Team Liquid has recently risen to power since their curse-breaking victory at the IEM Sydney 2019. The North American powerhouse has built up their confidence and gone on to win 6 tournaments in a row. Team Liquid is currently the best team in the world. They are currently competing in the StarLadder Berlin Major 2019.

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Team Liquid has risen so high to power, arguably one of the best in history

Invincible

Since their rise to power, Team Liquid has been virtually undefeatable in any tournament. Since the Dreamhack Masters Dallas 2019, Team Liquid has not dropped a single Bo3 or Bo5. They only lost a couple of random Bo1 against some unpredictable teams. Why are they so good at CS:GO? What is the secret behind their dominant performance?

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Undefeatable in any Bo3 or Bo5 for the whole 3 months

The answer is simple, their map pool is too deep. While most teams tend to ban their weakest maps, Team Liquid only has 1 least played map which is Train. Every match, each team will have at least one ban turn to remove the unwanted map. Team Liquid just eradicates their weakness every time by removing Train.

Vertigo – the sacred territory for Team Liquid

On the contrary, every team has at least 1 or more weaknesses, most of them being Vertigo. The new map, ever since added to the official map pool, has become a nuisance for some big names. New map means new things to learn with never-ending surprises as well as tricks. While most teams have yet to fix their current map pool, having an entirely new map to learn is quite a nuisance.

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Vertigo is more of a nuisance to everyone except Team Liquid

For example, Natus Vincere and MIBR often permanent ban Vertigo while letting the strong map of the opponent slip in. As a result, most teams when playing against Team Liquid have to play Overpass, the best map for Team Liquid at the moment.

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Most teams fear the Overpass with nitr0 being so strong on A long with an AWP

Even if other teams let Vertigo slip and ban Overpass, it still means a free win the for the #1 team in the world as the current winrate for Team Liquid is 100% - undefeated. Team Liquid is too good on a closed area map like Vertigo where opening duels happen more often than any map.

The dilemma

This has happened before under the era of Astralis. Nuke was quite a nuisance during that time and almost every team had to spend the ban turn to remove Nuke. Even if any team tried to challenge Astralis on Nuke, it would instantly be a free map win for the Danish powerhouse. Mastering one map is the key to winning in any Bo3 or Bo5 grand finals.

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During their own era, Astralis was so invincible on Nuke

Even if any team removed Nuke, Astralis would instantly pick Inferno, their second-best map. It would once again be another free map win for Astralis as the Danish were so good at using the utilities in the banana area.

The solution

Nowadays, many teams are more willing to play Vertigo and try out new stuff. To win Team Liquid in a serious series, one team has to prepare well in every map possible. Vertigo is unpredictable and any good teams with a better moment of luck could win the map. Only with that can a team dethrone the Liquid era right under their peak performance.

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Astralis will be the most probable contender to challenge Team Liquid on Vertigo

The Berlin Major 2019 Champions Stage will take place soon this September 05. Astralis will be their opponent in the quarter-final. This seems to be an early grand final between the two CS:GO giants. Whoever wins this would easily become the champion of Berlin Major 2019. Tune in for more of the highest level of CS:GO competition.