Happy Thursday folks,

Someone (maybe Bob Marley, if you believe what you read online) once said, “The truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.”

October haunted Team Liquid across six different games, from a disappointing finish at worlds in League to our failure to qualify for the R6: Siege Major to our continuing woes in Counter-Strike. Our future in Rocket League looks uncertain with the departure of Oski, and our StarCraft roster said goodbye to Kelazhur as well. Dabuz opened up to his recent struggles and hopes for the future in the latest of Team Liquid’s many banger long-form interviews. And if anyone hasn’t caught this one yet, I highly recommend it – it’s my favorite article of the year so far.

It’s not all bad news, of course. Liquid`StarCraft welcomed Cure, one of the best players in modern StarCraft, just a couple days before both rapha and Nazgul won Esports Lifetime Achievement Awards. Liquid’s foundation — teamliquid.net — announced the nineteenth installment of the Team Liquid Map Contest, and content creators Nihachu and karagii joined the Cavalry last month as well.

As October blusters into November, there’s still so much to look forward to. Liquid’s Brazilian VALORANT Team will compete in the Game Changers World Championship, just as Kurumx prepares for the TFT World Finals this weekend. This weekend, Cure will be eligible to take part in the World Team League for the StarCraft Squad for the first time, just as Liquid`WoW begins to gear up for yet another Race to World First. It simply never stops, and what good is it to mope about all day anyway?

So we beat on, boats against the current. Esports does not stop and neither should we.

League of Legends:

It’s a bittersweet thing to come so far just to fall flat when it mattered most.

Team Liquid’s appearance at the 2023 World Championship was like a quick flicker of water used to check a hot frying pan, and we instantly vaporized into a sizzle of smoke. What began as a promisingly close loss to perennial Korean powerhouse T1 faded quickly into a string of lopsided losses to North American kryptonite NRG and VCS play-in team GAM Esports. Liquid managed to snag only one map win before being eliminated, beating out only BDS in the race to the airport.

It’s easy to feel frustrated with such a rough performance, particularly in the face of Liquid’s past face-saving 3-3 performances at previous worlds. 

But as disappointed as I am writing this, it’s nothing compared to the grief I felt last year when we failed to make worlds at all (with a considerably more star-studded team). Clearly, we need to do better, but I’m not letting go of the silver lining. And besides, anything we feel, the players feel 10 times more. So all there’s left to do is see how the offseason shakes out and get our NAmens in for next year.

Dota 2:

The MOBA struggles continued as Team Liquid just missed the podium at The International this year, falling to both the eventual winners and runners-up at the tournament. After an extremely strong performance in the toughest group at the tourney — dropping only one game across four series —- Liquid battled through the quarterfinals of the upper bracket against Talon 2-0. But the Cavalry met a stubborn Team Spirit in the semifinals that refused to die, and after two and a half hours of DotA, Liquid fell to the lower bracket 1-2. And of course it was Gaimin Gladiators. The year-long thorn in our foot pricked Liquid once again, eliminating us in the lower bracket quarterfinal 1-2 as well.

The top 6 result is nothing to be ashamed of in a vacuum, but it’s a frustrating departure from our consistent top-2 finishes, and our bronze medal at last year’s TI. Even worse, after Liquid’s loss, zai announced he was taking a break from DotA, making this year’s TI his sendoff. We were never owed a first place finish, but the narrative felt so right this time — and that adds a sting to an ultimately solid finish. 

There’s no one like you, @zai_2002. 💙
Whatever you choose to do, we’ll support you. #TI12 #LetsGoLiquid

Pls don’t go pic.twitter.com/3i2mKsKjWz

— Team Liquid Dota (@teamliquiddota) October 28, 2023

(There will never be another zai.)

It also leaves Liquid in search of a new off-laner with massive shoes to fill. Of course, almost immediately after the interview, rumors started flying around about massive roster changes. Blitz was quick to stamp that out, though, and it appears that next year Liquid`DotA will have only one new face. The lack of change makes sense given that, despite some hitches, Team Liquid has been in arms reach of glory for the entire year. It’s not all copium to think a mostly similar roster could manage it in 2024.

(The duality of Blitz.)

VALORANT:

In our last episode, Liquid’s Brazilian VALORANT side qualified for the World Championship of VCT Game Changers over LOUD GC, punctuating our 2023 season with a much more uncertain, and maybe much more rewarding, win. At the end of this month, Liquid will test their mettle against the best GC teams in the world. Last year, bstrdd, daiki, and the rest of the Cavalry took 3rd place at the world championship, while G2 won on their home turf in Berlin. Both Liquid and G2 are back for round 2 this year, but this time, it’s on Team Liquid’s home turf.

While the Liquid’Brazil Squad may have home field advantage, a lot has changed this year and they enter with even more to prove. Team Liquid didn’t dominate the Brazil GC scene like in 2022, and arguably had a lower consistent peak than their rival in LOUD GC. Not to mention, with the biggest and best Brazilian teams heading to LA for the VCT, Brazil’s entire tier 2 scene took a hit, including the Game Changers teams. To close that gap, the Valorant Brazil squad are bootcamping in EU before returning to defend their region’s honor.

With the pride of Brazil on the line, bstrdd and daiki head to the only international GC LAN in VALORANT, side-by-side this year with bizerra, Joojina, and isaa, seeking to defend their home territory, and improve on last year’s 3rd place finish for Brazil. The tournament is a simple double-elimination bracket, where eight teams enter, and one emerges as champions. And right now especially, Liquid fans could use a champion.

(CBLoL Arena, São Paulo, Brazil.)

Counter-Strike:

It occurs to me that something cannot be reborn unless it dies.

Right now, that’s the mood for Team Liquid Counter-Strike. Liquid’s hastily patched-up roster struggled to get past North American teams that have never appeared on HLTV’s world rankings in history. And when they finally matched up against real competition in Complexity, Liquid got blown out of the server in two complete stomps. We failed to qualify for the BLAST Fall Final, and now we’re done for the year. All after making much ado about moving from being an NA team, to an EU one.

That sounds pretty grim. But let’s look at the full context. When it came time to move on from the Liquid Legends of Nitr0 and EliGE, the free agent market wasn’t that open, so Liquid created a fairly risky roster by adding the aggressive rifler, Patsi, and completely unknown rookie, Rainwaker. The risk never really yielded much of a reward and coach Daps stepped in to get the lineup through a lackluster qualifier that a lot of teams were treating as the “CS2 Waiting Room” anyways. Now, with rosters truly shuffling for CS2, Liquid can make moves.

And with CS2 around the corner, the moves look big. Roster rumors are flying around, and the scuttlebutt says legendary IGL cadiaN and Brazilian rising star skullz may be joining the roster, with zews and Twistzz making a triumphant return as coach and star rifler. The resulting smorgasbord of North America, Europe, and Brazil would be an interesting roster at the very least, and an incredible one at the best. And it would quite literally reflect Team Liquid’s international roots in a way that no other Liquid roster does. Maybe an international roster is the solution or maybe it’s an even bigger bust waiting to happen. But if the rumors pan out, this could be a roster to watch.

Rainbow 6: Siege:

Liquid`Siege collapsed in the second leg of the season, failing to make the AtLANta Major. Mercifully, however, Liquid’s 2nd place finish in Copenhagen has already secured the Cavalry a place at the Six Invitational in the Ginásio do Ibirapuera in São Paulo next February. 

Obviously, failing to make the Major is a disappointing result, but to be honest, it kind of tracks. For the last three years, Liquid`Siege has failed to make at least one major. In 2021, Liquid got smoked 0-2 by NIP in the first round of the Copa Elite Six, preventing us from attending the Gävle Major in Sweden. We didn’t even make the Copa Elite Six in Stage 2 of Brasileirão last year, denying Liquid a shot at the Berlin Major. And even when Brasileirão was one big, long league in 2020, Liquid’s performance dropped off significantly at the end of the season, going 1-6 in the last two weeks.

And compared to League or Counter-Strike, Liquid`Siege’s failure last month doesn’t really bother me. After all, we’re still SI bound. Liquid still has four months to shore up our weaknesses and prepare for the most important tournament of the year, taking place on home territory in Brazil.

TFT:

After all the dust (and the confusing web of qualifiers) has settled, Kurumx will enter the TFT World Championship as the sole representative of Team Liquid. Rereplay managed to get to the final lobby of the Regional Finals, but could not quite push past the final hurdle to finish in the top 3. It’s a tough break for Rereplay, who won’t be able to defend his World Championship this year. But TFT can be a game of tough breaks and Rereplay will get his chance to roll down again in Set 10.

Kurum’s second world championship will take place this weekend, where he’ll face off against 31 of the best players in the world. The 32 players begin the tournament seeded into four lobbies, and across Friday and Saturday they’ll play 12 total games, switching up lobbies every two games. In each game, the lobby winner gets 8 points, while 2nd place gets 7 points, and so on down to 1 point for an 8th. After these 12 games, the 8 players with the most points move on to the final lobby this Sunday, and start from scratch. There, they’ll play games until a player who has 20 total or more points wins the lobby, the world championship, and $150,000 to boot.

Fortnite:

The chilly and frightening October results continue, as Persa and his duo Diguera had a disappointing showing at the Fortnite Championship Series Global Championship last month. Liquid’s sole-qualifying representative began in the lower bracket, and only managed to finish above the middle of the pack in a single game, managing 6 kills and a 21st place finish. The effort was insufficient to qualify for the Grand Finals, and Persa and his duo finished the tournament in 65th place out of 73.

Starcraft 2:

With Cure joining Team Liquid, I was super excited to have a reason to follow the GSL again — and, you know, to have one of the best players in StarCraft on the roster. After all, these recap posts are basically just Liquid-centric, esports-wide versions of TeamLiquid.net’s bread and butter results and previews for professional StarCraft. But alas, the Fall winds got Cure too. Though he was able to top his group in the round-of-16 group stage, he couldn’t manage to make the top-4 playoff in his first GSL under the Liquid banner, falling in two tight series against GuMiho and Solar.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Liquid’s four other members have been grinding away in the ESL Masters Swiss stage. Clem leads the Swiss charge for the Cavalry as the only member of Team Liquid to finish the stage 3-0. SKillous is right behind him with a 2-1 record, and needs to win only one more match to advance as well. Elazer and MaNa play their third match today. Elazer has a 1-1 record and a little bit more room to breathe, but MaNa’s match against Terran BattleB is do or die since he sits at 0-2. Once the Swiss stage completes, the players who advance head to a double-elimination bracket, where the top 4 finishers will all qualify to Masters Winter in Atlanta next month.

Finally, Liquid had a stellar month in the World Team League, going undefeated in its four matches, including a huge 4-3 win over PSISTORM Gaming last Friday. Clem accounted for 3 of Liquid’s 4 wins, dispatching two Protosses from the European Team, including an ace-match win over MaxPax. Liquid’s success places the team fourth in the league with key matchups against Shopify Rebellion and DKZ Gaming this month. This coming Saturday’s match against MYG will also be the first week Cure will be eligible to play for Liquid in the WTL, an exciting prospect for Liquid fans hoping to see what the previous Code S Champion can do for the Squad.

(For the record, this is what he did to us the last time he played us in the WTL regular season.)

AoE IV:

October was also a tough month for Liquid’s sole Age of Empires player, DeMu, who managed only a top-16 finish in the Empires at War tournament. DeMu did well to get through his group to the playoffs, but faltered 1-3 against the Belarussian Anotand. DeMu’s first round bow-out cost him crucial qualification points for the Elite Gaming Channel 2023 Championship. A win over Anotand would have meant direct qualification to EGC Finals. Instead, he’ll need to work through the qualifiers for one of the last two spots later this month.

Smash:

At Rise ‘N Grind, Dabuz had solid wins against Lancelot and SHADIC before falling to Lima and Anathema — a Bayonetta and ROB, both rough matchups for Dabuz’s Rosalina. Riddles fell to the lower bracket after a back and forth battle against BassMage, and after a quality win over MkLeo, took a beating from Jahzz0 to finish in the top 16.

Hungrybox had an unlucky draw in aMSa at the second round of the upper bracket at Big House. He battled hard through the lower bracket, taking wins off Axe and Salt before taking a shellacking from Cody Schwab to settle in the top 8. Though the loss is rough, Cody is in Rank 1 form right now, and he’s been Hbox’s biggest demon in the modern era of Melee. Plus, the result continues Hbox’s incredible top 8 streak — making top 8 at every Major he’s attended all the way back to The Big House 4 in 2014. That streak is three years older than Fortnite.

At the newly-christened Luminosity Makes Moves Miami, Dabuz found the podium with a respectable 3rd place, beating the likes of Maister, Tweek, MuteAce, and SHADIC before falling to Sparg0 in the losers final. Though Dabuz seems a step behind the highest echelon of Ultimate, LMMM represents another step in a career comeback for Dabuz. He’s gone from looking washed up, to looking like just about the best pure zoner in Ultimate right now. Riddles also had a quality 3-0 win over MuteAce, but fell to SHADIC in the round of 12. Riddles has had a slight dip in recent months, but some of that’s to be expected as he’s made Street Fighter a priority. And in melee, Hungrybox GenghisJuan was able to squeak through pools using off characters like Sheik, Fox, Ness, and Falco, but got promptly dispatched 0-3 by Kero.

(Who could GenghisJuan possibly be?)

And though we don’t normally cover online tournaments, it’s worth mentioning, Hbox finally won his own tournament this month — at Coinbox 80! It took 79 tries, but Hgod got there. Taking the tongue out of the cheek, Hbox tends to underperform online and at his own tournament especially. Playing while also TOing while also worrying about your own matches slowing down your tournament will do that to you!

Tekken 7:

Shadow 20z continued his 2023 international campaign in Hürth Germany at the Festhalla Hürth-Gleuel for CROSSOVER 2023 last month, where he placed third behind Cuddle_Core, who recently joined Cloud9. Shadow was able to beat Cuddle in the upper bracket, but she got her revenge in the losers final, besting Shadow 3-1. Two weeks later, Shadow took a top 6 finish in San Juan, Puerto Rico at First Attack 2023,earning some much needed circuit points for the Tekken World Tour. 

Currently, Shadow is ranked 20th on the leaderboards for circuit points, a system that invites the top 19 players to the Tekken WorldTour Finals in New Orleans next January. The last opportunity for Liquid’s sole Tekken player to earn points for this tournament is this weekend in Bankok Thailand at the Thaiger Uppercut. The top 8 finishers all get earn some points, and Shadow 20z is only 20 points behind the last qualifying place. Shadow has been all around the world, fighting for this qualification. Let’s see if he can snag it in Thailand.

Writer // Tortious Tortoise
Graphics // Stacey “Shiroiusagi” Yamada

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• Source: https://www.teamliquid.com/news/2023/11/02/the-liquid-review-october-2023