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A Game of Superlatives With the Rocket League Team

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The Liquid Rocket League players all have different talents, in and out of the game. One player might counter their opponents the best and be the friendliest to fans, whereas someone else might work the hardest, or make his teammates laugh the most. To figure out who excels at what, we played a game of superlatives. We asked the squad to pick who on the team is the best passer, communicator, LANimal, cook, banterer, and much more!. 

Nobody can pinpoint Liquid’s strengths better than the players themselves — especially when it comes to the IRL topics. It wasn’t always easy  to pick a winner, but the conclusions they reached show how versatile the trio is. (Except when it comes to cooking.)

Play style

Ball control, strategic insight, and dedication… A lot of different factors go into being at the top of your game. Although all three Team Liquid players are mechanical masterminds, each of them plays the game in their own way. These superlatives tell you something about what makes them stand out in the server.

Best ground control: Atow

Atow’s mechanics shine the brightest with his four wheels touched down, his movement both polished and unpredictable..

Oski: Atow is better on the ground. He’s very unpredictable. He uses his mechanics really well. When he’s going to go for the ball, the opponents don’t know he’s going to go for the ball. Out of nowhere, he’ll just do some random mechanic like a wavedash, or he pogos off the floor for no reason, and it works. He’s very random.

AcroniK: His fifties are actually the best fifties I’ve seen in my life. He knows how to perfectly catch the ball on the ground, so yeah, it’s Atow.

Best air control: AcroniK

When it comes to the air, however, nobody on Team Liquid does it better than AcroniK. His mechanics seem so sharp as to be instinct.

Oski: AcroniK is the best in the air. He can pop off out of nowhere. He’s got insane mechanics. Whatever he wants to do, he’ll do it without even thinking about it. It’s more like instinct.

Best passer: Oski

Acronik functions more as the solo aerial player, while Oski sets Atow up on the ground with creative passing built on strong mechanics. 

AcroniK: Most of the time, he uses his mechanics not to score, but to make a really good pass. He gets past one, then he goes above the other, and then I just score. Atow’s passing plays are more basic and more speedy. Oski is more creative with it.

Atow: Oski is good at tiki-taka. Oski and I are playing together a lot, so we know what to do.

Oski: Atow and I are such a duo. When the two of us are on attack, we’ll probably pass a lot more than when I’m with AcroniK. AcroniK likes to go solo a lot more, which I like, but Atow and I are more like a passing duo. We’ll create plays together.

Best in scrims: Atow

Scrims have a lot less weight than the stage, so not all players can keep the focus. Atow, however, has no problem staying dialed in.

Oski: I don’t know why, but maybe AcroniK doesn’t enjoy scrims as much as playing in tournaments. He doesn’t get hyped and when you’re not hyped, I feel like you’re just not going to play your best. So yeah, I’d say Atow. He enjoys the scrims more.

AcroniK: That’s tough, [but] I’d say Atow. He has been the most consistent player on our team, I feel like, and he’s probably the one who takes scrims the most seriously. It’s not that Oski and I don’t take them seriously, but I think Atow is the most consistent with it.

Best comms: Atow

The young Belgian is the clear winner in the category of best comms, and it’s got everything to do with Liquid’s style.

AcroniK: Atow’s comms are more important for our play style. He comms more because of that.

Oski: He’s supposed to comm more than his teammates. He has to comm everything, and he does it well. He’s the guy who goes for the ball the most, probably. He does his own thing, so he has to be always comming what he’s doing, so we can understand [what he’s doing].

Best LAN player: Oski

On LAN, Oski is a force to be reckoned with. It was tough to decide, but Atow and AcroniK consider Oski the team’s best LAN player, though more for his consistency than a LANimal nature. 

Atow: Oski is always playing well. AcroniK is either playing super well or he’s trolling a bit, you know. I don’t think it’s because of the crowd. You need experience [and Oski has that].

AcroniK: That’s really hard to say. At our first LAN, I think we all had bad games and really good games. Then, at the second LAN, I was the best with the crowd but I was the worst before the crowd days. At the last LAN, I don’t think I played that well, but Oski and Atow both played well. It’s hard to say who’s the best, I think they’re both on the same level. It kind of depends on the day.

I think I play better when I know that I have the crowd around me. Between the other two, I think Oski [benefits the most from the crowd]. I think sometimes, the crowd makes Atow a bit more nervous. So, I think Oski feels more comfortable with it.

Best at reading the opponent: AcroniK

Even more than aerial control, AcroniK’s most valuable skill might be understanding the opponent, and countering their play style. 

Oski: When he knows what the opponents are going to do, he often does the perfect thing to counter that. When they go high, he’s going to fake them. They go low, and he’s going to be above them. He just reads people well.

Atow: AcroniK knows what to do. When we are losing, and he says something, it’s almost always true. For example, when we lost against Vitality [in the Spring Open], he said: “Just be careful, and bang the ball in defense”. I mean, it didn’t work well enough [to win the series], but he was right.

Hardest worker: Atow

When the bootcamp comes, Atow always clocks the most hours. His teammates admire him for his ability to grind the game, despite school commitments.

Oski: [The hardest worker is] Atow, 100%. Compared to Atow and me, AcroniK used to not play the game as much, but he’s fixed that now. Still, I’m going to say it’s Atow because of his consistent high hours, even with school. 

AcroniK: It’s definitely not me. I want to say Oski, cause he often has the highest hours in the game, but I know Atow doesn’t have more because of his school and schedule. When we go bootcamping, Atow always has the highest hours, so I’m going to say Atow. They’re both really hard workers.

Personality

Those in-game skills are all good and well, but now it’s time for some truly hard-hitting questions. The really real, IRL meatspace stuff. As teammates, these lads spend minutes into hours into days with one another and naturally connect in other aspects of life. So, what impressions do they have of each other, outside of the game? 

Funniest: Atow

AcroniK and Oski were quick to answer: Atow is without a doubt the funniest member of the team, not in spite of, but because of the language barrier between them.

AcroniK: He basically just needs to say a word or a sentence, and you’re going to be laughing because most of the time, he doesn’t make any sense. He’s naturally funny. When you look at him, he’s going to be laughing at you and you’re going to be laughing at him. He doesn’t even need to say anything, you’re gonna be laughing when you are with him. I’m actually laughing both at him and with him.

Oski: Atow, it’s not even a question. He’s Belgian, right, so when he tries to tell us something serious, we can’t take him seriously because of the accent. So yeah, he’s just jokes.

We were at bootcamp, and we were just chilling in the cinema room. Out of nowhere, Atow just fell to the floor. He just fell and cracked his back, and it was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. It was too funny, because it was so out of the blue.

Most independent: Oski

Given how young the Rocket League team is, this question was one of the trickiest! Who can best survive on their own? It’s probably Oski, maybe AcroniK, and least likely Atow.

AcroniK: Atow would never be able to live alone. He’s always losing stuff, either his phone or his wallet… For independence, it would never be Atow. It would probably be Oski, but [I think] Atow [can be] more mature.

Between them, I would say that Oski is more independent, but I don’t think that either of them is independent at all. They always need someone to be with them. Atow always needs to be with us, cause when he’s not, he’s going to lose something or do something weird. If Oski is not with us, I think he might find himself a bit lost as well.

If I could choose myself, it would be me. I travel alone, I do a lot of stuff alone, while I don’t think they do. 

Atow: [It’s] Oski, I think. AcroniK is a princess. He takes one-hour showers, then 20 minutes for his hair… he’s a princess.

Best cook: Atow?

Another tough one for the crew, as no one on Liquid’s Rocket League roster would clear Gordon Ramsay’s coaching If the players had to guess who has the most potential, it’s Atow and it’s based entirely on vibes.

Oski: I’ve never seen them cook, but […] I feel like Atow would be good at cooking, for some reason. It would just be a random thing he’s good at.

AcroniK: I think we are all bad cooks. The way I see it: Atow would probably use the worst ingredients ever and make the best food I’ve ever tasted in my life. So I’m going to go with Atow.

Best taste in music: Oski

Few things feel as subjective as music taste,  but if anyone is taking the aux cord, Oski is probably the best compromise.

Atow: Maybe [it’s] AcroniK, but I’m going to say Oski, because AcroniK has too much depressed music. Oski has more rap music.

AcroniK: Between my teammates: Oski. It’s not that I don’t like French songs, but Atow mostly has French songs or music like La Bamba. Those are not the kind of songs I like to listen to. I like more 2010’s music, old songs, emotional songs, rap… I think I like a bit of everything, but I think Oski is more similar to me than Atow.

Best at the gym: Oski

Mens sana in corpore sano — a healthy mind in a healthy body. Physical exercise is important for a strong mental state, and Oski got that all figured out: hitting the gym four times a week. (Coach Xpére gets an honorable mention too.)

AcroniK: I don’t think Atow goes to the gym, and if he would go, he would probably break his arm. The most experienced at the gym from our team is probably Xpére, he knows the most. Oski is probably the strongest on our team.

Atow: [It’s] Oski, [as] he goes to the gym four times a week. He really goes a lot.

Best banter: AcroniK

The Portuguese player has made a bit of a name for himself with his jokes and jabs on Twitter. According to his teammates, AcroniK has the best banter of them all, mostly because he doesn’t take it seriously.

Oski: Some of the things he says, I don’t know if he can say, but it’s just so funny. So he’s like: “I may as well say it”.

Atow: AcroniK is good at trash talking. It’s not toxic, but it’s funny.

AcroniK: I’m always saying some weird stuff. Sometimes people don’t like it, when I’m just trolling. At a certain point, of course it’s all a joke. I’m just saying those things for fun. Of course, some people take it in a wrong way, and people get affected by it, and I’ve got some DMs with people, like, bro, don’t take it seriously. It’s just Twitter. Twitter is exactly for this: memeing around.

Nicest: AcroniK

But don’t get the wrong idea! For all the trash talk,  AcroniK is one of the nicest guys around. Especially at live events, he’s always ready for the people who come out to see him.

Atow: AcroniK [is the nicest], for sure. During the Major, he’s always staying in the Team Liquid booth, to meet everyone and take pictures.

Oski: I think we’re all nice. I’m going to say AcroniK, because when we lost in San Diego, Atow and I were so sad. AcroniK still went to the booth after that, so I respect him for that.

AcroniK: People were asking me for photos on the strip where you leave the main stage, but I didn’t want to take photos there because I just lost a match. So I told them: “I’m not gonna take pics now, but I’m going to be in the Liquid booth in one hour, so you guys can go there and take the photos”.

Now that we’ve run through all the awards, we can also run a tally! Between the three players, the Belgian prodigy, Atow narrowly won the most. The race was a tight one, with Atow at 6, Oski at 5, and AcroniK at 4. Fitting to his work ethic, Atow held the most in-game awards, but the other two took a more even share out of game. Looking at the superlatives, it’s clear that Liquid’s Rocket League roster has a real balance to it. Everyone brings something different and something helpful — and to be one of the best teams in the world, it likely takes no less than a balance of bests. 


Writer // Jens Koornstra
Graphics // Zack Kiesewetter

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