Team Liquid — History of One of the Strongest Teams in CS:GO
Elen StelmakhTeam Liquid is one of the oldest esports organizations on the stage. Having appeared in 2000, initially the club represented a StarCraft: Brood War clan, and later switched to StarCraft 2.
On the contrary, the esports history of Liquid started at the end of 2012 when the organization signed their first Dota 2 lineup. In the next several years Team Liquid has been expanding and assembling new rosters in different disciplines.
In 2015, the club signed their first CS:GO lineup, trusting the North American market. And, as history shows, the organization was not disappointed with this decision: later Team Liquid won plenty of trophies and big tournaments with only one exception — major.
Nevertheless, Liquid’s history deserves to be written down in esports history books. The club is known not only for their success in CS:GO but in other disciplines. Today Team Liquid can brag about strong Dota 2, Rainbow Six, VALORANT and Rocket League rosters.
Despite the recent departure from Apex Legends and PUBG, the Dutch organization is still recognized as an iconic representative of the industry and keeps the brand at numerous tournaments.
But, returning to CS:GO, in only eight years Team Liquid managed to make a name and become the main contender for victory at each tournament. So, let’s go through the history of formation of the team and recall all TL’s iconic moments.
History of formation of Team Liquid’s CS:GO roster and their first success
The European club assembled their first roster in January 2015, signing the North American team called Chill guys. At that moment Team Liquid was represented by adreN, daps, FugLy, NAF and nitr0. Most of the players still remain in the team.
During the the season the team carried on experimenting and modify the roster to find an optimal combination. As for the results, in 2015 the team won iBUYPOWER Invitational 2015 - Fall and ESL ESEA Pro League Season 2 - North America, and also made it to the final of iBUYPOWER Invitational 2015 - Summer and iBUYPOWER Cup.
In 2016, the organization continued changing players’ positions and in February they signed a very talented player, s1mple. The Ukrainian sniper helped the team to reach the semifinal of MLG Major Championship: Columbus 2016. s1mple’s career did not take off in North America and at the end of April he joined NAVI.
Nevertheless, Team Liquid went on demonstrating strong performance, entering the grand final of ESL One: Cologne 2016 in the summer. However, the end of the season did not go smoothly for Liquid as the players did not play at the final of the fourth season of EPL and Intel Extreme Masters XI - Oakland successfully.
In the next few years Team Liquid kept on being considered one of the best teams in their region, taking prize places regularly. In the period from 2017 till 2018 the team became the champion at Americas Minor Championship - Boston 2018, cs_summit 2, ESL Pro League Season 7 - North America and SuperNova Malta 2018, and also made it to the final of ESG Tour Mykonos 2017, ESL One: New York 2017, ESL Pro League Season 7 - Finals, Esports Championship Series Season 5 - Finals and ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018.
Nevertheless, the main story of the club’s success on the stage has not even started yet.
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Year that made Team Liquid the best team in the world
In 2019, the Danish team Astralis was dominating on the stage after beating Team Liquid at big tournaments multiple times in the previous seasons. However, 2019 changed everything: in January Liquid beat the Danish players and won iBUYPOWER Masters IV.
During the next several months the North American team made it to the final of BLAST Pro Series: São Paulo 2019 and BLAST Pro Series: Miami 2019, but by the summer Team Liquid had made everyone speak about themselves.
In two months the team won Intel Extreme Masters XIV - Sydney, DreamHack Masters Dallas 2019, ESL Pro League Season 9 - Finals and ESL One: Cologne 2019, becoming the winner of the second season of Intel Grand Slam in record time and earned $1,000,000 in gold bars.
Later the team kept dominating on the stage, taking BLAST Pro Series: Los Angeles 2019 and Intel Extreme Masters XIV - Chicago to their pocket, and also making it to the finals of Esports Championship Series Season 8 - Finals and BLAST Pro Series: Global Final 2019.
In the season 2019 Liquid put their name in the history of the discipline. However, the coronavirus pandemic hit the opportunities of the North American teams and Team Liquid did not become an exception to this rule.
Team Liquid’s decline
At the beginning of 2020 a massive coronavirus pandemic hit the planet that resulted in division of the stage into regions. As a result, the teams had to play in separate tournaments which affected their prospects. And if Europe suffered a bit less, the North American region fell into a serious depression.
During the season Team Liquid was fighting with itself in North America. But if in March the team managed to win the regional EPL, later Liquid were left without a trophy even though they kept taking prize places.
In the next year when the pandemic was fading away, Team Liquid was gradually returning to Europe. But the year spent in its own region seriously damaged the conditions of the team. As a result, the team was left behind the leaders of the stage, ceasing to fight for titles. Показательным стал PGL Major Stockholm 2021 became a great example of the decline as the team won only once in Legends and was left far behind.
Present and future of the team
In the last season Team Liquid carried on fighting with all the attendant problems. But if the first half of 2022 turned out to be a disaster, after the summer transfers the team started to wake up and remind itself.
Current Team Liquid’s CS:GO roster:
- EliGE
- NAF
- oSee
- nitr0
- YEKINDAR
- daps (main coach)
In July Liquid managed to make it to the playoff of Intel Extreme Masters XVII - Cologne, and in autumn Team Liquid played at the final of ESL Pro League Season 16.
Moreover, the team stopped one step away from the playoff of Intel Extreme Masters Rio Major 2022, and also successfully completed the season with a position among the three finalists at BLAST Premier: Fall Finals 2022 and BLAST Premier: World Final 2022.
Considering the tendency, Team Liquid will continue restoring the previous role of the competitive stage. If at the end of 2022 the team started to fight with the best of the best as equals, in the new season the club has a chance to become even stronger.
Summing up, Team Liquid managed to build their own era. Even if it did not last long, the team dominated in 2019 when the players won numerous tournaments and took the second season of Intel Grand Slam.
Nevertheless, the pandemic hit the club significantly forcing it to play with weaker opponents. It resulted in regress so it has already taken a year for the team to bounce back to the previous conditions.
Now Team Liquid hopes to recover from the distress. And if the team is able to develop its last year’s success, the players will be able to fight for victories at big tournaments.
Elen Stelmakh is a creative individual dedicated to advancing gaming culture through articles and visual design. As a full-time EGamersWorld author and designer for a gaming website, Elen not only creates content but also infuses it with energy and creativity.