Team Liquid: Breaking the Curse

Ok…….maybe I was a week later than what I promised initially….

And maaayybeeeeee I’m diong something differently than what I originally promised……

BUT better be late than never, as they say in my home country.

So, I figured that I would make a highlight of the NA LCS Spring Split, but I decided that I would just discard it for a Mid-Season Invitationals article after MSI this weekend.

For now, however, I wanna talk about a team that had an ass-ton of challenges and obstacles during this year’s spring split.  They had imported two amazing Korean players, but that did not mean that all was well an good for this team.  They faced more difficult trials than any other team this split, and were definitely on the verge of collapse by the time the playoffs started.

But then they proved that you can’t collapse liquid.

What’s up everyone, my name is Kenji from Prince Kouhii’s…..something.  Today, I present an article detailing the major occurrences in one of the North American LCS’ most hyped teams:  Team Liquid.

Alrighty, without further fanfare, let’s allons-y into the viscous volatility that is this team formerly known as Curse.

Similar to the EU LCS, North America had its own fair share of roster changes, although maybe not quite as dynamic as EU had.

What did happen, however, was hype.

Hype for a certain player named Piglet.

No…not this piglet….

No……not this one…….

THIS PIGLET.

Former Season 3 world champion, and former ADC for a little-known team called SK Telecom T1, was signed on as the new AD Carry for Team Liquid, formerly known as Team Curse.  And boy was there TONS OF HYPE.

Everybody expected Piglet to hyper-carry his team to victory, due impart to his reputation for being not only an extremely skilled player, but also as a player with an unfathomable drive to win, even amongst the world’s top players.  Unfortunately, the lack of team dynamic between him and the rest of Team Liquid forced the team to bench him for multiple games, and by the end of the regular season, the team placed 6th overall in the standings, barely being able to reach the playoffs.

All seemed dire for the team.  They went into the playoffs facing the 3rd-place CLG, a team that is no easy feat to overcome.

However, Piglet just swept his hair sideways and smirked, saying, “Don’t worry guys.  We got this.”

It was during their match against CLG that Team Liquid showed up HUUUUUGE with their impressive plays.  With Piglet and their mid-laner Fenix finally showing high-leveled plays, as well as Quas, IWillDominate, and of course Xpecial (whom we cannot discredit, as they were able to climb back up from their slump) performing tremendously well, Team Liquid “dominated” (hehe) their Best of 5 series against the fan-favorite CLG with a clean 3-0 sweep, effectively ending their enemy’s apparent Golden Age a bit too early.

Liquid planned to continue their dominance in the semis against another fan-favorite:  Cloud 9, and, to be fair, they could’ve advanced to the finals with such a strong showing in Games 1 and 2.  However, C9 proved to be able to bounce back from the midst of defeat and reverse swept Team Liquid, knocking them out of the semis.

With their 3rd-place match against Team Impulse, Liquid faced the danger of reliving the Curse of the 4th-place.  Fortunately, they were able to pull off a decisive win after 5 intense games that ultimately led the team to securing 3rd place and FINALLY breaking the curse of Curse.

With what TL has shown in the playoffs, people wonder:  what worked?

The team didn’t necessarily have the best showing during the regular season, so what made them such a dynamic team?

Well, the answer is quite simple:  each one of them played to their strengths.  Quas was able to pick up effective brawlers and tanks that helped them in teamfights, like Rumble and Hecarim, while still being able to apply immense pressure during the laning phase, able to match-up in CS even in a 2v1 lane-swap scenario.

IWillDominate was able to adapt to the jungle-tank meta during the playoffs a lot quicker than most of their competitors and was pinpoint accurate with his smites, leading him to a good number of smite-steals and clutch-smites (both Barons and Dragons) over the course of the split.

Fenix showed that he was more than capable of being incredibly diverse in terms of his champion pool, being able to play a multitude of champions in the mid-lane with great effectiveness, such as Urgot, Vladimir, Azir, and Corki, in addition to his Zed and Ahri plays.

The bottom-lane showed incredible prowess as well, having a much better synergy during the playoffs.  Piglet was able to play on carry champions like Lucian and Kog’maw, while Xpecial made sure that his ADC and the rest of the team would be protected and aided in team-fights, which was one of the major reasons why Team Liquid was so dominant.

Witnessing the immense ability of the team to play in such pressurized games, all of everyone’s doubts concerning their regular season has been washed away, and this is a team that can only get stronger coming into the summer split.  Other teams must be careful of not only Piglet, but the rest of Liquid as well.

And that’s it for my short rehash of Team Liquid’s rise to one of the top teams in North America.  If you guys have any comments or suggestions on what I should do next in terms of League of Legends, let me know in the comments section below.  And, speaking of liking, give the article a thumbs-up if you enjoyed it.

I’ll see you guys soon in my Mid-Season Invitational Highlights article.  Until then….

Aaaaaaand, with that, I bid you all adieu.  This has been Kenji, for Prince Kouhii’s Something Somethings, and I’ll see you guys in the future.