We Let Europe Down A Bit: Team Liquid exit Champions 2023 in Group Stage after disappointing end to the year

Team Liquid was the first team to fall at Champions 2023. The EMEA 2nd seed fell in the Group Stage to LOUD after failing the opening series against domestic rivals Natus Vincere (NA’VI). Despite their top seeding, Team Liquid end their 2023 competitive year with relatively few tangible trophies, leaving the fans and the roster in a state of disappointment overall with the lack of success to show for their development.

 

Great Heights, Incredible Lows

Team Liquid’s high of the year has to be their victory over Fnatic in the Grand Finals of the VCT EMEA Playoffs. This marked them not only as the champions of the EMEA season, but also the only team in 2023 thus far, who has managed to topple Fnatic. Since then, their run at Tokyo was less than impressive, only taking down EDward Gaming before losing to both Evil Geniuses and NRG, finishing 5th-6th despite starting in the top 8 at the event.

The EMEA roster has demonstrated over the course of both the domestic and international season that they have phenomenal firepower and impressive tactics and flexibility in terms of team compositions. However, the synergy and responsiveness of the team for mid-round adaptation does seem to fall behind some of the other teams.

The NA’VI series was close, but this was a given, considering how familiar both teams were with each other. The LOUD one, however, displayed absolute dominance on both maps. Haven was a blowout for Liquid, with the end scoreline being 13-2 (LOUD pulled out their Harbor-Viper comp) and Split, while it was closer, still ended 13-8.

“They will bring the fight to you. You have to shoot heads, step up and fight.”

In their press conference, Team Liquid spoke on unique challenges each of their competitors brought to the table when facing them. Igor “Redgar” Vlasov said that, when facing NA’VI, it is much more passive, with NA’VI playing more ‘contact without abilities.’ However, he said that since Liquid has played against them too many times, it was much easier to adapt to dealing with them. ‘We know what to do and we know what to expect from them,’ Igor concluded. Emil “eMIL” Sandgren added that against NA’VI, it was often down to ‘default versus default. Forcing rotations and thinking.’

However, when facing LOUD, Igor mentioned that the Brazilian roster frequently ‘goes in with abilities and full executes.’ Which in itself is already a powerful tool. But, he said, ‘on defense, they can make these solo contact peeks. Usually teams don’t do that, it’s risky. But they’re trying to find those duels to try and win the game.’  “eMIL” also mentioned that against LOUD, it was simpler in a sense. ‘The difference,’ he said, ‘is that you have to fight more against LOUD. They will bring the fight to you. You have to shoot heads, step up and fight.’

 

Under Pressure

Facing LOUD, Liquid came under fire early facing the former’s infamous Viper-Harbor composition on Haven. After their loss to NA’VI in close fashion, Liquid had one more shot at making Playoffs. When asked on their experience playing against the composition, and what they would do differently if they were to face it again, “eMIL” had this to say: ‘I mean, we played against this comp before. Also, in scrims. So, we’re ready for it. I think it was more their playstyle with this comp. It’s a bit annoying to play against. But my honest opinion, I wouldn’t say it was suffocating, because we know what to do.’

“If you can’t hit your shots against that kind of comp, then it’s going to very hard to play the post-plants.”

“Redgar” also added on that it was about trying to understand, ‘they’re going to play retake, they’re playing behind the wall, they have a lot of abilities to zone us on attack and defense.’ ‘I think sometimes it is just, if you can’t hit your shots against that kind of comp, then it’s going to be very hard to play the post-plants. I think that’s what happened with us,’ he concluded.

Liquid did not look themselves in that series, only managing to score 2 points on Haven. Individually, they looked far more chastened than the normally energetic squad would in officials. Ayaz “nAts” Akhmetshin also spoke on this, stating that: ‘I would say they did make it a bit hard. It was a bit hard to play against them, and at the same time, we also didn’t do what we had to do. Like what we planned to do. So, both those things just made the result. They did very well, and we didn’t do well enough.’

 

 

Expectations set through Legacy and Pedigree

When you are a team with this many title contending players, and an organization with this much history, it can be difficult to live up to the name. Moreover, having earned the privilege of being the only team in 2023 to defeat Fnatic, the narrative becomes even more incredible in anticipation.

In terms of the difference in performance, multiple members spoke up during the conference on some of their thoughts. Saif “Sayf” Jibraeel said: ‘I feel like we’re all very experienced players, and most of us have played at least a few international events. Two of us has attended every Champions so far. I don’t think we ran into any experience issues at all. I think our issues stemmed more from inside the game rather than just general experience.’

“Playing in these big international events, everyone’s got to give it their all and come up with new stuff.”

Both “Redgar” and Dom “soulcas” Sulcas spoke on the difference as well between the EMEA regular season and attending international events. Igor mentioned that ‘when you’re playing the season, it’s like three months, you’re playing on the same arena, the same day. It’s like routine thing, and maybe sometimes when you’re going to another country or bigger stage, there can be a lot of things that can affect.’

Dom agreed with his In-Game Leader, saying that, ‘during the EMEA season, we kind of had a regular schedule, we had like a consistent workflow. Maybe also when we got to stage, teams are prepping new strategies, more things to catch off. Because during the regular season, it’s kind of hard to always change up how you play. It’s kind of easier for us to understand how the enemy teams are playing. But playing in these big international events, everyone’s got to give it their all and come up with new stuff.’

 

Reflections on their Year

Despite winning VCT EMEA, Liquid have largely been unable to prove themselves in international events. So far, they have won a single series against EDG at Tokyo. ‘I think during the EMEA season, we played well. But on the international stage, it has become a problem for us to perform as we can,’ Igor said. He continued on to say: ‘because we know that we can do much more than we showed, and this is the sad thing. But we’re not giving up. We’re just trying to find out why things are going this way, and the next time we step onto an international stage, we’re going to be much more prepared.’

EMEA as a region has now lost three of their representatives to the group stage. Only Fnatic and FUT Esports have managed to progress ahead in the tournament. ‘We’re behind Europe as a region. I still think Europe is a strong region; and us going out, we let Europe down a bit. So, I’m sad about that. I will just say that I do think Europe is a strong region, and my heart is behind the remaining teams.’

 

Team Liquid has exited Champions 2023 in 13th-16th place after falling to LOUD 2-0 in the elimination series of Group D. Champions 2023 will resume on the 16th of August. Keep to date on Champions 2023 with Strafe Esports, and stay tuned for the Playoffs R1 Predictions to come.

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Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games