CS:GO

PUBG

Ultimate and SFV

No region, team, or player stays on top forever. Team Liquid knows this fact better than most. We’ve seen big drops and big rises. We’ve endured long slumps and even longer win streaks. Right now, we’re unquestionably one of the most successful teams in esports: We’re taking home trophies left and right, from game to game, arena to arena, country to country. In the last few weeks in particular, our teams have taken home big win after big win. The tough journey along the way has made the wins all the more meaningful.For years, Team Liquid landed just shy of 1st place at premiere after premiere. History repeated itself so often that it became a bit of a meme. At IEM Sydney, CS:GO fans were already congratulating Fnatic for the victory when they made it through the lower bracket to face us in the Grand Final. Our second place curse just seemed too strong. However, curses are made to be broken and memes are made to fade. Our Counter Strike team made sure their legacy would be lasting by winning IEM Sydney.Going into the event, they were the clear favorites. While a slew of strong A-tier teams showed up - Fnatic, MIBR, NRG, FaZe NiP - the tournament lacked the S-tiers that regularly challenge Liquid - Astralis, ENCE, and NaVi. While most analysts put money on Liquid to win, the gallery wondered if we could beat their true nemesis - the Grand Final.It certainly came close. In typical fashion, Team Liquid went all the way up to Grands without dropping a map. They cut through BIG, NiP, and MIBR to face a Fnatic that took bloody win after bloody win in the lower bracket. By the time Fnatic made it to Grands, they had enough experience and momentum to look like the team that once ran the CS:GO scene.In the first map, Fnatic really shined. They counter-picked Team Liquid to Cache, a great choice since we had stopped practicing it shortly after Valve announced they would remake the map. Team Liquid’s lack of practice showed, and we fell into a 9-0 hole. Despite climbing back to make it 15-10 at one point, Fnatic took the map handily.The second map was where it looked like the second place curse would claim Liquid again. We countered to Overpass and showed our strength on it early, with a 7-2 start. What looked like a wrap for Liquid quickly turned around, as Fnatic got a few consecutive wins. From that point, the match quickly became one of the best of the tournament, with players from both sides getting creative and clutch.For Fnatic, Brollan, Krimz, and Xizt all stepped up to nail crucial shots, make heads-up intuition plays, and win rounds. It took an insane 1v2 from Nitr0, EliGe getting a triple kill from behind a rusted bicycle, and a monstrous AK-47 round from Stewie2K when the team had little money to spend... But we won 16-14.From there, Fnatic and Liquid traded victories on each other’s counter picks. Our boys rocked Fnatic on Mirage, 16-8, and Fnatic rocked Liquid even harder on Dust 2, 16-6. Heading to Inferno, with the set score at 2-2, every TL fan was sweating. This was an all too familiar scene, but it wouldn’t end the same as before, even with Fnatic playing like it was 2015. Team Liquid took the map 16-9 in no small part due to Twistzz. He showed why he’s considered one of the sharpest shots in the game, getting two quadra kills in the match. The team stopped Fnatic’s momentum, halted a small comeback, and lifted their first ever premiere trophy in front of a raucous Aussie crowd.We’ve never seen such a dominant performance in PUBG as the one we witnessed from our players at the PEL Kick-off Cup. Jeemz, Sambty, Ibiza, and Jembty earned a total of 173 points over 12 rounds and claimed five chicken dinners, one 2nd place finish, and three 3rd place finishes. The closest team behind us sat at 103 points. In fact, it was almost safe to call the tournament by the end of the first day alone, as we sat on top with more points than 3rd to 16th combined. This was also coming off of an incredibly close 3rd place finish at the Faceit Global Summit, where everything came down to the last game. Our PUBG team shows no signs of slowing down, so make sure you check out their upcoming games in the PEL which will start on the 17th.The TL wins don’t stop with the FPS! Our fighting game players came out to play too, with Nemo winning Headstomper for SFV and Dabuz winning Ultimate Singles at Thunder Smash. Both events were smaller and both players were expected to at least make it to top 8, but nothing was guaranteed. They may have been small, but the tourneys still had stiff competition from top players who pushed Nemo and Dabuz to their limits.Dabuz had to beat MVD, ESAM, Salem, Mr. R, and WaDi. ESAM and WaDi took him to game 5, last stock-last hit situations, where calm nerves and clutch moves made all the difference. Nemo had to beat Luffy, AngryBird, and Atrosh. AngryBird pushed him to a game 5 in what was a mile-a-minute, very competitive set. Luffy did one better and beat Nemo 3-1 in Grand Finals to reset the bracket. Nemo ultimately got the read on Luffy and came out on top, 3-1 in the reset. The icing on the cake was that Nemo won by beating one of SFV’s best grapplers.Dota 2 and League of LegendsIt wouldn’t be Team Liquid if we left out Dota 2 and League of Legends. MDL Disneyland was a great time for the Dota 2 team, and not just because Matumbaman got to see Mickey Mouse. MDL Disneyland was a stacked tournament that put Team Liquid up against what would likely be TI opposition in the form of Team Secret, Evil Geniuses, OG, Virtus.Pro, Vici Gaming, PSG.LGD and others.Despite getting knocked into the Lower Bracket early by EG, we rallied and won five sets to get back to the Grand Finals. Our squad played a number of long, bloody games where they had to come back from big deficits to get there, too. Though they lost to Team Secret and placed 2nd, they showed they could compete with the best and punched in their ticket to TI.To top it all off, the League of Legends team made it out of group stage in MSI! It was a first for our League of Legends team, and for its star AD carry, Doublelift - and they did it by beating G2, “the best team Europe’s ever produced.”Team Liquid is winning big across the board. For a lot of our teams, it’s been a long road to get here. We’ve had to end curses, make comebacks, and pull off upsets, but that makes each win all the more meaningful.