amazingxkcd Profile Blog Joined September 2010 GRAND OLD AMERICA 15736 Posts Last Edited: 2017-08-10 08:41:34 #1 America's best hope?



If there ever were to be a moment in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive where a North American team had a chance to make a statement about their place in hierarchy of teams, to crack into the upper echelons and challenge their European counterparts for supremacy, it would be now. This week in Columbus, an unprecedented four North American squads will grace the stage at Major League Gaming’s CS:GO Major Championship to compete for their share of the $1,000,000 prize pool. At the first Major on home soil, in an era that is witnessing an all-time low in the level of dominance that top European teams display, North America has a chance to elevate itself above the running gag of “NA CS”.



Truly, however, there are serious questions about the state of the North American teams attending. Having only played two maps at the qualifier they barely got into at the last minute, is Splyce truly deserving? Equally, is Cloud9 anywhere near the level they were at last year when they still failed to make it out of groups? And what about CLG? For a team that seemed to be heir apparent earlier in the year, are they able to maintain a high enough level in international competition?



Perhaps the team with the most mystique, facing the biggest doubts of their ability to perform at this Major while simultaneously inspiring the most hope in fans is the fourth and final North American lineup: Team Liquid. Their run at the qualifier was nothing short of a spectacle, and the chronicling of it in a recent interview was an interesting look into the dynamic of the team at the time and how they managed to shock Hellraisers in three maps to secure their spot at Columbus. Unfortunately for them, they still face similar issues they did there as they get ready to tackle their group this coming week.



The roster:

Spencer “Hiko” Martin

Nick “nitr0” Cannella

Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski

Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev

Eric “adreN” Hoag



Leadership

Having failed to successfully lead the team at the qualifier, nitr0 has given up his short-lived stint as in-game leader to Hiko, the most experienced player on the squad. Hiko has never led a top-level team before, and his outings in recent online matches show a spotty track-record even against other North American squads. While weak strategically, Hiko can still be a valuable leader as he is likely the emotional leader of the team as it exists now given his position as the established star teamed with a bunch of young guns. He also doesn’t necessarily need to produce as much individually given the potential of his teammates like nitr0 and s1mple, meaning that the burden of orchestrating Liquid’s tactics will not interfere unduly with the team’s overall ability to frag.



It may be the case that the team reverts to its old ways and again looks to adreN for guidance in matches, but this would be unfortunate given that their former IGL does not have a future with the team. Only due to Valve’s peculiar rules is he even playing at this event with the team, as he’s been replaced by Kenneth “koosta” Suen on the team for all other intents and purposes. If their performance at the qualifier is any indication, however, this team needs to figure out an idea of how it wants to play and fast, or they will be left scrambling for solutions again and likely won’t be as fortunate against the tougher competition they face at the Major.



The AWP



As is now readily apparent, the iteration of this team that will be playing at the Major has no true dedicated AWP talent. Neither s1mple nor adreN are up to the task, as they both perform much better when rifling. If koosta could play for this team, this might not be the case, but as it stands now, this team has no answer to the Jesper Wecksells of the Counter-Strike world, and that is an issue as they head into the Major.



It’s difficult to think of a team that has had Major success without a top-tier AWP talent. Virtus Pro in its prime at least had pasha sniping fairly well, and during their successes in 2015 NEO was out-dueling quite a few players. Their failures in recent times though see them unable to compete with the big green gun. It is the lynchpin of all Major winners in recent memory save perhaps the NiP lineups in 2014. Fnatic’s success is a particularly excellent example; they rely on dual AWP setups on some maps with both JW and olofm able to pick up scoped rifles and perform.



Liquid isn’t completely devoid of the ability to wield the AWP. s1mple is at least a perfunctory part-time AWPer to pair with adreN’s occasionally sufficient scope, but they still face a serious challenge in their group as they play two European teams sporting snipers playing at a high level as of late.



The Group



Speaking of the teams grouped with Liquid…







In the first round, Liquid plays FaZe Clan in the first best-of-1. Fortunately for Liquid, this is perhaps the easiest top-8 team from Cluj that they could have hoped to face. FaZe overall have not looked spectacular in the interim. Still, FaZe is a team full of skilled players and has a track record of playing well against top European competition, something Liquid does not. It’s definitely a match that could go either way.



If Liquid manages to beat FaZe, they would quite likely face Fnatic in the winner’s match of the group in another Bo1. Seeing as Fnatic is clearly the best team in the world right now, it’s difficult to imagine this iteration of Liquid having much of a chance, even in a Bo1. They are simply not a match for Fnatic man-to-man across the board and lack the strategical depth to outplay the superior skills of the Swedes.



If Liquid loses to FaZe in the first match, they would face their fellow countrymen Splyce for their tournament lives. Liquid are the favorites in this match, but as shown in the qualifier, Splyce are not a team to be underestimated. This young, hungry team is dangerous on LAN with their momentum-based play and Liquid is definitely the sort of team that could be susceptible to falling behind and getting rolled over.



No matter what happens in the first best-of-1, the most likely scenario for the group is that Liquid and FaZe meet again in the Bo3 decider match to see who advances. Again, it’s difficult to pick a clear winner between the teams, but it’s definitely a winnable series for Liquid. They showed a surprising amount of mental resilience in their qualifier run that the team seemingly lacked before.



There are other possible scenarios, but most of them don’t look too good for our hometown heroes. Any upset of Fnatic could spell doom for Liquid, as they would be forced to play the dominant team in either the loser’s or the decider match. Liquid absolutely does not want to play Fnatic for their tournament lives. The only dream scenario is if both NA teams beat the Europeans and face off in the winner’s match, but that is the least likely outcome out of all the possibilities.



An X-Factor



The one factor that this Liquid team has in its favor that no other team at this event does is the fact that they are essentially playing with nothing to lose. Neither the four players who will be with the team going forward nor adreN himself should feel any pressure to succeed at this Major beyond wanting to win games of Counter-Strike. This mindset could backfire, as the team could easily get discouraged and write the event off mentally as meaningless, but it has the benefit of freeing up the team to do whatever it takes to win, something that Liquid teams of old lacked.



It is perhaps the one magical thing about their match against Hellraisers at the qualifier. In his interview, nitr0 spoke of how everyone on the team started to call and it sparked their play on the final map. One could take this as a sign of the lack of leadership that it obviously is, but it is also a sign that this team found within itself a motivation to succeed that is necessary to performing on the big stage.



While there are definitely bigger factors at hand that could determine Liquid’s fate at Columbus, one has to wonder; if it comes down to the last map in a best-of-3 versus FaZe to decide who goes on, could this Liquid team pull it together again as they did against Hellraisers and eke out a victory? Sometimes the will to win is the only thing separating the victor and the defeated. It would be quite the story to see this team with pre-written excuses for failure manage to do what no NA team in 2015 was able to: make it to the playoffs.





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The one factor that this Liquid team has in its favor that no other team at this event does is the fact that they are essentially playing with nothing to lose. Neither the four players who will be with the team going forward nor adreN himself should feel any pressure to succeed at this Major beyond wanting to win games of Counter-Strike. This mindset could backfire, as the team could easily get discouraged and write the event off mentally as meaningless, but it has the benefit of freeing up the team to do whatever it takes to win, something that Liquid teams of old lacked.It is perhaps the one magical thing about their match against Hellraisers at the qualifier. In his interview, nitr0 spoke of how everyone on the team started to call and it sparked their play on the final map. One could take this as a sign of the lack of leadership that it obviously is, but it is also a sign that this team found within itself a motivation to succeed that is necessary to performing on the big stage.While there are definitely bigger factors at hand that could determine Liquid’s fate at Columbus, one has to wonder; if it comes down to the last map in a best-of-3 versus FaZe to decide who goes on, could this Liquid team pull it together again as they did against Hellraisers and eke out a victory? Sometimes the will to win is the only thing separating the victor and the defeated. It would be quite the story to see this team with pre-written excuses for failure manage to do what no NA team in 2015 was able to: make it to the playoffs.Writer: Yamato Editor: Amazingxkcd CSS: FO-nTTaX Graphics: DearDave The world is burning and you rather be on this terrible website discussing video games and your shallow feelings