What defines an era in CS:GO?

It’s an important question to ask when considering the recent success of North American titan Team Liquid. The team which was considered only second to Astralis for most of last year has taken hold of the throne and in a similarly dominant fashion.

Team Liquid has been breaking records as they cruised to an Intel Grand Slam achievement in only 63 days, besting Astralis’ time frame to do the same by over 200 days.

In addition to those three wins earning them an additional $1 million and accolade, the team has been dominating for months. Following second place finishes at BLAST Pro Series Miami and São Paulo, the North American side took home first at IEM Sydney, came up short with a second place finish at cs_summit 4 and haven’t looked back since on their way to four more first place finishes including DreamHack Masters Dallas 2019, ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals, ESL One Cologne 2019, and BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles 2019.

The last time the team didn’t get first or second at a LAN event excluding Majors was at ECS Season 6 finals in 2018. The team went out in the quarterfinals at IEM Katowice, their poorest result on LAN in 2019.

Photo: BLAST

Looking at these results, especially five first place finishes in their last six events, it’s hard to argue Liquid aren’t a level above the rest. If Majors weren’t a thing we’d all be calling it the era of Liquid, however, there are some who hold that title for those who pick up the most prestigious award in all of Counter-Strike: Major Champions.

No matter how dominant Liquid has been, without a Major title there are those who will doubt and fight their right to claim such a title. I am not one of them.

While anything less than a victory in Berlin for the StarLadder Major would loosen their grip on the crown, it wouldn’t even remove them completely in my eyes. No matter who would beat them, they’ve most likely bested that team or outperformed them multiple times in the last several months. Eras are about consistency, about longevity not just blips on the radar.

Liquid has proven itself to be the team to beat for months and has shown the world it will be no easy task. This isn’t a fluke of one or two events in which case there’s no established reign. This is a multi-month time period that has included a flurry of event after event against some of the worlds most impressive teams.

You may want to wait, but I won’t. This is the era of Liquid.

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