If you’re a longtime Team Liquid fan - long enough to have been a Curse fan - then you probably remember the 3rd place decider match against LMQ. It’s only been four years since then, but the gap between then and now feels massive. It’s made all the more massive by retirements, name changes, and the fact that Akali’s meta now.In the old days, Team Curse had always been just shy of Worlds. That 4th meme wasn’t just about being upper middle of the pack. It was about being just shy of the mark. Almost there, but not quite. So when Team Curse jumped out to a 2-0 lead over LMQ, it finally felt like the curse, the meme, the disappointment, was all over. It felt like it was finally time to see Curse break into the next level competition.Even if them winning Worlds was a long, long shot, so many fans still wanted to see them make it to the championship.But none of that was meant to be. Over the course of the next three games, Team Curse gradually fell apart and lost the series in heartbreaking fashion. They fell back on comfort picks in Game 5 and got crushed. Curse’s run was over in less than 25 minutes, 28 kills to 8.If you’re a fan of any NA team, then you felt the hype when Team Liquid toppled Invictus Gaming, 3-1 in the semifinals of this year’s MSI. You felt the sheer joy that comes with one of the biggest upsets in the history of League of Legends. The shaky North American team that scraped into the knockout stage without a 4-6 record took down one of the best teams in the world.We had brought the best team NA had ever seen to MSI and we looked good. We looked like we had a read on the meta and the other teams. We looked like a team with our own style, one that could counter an aggressive meta. We seemed destined to win it all and bring home NA’s first international trophy. It was even the 4th MSI. But no amount of destiny or 4th memes would get us that trophy. In the MSI Finals, we faced off against maybe the best European team to ever exist, and we got crushed, 3-0. It wasn’t just brutal, it was “shortest international series ever” brutal.Sometimes, it hurts a lot more being almost there.But if you’re a Liquid fan then you know that the pain means something. You know that it’s not just the pain of your team’s chances dying. It’s not just the pain of your favorite players losing. It’s not just the pain of your region getting destroyed on every social media platform imaginable. It’s a growing pain. It’s a part of making it to the top.If you’re a long time fan then you know we never started at the top. We started at 4th place, middle of the pack. We started as a meme, not the team to beat. And we felt the sting of the “almosts” more than any other org. We felt it with the double teleport form CLG, the reverse 3-0 from LMQ, against C9 in the gauntlet.And now, after years of build-up and battles, we’re the team that gives them their almosts. Clutch Gaming almost had the upset of their franchise. TSM almost had a chance to go to MSI this year. C9 almost had a chance to win their first finals in 5 years. We worked our way from fourth to foremost, almost there to almost had us.So if you’ve stuck with us this long, then you know who we are. We’re the team of blood, sweat, and tears. We’re the team that adapts, that makes hard moves, that changes everything when it needs to be changed, that builds higher and taller than anyone else. If you’ve stuck with us from fourth to first, from meme team to dream team, from up and comer to major org, then you know what we’re coming for.We’re coming for the top.We’re not just settling for Groups, for Quarters, for Semis, or for Grands. We’re not interested in what happened at MSI, we’re not worried about what happened at Rift Rivals, and we’re not looking back at the hard past NA has had before that. We’re coming for NA’s first trophy. We’re coming to draw first blood.Steve Arhancet didn’t make this roster to win NA. We had already been there and done that. Core didn’t come here to see California. He’d already seen it. Jensen didn’t come here to surprise people. He already surprised people in the Gauntlet and at Worlds he was in. All the years, all the sweat, all the losses, all the time of being talked down to by other franchises. All of it adds up to one. One tournament, one trophy, and a number one team coming out of NA for the first time ever.Sometimes, it hurts a lot more being almost there, but we know those are growing pains and every one of them was worth it because it got us here. It got us to the best team NA has ever had going into a World Championship that has never been more wide open and wild.In the rush of yet another 5 game series, after the 4th LCS title, Steve said it best himself, “Finishing in the finals in MSI, beating the previous world champions, it’s kind of a taste of what could come. So for us, we want a World Championship.”“And is this the split for that to happen?” Ovilee asked.Let it be known the world over. We’re done growing and we’re done with almosts. We’re coming for that trophy. Send G2, send SKT, send RNG, send anyone at all and we’ll face them and we’ll win.