We are in one of the best eras of NA CS:GO history. At the end of 2016, there were three NA teams that were good: Cloud 9, Team Liquid, and OpTic. Cloud 9 had won ESL Proleague Season 4, Team Liquid had the best Major runs, and OpTic got back-to-back finals at ELeague Season 2 and ECS Season 2 Finals, winning the first and losing the second respectively. Since then OpTic has disassembled and now the pieces of OpTic have mixed into Cloud 9 and Liquid creating two even stronger teams in their wake. Peter “Stanislaw” Jarguz went to Liquid while Tarik “tarik” Celik and Will “RUSH” Wierzba went to Cloud 9. After the shuffles, Cloud 9 got top 4 at ELeague 2017, Liquid got 2nd at ESG Mykonos and ESL New York. Both teams are now vying for the top spot to see which will do the best internationally. And Oakland will be the next battlefield for this NA Civil War.

What makes the Cloud 9 and Team Liquid dynamic so intriguing is how disparate their approaches to the game are, especially as some of the players from Cloud 9 and Team Liquid were once on the same team. Cloud 9 relies more heavily on their skill and is built upon a simple structure and teamwork. Contrasting that, Team Liquid has taken the European approach of having map control, tactics and a system. Both can be explained through their histories as an organization.

The current iteration of Cloud 9 is a result of Jake “Stewie2k” Yip’s evolution as a leader. He was a player who was plopped into the team with no prior professional experience. Since then, he has done everything for the team. He became their star player, their entry-fragger, their recruiter, and leader. As a leader he tried to call around his plays so that he could create space for the rest of his team to follow-up. This style went to the next level after the recruitment of Timothy “autimatic” Ta to the roster as Stewie2k’s play naturally enabled autimatic to be the secondary star. That was an year ago.

Since the offseason, Will “RUSH” Wierzba and Tarik “tarik” Celik have joined the roster with tarik taking over the in-game leadership. The roles of the team has changed. Now Stewie2k plays on the wings and tarik is the entry in-game leader. Despite that the core philosophy seems to be similar. They want to enable their star players while having some structure to the overall team. While both Stewie2k and tarik are “leaders” of the team, they aren’t the traditional types, but rather ones who were forced into the roles because no one else could do it (though tarik seems to embrace it at the moment).

In contrast to that, Team Liquid has always tried to find an in-game leader. The first iterations had Damien “daps” Steele and later on Eric “adreN” Hoag. When they started to recruit more firepower, they tried to shift the role of in-game leader to the coach by bringing on Luis “peacemaker” Tadeu. When the coach ban was implemented, Liquid were stuck in purgatory until they made the dramatic move of hiring stanislaw as their in-game leader. Stanislaw was hailed as NA’s best in-game leader after OpTic won ELeague season 2, but he was dissatisfied around the ELeague Major in early 2017 and left for Liquid believing that the lineup could reach an even higher ceiling.

While that was a critical pickup, Liquid needed more. Soon after they recruited Wilton “zews” Prado to supplement the tactics and manage the internal issues that have plagued this roster since it’s inception. The final piece that Liquid needed was Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken. He was a highly appraised up-and-comer that people believed could be a star. Despite his young age, he has already shown an amazing level and quickly became one of the primary stars of the squad. But the way the team fit together wasn’t quite right and this wasn’t fixed until a critical moment comes after the Krakow Major break. Team Liquid retooled the team and Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella took on the role of in-game leader. This has shifted the roles into the right configuration and Liquid’s tactics, system, and roles look better than they any other time in it’s history.

Cloud 9 is about Skill with some tactics and teamwork. Liquid on the other hand is about their tactics which informs how their skill is used. Both approaches to the game have merit. Cloud 9’s philosophy is more in-line with what NA CS has been for a majority of it’s years. As Griffin “shaGuar” Benger, former CS: 1.6 veteran put it in 2004:

“I think it will always be America’s curse to rely so heavily on raw individual skill rather than combining that with other aspects of the game that are as important such as teamplay and strats.”

Cloud 9 is closer to that traditional line of thought. Team Liquid are an altogether different beast as they are more systematic and structured. We’ve seen both approaches throughout NA CS:GO history, but never at this level for either.

These differing styles becomes more intriguing when put in the context of the history between the teams and players. For instance, both RUSH and Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski appear at the bottom rungs of NA CS around the same time. RUSH in the latter half of 2014 and EliGE in early 2015. Both players were on team ELevate for a few months before EliGE went on to Liquid and ELevate eventually became the stack that formed the basis of OpTic. Their progression as players resemble each other to a degree. Both players have been considered the best NA players at different points, RUSH during the height of his powers at the end of 2016 and EliGE in 2017. Both gained that reputation from their aggressive entry play. RUSH was the vanguard of OpTic’s run at ELeague Season 2, one of the best in the world. EliGE formed a duo with nitr0 to break open sites and the two of them were the engine of the old Liquid rosters. There were even rumors that the two of them could have teamed up again, though that never came to fruition. In more recent times, both have since had a role change on the T-side with RUSH now playing the passive end of the wing and coming in at the end of the round to clean up. EliGE is still one of the primary players to take map control for Liquid, but in the hit comes in after nitr0 and Twistzz to close the round.

Another parallel history is autimatic and Twistzz. Both players were part of the TSM squad that made a run at ECS Season 1 Finals 2016. Both went on to join better teams. Autimatic first joined Cloud 9 on the recommendation of Stewie2k. Autimatic became the integral second star of Cloud 9 and one of the best players in NA. It came as a shock as no one had him on the radar and his synergy with Stewie2k has been the driving force behind every Cloud 9 run. Twistzz on the other hand didn’t get his shot for international play until this year when he finally joined Liquid. Both players have since flourished under their new teams, and former teammates must now vie for the top of NA CS.

The most dramatic of former teammates turned rivals is Tarik and stanislaw. At the end of 2016, OpTic proved that they were the best NA team in the world. The rise of OpTic coincided with the recruitment of Tarik. Tarik’s entrance into the team forced multiple role changes which eventually forced stanislaw into the in-game leader role. From there, the OpTic team slowly rose up until they became the best NA team by winning ELeague Season 2 and getting second at ECS. Soon after they dropped out of the ELeague Major in groups and in a move that surprised everyone, stanislaw pulled the plug. Stanislaw no longer had confidence that OpTic could rise above what they were and decided that Liquid’s philosophy of always striving to be the best suit him more. This left OpTic in the lurch as they tried to find a suitable fifth. At the very end of their run, Tarik took on the in-game leader role himself and it got OpTic to the top 8 of ESL Cologne. While it was a good result, it wasn’t enough to quench their ambitions and soon after Tarik and RUSH left for Cloud 9.

In an ironic twist of fate, this rivalry will not play out here. Stanislaw has been benched by Liquid resembling stanislaw’s previous history with OpTic. Stanislaw left OpTic after they had two good runs at ELeague Season 2 and ECS Season 2 Finals. After OpTic lost at the ELeague Major, stanislaw left. This time around, Team Liquid had two good runs at ESG Mykonos and eSL New York. Despite that, they’ve been on a losing streak since then at ELeague 2017, EPICENTER, and IBP Masters. This time stanislaw was benched and Lucas “steel” Lopes will become his replacement.

Beyond the players are the two orgs: Cloud 9 and Team Liquid. In the CS:GO space, both have been vying for supremacy for the NA region for the last two years, with Cloud 9 almost always coming out on top. Team Liquid on the other hand has consistently tried to improve their roster to topple them with some of the most dramatic roster moves in CS:GO history.

This story happened again as Cloud 9 defeated Liquid at IBP Masters. Soon after, stanislaw was benched and steel came onto the squad. For Cloud 9 this was a good victory. For Liquid it was a call to arms as they realized something needed to change to get to the next level. Both teams no longer have mere aspirations of being the best in the region, but of being the best in the world. And IEM Oakland will be the battleground to prove that. One year ago, neither team could make it out of their groups. Now, one year later both teams have a shot to win the entire thing. We will see which side will reign supreme at IEM Oakland and strike the next victory in this ongoing NA Civil War.