What has Team Liquid CS:GO been doing so far? The results are staggering. You may want to consider a Team Liquid's hoodie or jersey if you are a fan of CS:GO. They have been showing us great Counter-Strike for the last 3 months.
Significant improvement
After the upset in IEM Katowice 2019 Major, Team Liquid took time off and improve themselves. It didn’t take long before they started playing in big tournaments again.
Team Liquid has improved a lot in BLAST Pro Series Miami 2019 as compared to their form in the Major. The team showed up well with 5 concussive victories in the round-robin tournament. Their kryptonite, Astralis, got a bad tournament and failed to qualify for the grand final.
However, the “finalist curse” plagued the North American roster once again when they went against FaZe Clan. The NiKo-powered European squad displayed better performance and walked away with the victory of $125,000. Yet Team Liquid has proved they no longer crumble against the #1 team at the moment, Astralis.
IEM Sydney 2019 – Breaking the curse
IEM Sydney 2019 took place half a month later. Team Liquid as the heavy favorite to win the tournament as many big names like Natus Vincere, ENCE and Astralis were missing. And they did right that. Team Liquid did not drop a single map until the grand final.
People would laugh off and boldly predict Team Liquid would lose to no one other than the “finalist curse”. Team Liquid has been notorious for choking in the grand final no matter who they faced against. It applied in ESL New York where they lost against mousesports after taking a lead of 2-1.
However, Team Liquid this time went to the tournament better prepared. Their mental strength in the grand final was significantly improved. Though it took tremendous effort and time, Team Liquid finally made it. They broke the curse to win a nail-biting series 3-2 against fnatic.
Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken got the MVP trophy with a great showing of 1.25 rating.
Dreamhack Master Dallas 2019 – Speeding up
This again was another tournament without either Astralis or Natus Vincere. Their only worthy opponent was ENCE, who have been solid on top 5 team list after the IEM Katowice 2019 Major. There, Team Liquid displayed a dominant showing against the likes of North and ENCE. They only dropped a map against FaZe and ENCE with close scorelines.
This time Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski took the MVP trophy with an average 1.24 rating in the tournament.
With multiple victories and overwhelming performance, Team Liquid officially become the #1 in the world after the tournament. They got the maximum point of 1000 in the HLTV ranking in June. Astralis dropped to the #2 position due to the team’s inactivity over a long time period.
ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals – Solidifying
ESL Pro League was the real acid test for Team Liquid. Was their #1 a fluke just because Astralis went inactive? Could they defeat everyone on a regular basis? It was all answered in this very tournament. The event featured big names like Astralis, FaZe, mousesports, NRG and G2.
Team Liquid kicked off the event with an upset loss against North. However, they were quick to recover with dominant victories over Tyloo, MIBR a close match against HellRaisers to book a ticket to playoffs. The interesting turn of event was there with Astralis, their archrival, also reaching the quarter-final.
This was the decisive match to determine who could claim the real #1 in the world. People would regard this as the “early grand final”. The game was indeed phenomenal with each team’s member showing up. However, Team Liquid put up a better fight and Astralis seemed to “choke” in the last map after the early 11-4 lead.
Nevertheless, none of that mattered, only the victory prevailed. Team Liquid managed to take down the former #1 team in the world to become the new one themselves. What a deserving victory.
Team Liquid later defeated mousesports after closing out Nuke despite an insane performance of Özgür 'woxic' Eker with a 1.71 rating.
Their opponent in the grand final was G2. The French squad had been in a slump since their peak in 2015 2016. This was a rare time they would play in the grand final in a big event. However, Team Liquid was all fired up and defeated the Frenchmen in their own homeland soil.
EliGE scooped another MVP title for his large contribution to the team. He scored an immense 1.29 rating.
Today happens to be EliGE's birthday. Team Liquid made a Tweet to celebrate this