masters 2. After several changes including Warden being dropped as Coach, ex-eLevate player Johnathan "EliGE" Jablonowski replacing NAF and the addition of former Nihilum Gaming player Kyle "flowsicK" Mendez replacing daps later on, Donald "dmode" Cahill would also be brought in as their new coach. With flowsicK the team finally made it past the Group Stages in their first international premier event, the Electronic Sports World Cup 2015. This success was short-lived as they placed last at both CEVO Season 7 Professional and the FACEIT 2015 Stage 2 Finals. The team also failed to qualify for the ESL One Katowice and Cologne majors. After a period of inactivity from the big tournaments, Spencer "Hiko" Martin was eventually signed to Team Liquid replacing flowsicK on September 3rd, dmode was also replaced by James "GBJame^s" O'Connor.
First Major and more mixed results[edit]
With strong performances from EliGE and Hiko the team beat Renegades in two best-of-threes at DreamHack Stockholm 2015, which qualified them for their first major, Cluj-Napoca. However, the team did quite poor at the major finishing last place in their group with losses to Virtus.pro and Ninjas in Pyjamas. As 2016 began the team continued to truly excel domestically but ultimately still struggled at international events. During the brief player break, Team Liquid tried out former Ninjas in Pyjamas AWPer, Aleski "allu" Jalli, but was unsuccessful in signing him. They later signed the European superstar, Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev in FugLy's place. With another change a month later the team swapped adreN with Enemy's AWPer Kenneth "koosta" Suen when their players' contracts expired with his former organization. However, due to some complications adreN would still play for the team at the upcoming MLG Colombus major which they successfully qualified for after beating HellRaisers in the decider match.
MLG Columbus 2016[edit]
Following on from their surge in form Liquid made it past the Group Stages at MLG Colombus, beating FaZe Clan 16-11 and Fnatic 22-19. Following a 2-0 win against CLG in the Quarter-Finals the community saw them as potential favourites for the entire Tournament. However, all of these hopes would soon be dashed in an infamous Semi-Final bo3 vs Brazilian outfit Luminosity Gaming. The series began on Mirage which was Luminosity's map pick and ended with a 7-8 half in favour to the Brazilians, Liquid came back in the Pistol round and retook the lead at 11-8 and soon extended their lead to 15-9 to put them on Map Point. But amazingly Luminosity would score six consecutive rounds in order to secure overtime and eventually win the map 19-15. The next map, Cache, was Liquid’s pick and once again the team had the better start with a 9-6 lead at the first half. Liquid once again won the pistol round and started stringing rounds together until they were at map point once again. Suddenly the Luminosity side once again wouldn’t give up and won 9 rounds in a row to push the game into overtime, where Luminosity ultimately won the 19-16 to progress in their first Major Grand Final. Liquid lost a total of eleven map-winning points in the series and the game itself has been regarded by the community as one of the biggest chokes in competitive CS history. But the event at least proved Liquid could compete on the Global Stage.
ESL One Cologne 2016[edit]
On April 21st s1mple announced that he would be stepping down from the roster to join a European team as he started to miss his home. With this, adreN returned to the active roster. Another addition to the team was Luis "peacemaker" Tadeu as coach to replace GBJame^s. In the wake of the major, ESL Cologne 2016, the team swapped koosta for Counter Logic Gaming's star player and AWPer, Joshua "jdm64" Marzano, giving CLG Suen in return. They also dropped adreN and let the Ukrainian superstar s1mple stand-in for the tournament as the signing of Jacob "Pimp" Winneche took longer than expected, and was not allowed to participate at the major due to previously playing the European Minor with SK Gaming's Danish lineup. Once again the team showed up to play at the major making it past their group with a win against the French superstars’ EnVyUs. Vincent "Happy" Cervoni-Schopenhauer and co. lost to Liquid in a convincing fashion on Train, 16-7. After a loss to Virtus.pro, Liquid faced mousesports in the decider match and won 2-0 on Cobblestone and Mirage. The team had a hard draw on the quarterfinals and had to face Natus Vincere, the last major runner-up’s. The team surprisingly won 2-1 beating Na`Vi on Nuke and Cobblestone but unable to win on Train. The team moved onto the semis where the met the Swedish giants, Fnatic, whom they beat 2-0 on Cobblestone and Cache. At this point, the Liquid squad had made history making the first NA team to make it to the finals at a major. Their they met their old rivals, SK Gaming - the old Luminosity line-up signed by a new org - and unfortunately lost to them 2-0 in convincing fashion on Train and Cobblestone. After the major the team’s next major event and the new man Pimp’s first event was ESL One: New York 2016, where they did very well making it past groups beating G2 Esports and Fnatic twice. In the semi-finals the team encountered the CIS powerhouse, who had their former teammate, s1mple. Unfortunately, the squad lost 2-1 to Na`Vi who went onto win the tournament. After ESL One: New York, the team started to falter as they continued to struggle to make it past groups. Although Liquid did manage to pick up a new coach, Wilton "zews" Prado, at Northern Arena 2016 - Montreal.
Two Major Disappointments[edit]
In late January the team retained their legend spot and were immediately invited to the ELEAGUE Major: Atlanta 2017. The ELEAGUE major was the first to utilize the swiss format and this turned out to be a bit of a problem for the American superstars. In round 1 of the swiss format they faced the Frenchmen in the form of EnVyUs, and they lost in overtime 21-25. A notable play during this game was jdm64’s ace clutch. Moving into the lower matches the team faced FlipSid3 Tactics where Team Liquid did win but in a surprisingly close game, ending at 16-14. In round 3 they faced the EU conglomerate, FaZe Clan, this highly contested match ended with double overtime and a score of 18-22. In round 4 the team swiftly took down Nikola "NiKo" Kovac and co. on mousesports ending with a 16-4 score line. This last round was incredibly important as it was do or die for the Americans. The team was matched up against Astralis, which would definitely be a challenge for Team Liquid. The map vetoes came in and the last map remaining was Mirage, a choice ridiculed by the analysts; then, the game started, and Liquid were utterly stomped by Astralis as the game ended 16-3 in the Danish team's favour. This group stage exit meant the team would have to return to the qualifier system for the next major due to losing their legend spot. 6 months past and the team had very little success and only a truly notable run in the ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals where they made semifinals. In addition, the squad had started to change as the addition of Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz and Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken and the departure of Hiko and Pimp were announced. On July 2nd, 2017 the team packed their bags to Bucharest for the PGL major qualifiers. The team was ready to win and make it back to the major. In the opening match the team faced the Chinese team, TyLoo, which surprising went into overtime and the squad narrowly won 22-19. In round 2 the squad had a good draw facing the tier 2 EU multinational team, PENTA Sports, this was massive upset for PENTA Sports as they beat Liquid 3-16. After this embarrassing loss the team moved on to the third round where they met HellRaisers, a team they hadn't played against since the year previous. The team made quick work of HellRaisers by winning 16-2. Next up was Fatih "gob b" Dayik's BIG where the team was upset again losing 16-10 on Train. The last and most important match was against the CIS team, FlipSid3 Tactics, a team that had always done well in major qualifiers, but it seemed Liquid were ready to change that. The team lost 23-25 meaning they would have to sit out for the major this time.
A New Era?[edit]
Five days after the major qualifiers, was when ESL One Cologne 2017 happened. The team made it past the groups, 3-0. After this great showing in the group stage, the team could not convert a win against FaZe Clan who were at the time able to consistently reach finals with their new addition of NiKo. Two months later the team went to ESG Tour Mykonos 2017 where they went beast mode and made it past groups and then in a massive upset beat the number one team in the world, SK Gaming. Unfortunately, in the finals, they lost to the new improved mousesports 2-3. A week later the good results continued as the team made 2nd place at ESL One: New York 2017 beating Virtus.pro and Astralis in best-of-threes to make it past groups. In the semifinals the team faced their old Brazilian rivals, SK, where they once again upset them 2-1. In the finals, the team faced the European superstar team, FaZe Clan, where they lost 3-0, but many congratulated them on bring such a great fight against them. The team later began to have mixed results again, and stanislaw was benched shortly after, with Team Liquid replacing him with Immortals' Lucas "steel" Lopes.
They kicked off 2018 with a great success at cs_summit 2, taking down reigning major champions Cloud9 and world number one SK Gaming on their way to the final trophy. Liquid followed up on this performance with two straight semifinal finishes at StarSeries Season 4 and IEM Katowice 2018 and made their first big event finals at the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals, where they lost to Astralis. This pattern would soon become familiar, as Liquid were eliminated by Astralis in top 4 matches at four more events, including the FACEIT Major. Liquid finally seemed to have a path to a big event victory at ESL One New York 2018, with Astralis not in attendance and FaZe Clan and Natus Vincere both foundering in groups. Liquid reached the final without serious resistance and jumped out to a 13-4 lead in what should have been a decisive map 4 in the final against mousesports. However, Liquid were unable to close out the match, yet again raising serious questions about the team's mental fortitude. Liquid had 5 straight top 4 finishes and 8 of their last 10 tournaments saw them reach at least the semifinals, but no silverware to show for it.
Timeline[edit]
Player Roster[edit]
Active[edit]
| Active Squad | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ID | Name | Join Date | |||
|
nitr0 
|
Nicholas Cannella | 2015-01-13 [1] | ||
|
|
EliGE | Jonathan Jablonowski | 2015-03-22 [3] | ||
|
Twistzz | Russel Van Dulken | 2017-04-14 [28] | ||
|
|
NAF | Keith Markovic | 2018-02-05 [32] | ||
|
TACO | Epitácio de Melo | 2018-04-06 [34] | ||
|
|
zews (Coach) | Wilton Prado | 2016-11-10 [23] | ||
Former[edit]
| Former Players | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ID | Name | Join Date |
Inactive Date | Leave Date | New Team | |
|
|
jdm64 | Joshua Marzano | 2016-06-13 [19] | 2018-02-05 [32] | 2018-06-10 [36] |  Team Envy
|
|
|
steel | Lucas Lopes | 2017-11-13 [31] | 2018-04-06 [34] | 2018-04-22 [35] |  Luminosity Gaming
|
|
|
stanislaw | Peter Jarguz | 2017-02-03 [25] | 2017-11-13 [31] | 2018-02-07 [33] |  OpTic Gaming
|
|
Pimp | Jacob Winneche | 2016-06-15 [20] | 2017-03-23 [27] | 2017-07-09 [29] |  Team Dignitas (Streamer)
|
|
|
Hiko | Spencer Martin | 2015-09-03 [7] | 2017-02-03 [25] | 2017-02-07 [26] |  Rogue
|
|
|
peacemaker (Coach) | Luis Tadeu | 2016-05-07 [17] | 2016-10-22 [22] |  NRG Esports (Coach)
| |
|
s1mple | Oleksandr Kostyliev | 2016-01-02 [10] | 2016-04-21 [15] | 2016-08-03 [21] |  Natus Vincere
|
|
|
koosta | Kenneth Suen | 2016-02-21 [12] | 2016-06-13 [19] |  Counter Logic Gaming
| |
|
|
adreN | Eric Hoag | 2015-01-13 [1] [15] | 2016-06-06 [18] |  Mythic
| |
|
|
GBJame^s (Coach) | James O'Connor | 2015-09-03 [7] | 2016-04-23 [16] |  Team Prospects (Coach)
| |
|
|
FugLy | Jacob Medina | 2015-01-13 [1] | 2016-01-02 [10] | Counter Logic Gaming
| |
|
|
miKnutty (Substitute) | Michael Vitaterna | 2015-01-13 [1] | 2015-09-16 |  Nexus eSports
| |
|
|
flowsicK | Kyle Mendez | 2015-05-25 [5] | 2015-09-03 [7] |  Winterfox
| |
|
|
dmode (Coach) | Donald Cahill | 2015-04-06 | 2015-09-03 [7] |  Team Liquid (Analyst)
| |
|
|
daps | Damien Steele | 2015-01-13 [1] | 2015-06-02 [6] |  eLevate
| |
|
|
NAF | Keith Markovic | 2015-01-13 [1] | 2015-03-23 [3] | 2015-05-11 [4] | Luminosity Gaming
|
|
|
Warden (Coach) | Matt Dickens | 2015-01-13 [1] | 2015-03-16 [2] |  Tempo Storm (Coach)
| |
Organization[edit]
Active[edit]
| Organization | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ID | Name | Position | Join Date | |||
|
Nazgul | Victor Goossens | Founder, Co-owner & Co-CEO | |||
|
|
LiQuiD112 | Steve Arhancet | Co-owner & Co-CEO | |||
|
|
jokasteve | Steve Perino | Manager | |||
|
SilverMoonya | Ksenia Khotenkova | CIS community manager | |||
Former[edit]
| Former Organization | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ID | Name | Position | Join Date | Leave Date | New Organization | |
|
Swani | Jan Müller | Analyst | 2017-02-27 | 2017-11-16 [37] |  SK Gaming
|
|
|
Bumblebee | Robin Nymann | Head of esports & Manager | 2017-02-01 | ||
|
|
dmode | Donald Cahill | Analyst | 2015-09-03 [7] | ||
|
|
KJ | Kieran Playfair | Analyst | 2015-01-13 [1] | 2016-04-07 [14] | |
Achievements[edit]
| Date | Placement | Tier | Tournament | Results | Prize | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-09-30 | 2nd | Premier |
|
ESL One: New York 2018 | 2 : 3 | 
|
$50,000 |
| 2018-09-22 | 3rd - 4th | Premier |
|
FACEIT Major: London 2018 | 0 : 2 | 
|
$70,000 |
| 2018-07-29 | 2nd | Premier |
|
ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018 | 0 : 2 |
|
$200,000 |
| 2018-06-10 | 2nd | Premier |
|
Esports Championship Series Season 5 - Finals | 0 : 2 |
|
$120,000 |
| 2018-05-20 | 2nd | Premier |
|
ESL Pro League Season 7 - Finals | 1 : 3 |
|
$110,000 |
| 2018-02-11 | 1st | Major |
|
cs_summit 2 | 3 : 2 | 
|
$63,750 |
| 2017-09-17 | 2nd | Premier |
|
ESL One: New York 2017 | 0 : 3 | 
|
$50,000 |
| 2017-09-10 | 2nd | Premier |
|
ESG Tour Mykonos 2017 | 2 : 3 |
|
$48,112.31 |
| 2016-07-10 | 2nd | Premier |
|
ESL One: Cologne 2016 | 0 : 2 |
|
$150,000 |
| 2016-04-03 | 3rd - 4th | Premier |
|
MLG Major Championship: Columbus 2016 | 0 : 2 |
|
$70,000 |
| About achievementsComplete Results in any Tournament | |||||||
Trivia[edit]
- Became the first North American team to reach a CS:GO Major grand final at ESL One: Cologne 2016.
- Previously won the most prize money from one big event with a stand-in. The event being ESL One: Cologne 2016 with s1mple standing in. The record was beaten by SK Gaming after winning EPICENTER 2017 using Ricardo "boltz" Prass as a stand-in, winning $100,000 more than Team Liquid did in Cologne.
Gallery[edit]
Rosters[edit]
Logos[edit]
Original logo prior to 2017
Interviews[edit]
2016[edit]
- 2016-02-27 | Liquid: "Even EliGE started calling" by stich of HLTV.org at MLG Major Championship: Columbus - Qualifier
2015[edit]
- 2015-01-30 | Back-up Plan: An Interview with miKnutty by tree.hugger of Team Liquid
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Introducing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Team Liquid parts ways with Warden". ESEA.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "EliGE joins Team Liquid's CS:GO team". Team Liquid.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Luis "MIRAA" Mira (2015-05-11). "Luminosity sign NAF-FLY". HLTV.org.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Luis "MIRAA" Mira (2015-05-25). "flowsicK signs for Liquid". HLTV.org.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 daps (2015-06-02). "Today my contract with Team Liquid has officially ended.".
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 "Hiko joins Liquid". Team Liquid. 2015-09-03.
- ↑ Milan "Striker" Švejda (2015-12-16). "allu to try out for Liquid". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2015-12-23.
- ↑ Luis "MIRAA" Mira (2015-12-23). "Hiko: 'allu not joining Liquid'". HLTV.org.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Bumblebee (2016-01-02). "A s1mple pickup". Team Liquid. Retrieved 2016-01-02.
- ↑ Richard Lewis (2016-02-16). "North American CS:GO Star to Join Team Liquid".
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Milan "Striker" Švejda (2016-02-21). "Official: Liquid sign koosta". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2016-02-21.
- ↑ "We're now happy to say that Eric will be doing an official tryout over at Team SoloMid". 2016-03-14.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 "KJ leaves Team Liquid".
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Michal "stich" Malachowski (2016-04-21). "s1mple to seek new European team". HLTV.org.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Milan "Striker" Švejda (2016-04-23). "Jame^s parts ways with Liquid". HLTV.org.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Victor "Nazgul" Goosens (2016-05-17). "Peacemaker to Coach Liquid". Team Liquid.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Robin "Bumblebee" Nymann (2016-06-06). "Liquid CS:GO Update - 6 June 2016". Team Liquid.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Milan "Striker" Švejda (2016-06-13). "Liquid and CLG swap jdm64, Koosta". HLTV.org.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 shiroiusagi (2016-06-15). "Pimpin the CSGO Roster". Team Liquid.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Nazgul. "Peacmaker parts ways with Team Liquid". Team Liquid.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Zvonimir "Professeur" Burazin. "zews joins Team Liquid". HLTV.org.
- ↑ LiQuiD112. "Yes, @wiltonzews will be coaching our CSGO team today in Montreal and in Oakland.".
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 "Liquid stanislaw". Team Liquid.
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 "Today we say goodbye to a legend that helped us take great strides in CS". Team Liquid.
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 Milan "Striker" Švejda (2017-03-23). "Pimp on his way out of Liquid". HLTV.org.
- ↑ 28.0 28.1 "Twistzz joins Team Liquid". Team Liquid. 2017-04-14. Retrieved 2017-04-14.
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 Pimp (2017-07-09). "From this moment I will no longer be contracted to Team Liquid!".
- ↑ "Today we are officially releasing Pimp and thank him for his time in Team Liquid". Team Liquid. 2017-07-09.
- ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 "steelega in for Stanislaw". Team Liquid.
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 "CSGO Roster Update: Liquid`NAF". Team Liquid.
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 Luis "MIRAA" Mira. "OpTic unveil new roster". HLTV.org.
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 "Welcome, TACO!". Team Liquid. 2018-04-06.
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 Milan "Striker" Švejda (2018-04-22). "steel and zakk join Luminosity". HLTV.org.
- ↑ 36.0 36.1 Joshua "jdm64" Marzano (2018-05-31). "Starting June 10th I will be considered a free agent and no longer under contract w/ liquid".
- ↑ Jan Müller (2017-11-16). "New Chapter - Leaving @TeamLiquid to join @SKGaming".
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