Team Liquid

Team Liquid is a multi-regional professional esports organization based in the Netherlands that was founded in 2000. With the release of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Team Liquid signed their first professional players.

Team Liquid

Short name	Liquid, TL
Divisions	Apex Legends Artifact Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Clash Royale Fortnite Counter-Strike Dota 2 Hearthstone Heroes of the Storm League of Legends Rocket League PUBG StarCraft II Street Fighter Super Smash Bros. Tekken 7 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege Valorant
Founded	2000 (2000)
Location	Utrecht, Netherlands United States (LoL team, CS:GO Team)
Manager	Victor Goossens (co-CEO) Steve Arhancet (co-CEO)
Partners	Alienware Honda HyperX Jersey Mike's Subs Marvel Entertainment Monster Energy Secretlab SAP SE Twitch
Parent group	aXiomatic
Earnings	US$33.70 million[1]
Website	www.teamliquid.com

In 2012, Team Liquid acquired a North American Dota 2 team, marking their first venture into multi-genre management.[2] In January 2015, Team Liquid officially merged with Team Curse under the Liquid banner, bringing on Steve Arhancet, his supporting staff, and former Curse League of Legends, Street Fighter, and Super Smash Bros. teams. Their European Dota 2 squad won The International 2017, which had one of the largest prize pool for any esports tournament in history.[3] Team Liquid's League of Legends team has won four LCS titles,[4] and their Counter-Strike Global Offensive team was awarded the Intel Grand Slam prize in 2019, a feat achieved in just four tournaments.[5]

History

The website was released on May 1, 2001 by Victor "Nazgul" Goossens and Joy "Meat" Hoogeveen under the domain teamliquid.cjb.net.[6] On September 22, 2002, the website was moved to the address of teamliquid.net. A day later the very first poll was posted as a vote for the website's name with the teamliquid.net name winning over other suggestions such as likwit.com. On April 5, 2019 it was announced that the website would be moving to the domain tl.net, with teamliquid.net becoming an alias for teamliquid.com in the future.[7]

Although Team Liquid was primarily known as a StarCraft news site, there are many sub sections on the forums dedicated to other games as well. It was announced on August 30, 2012 that Team Liquid would be expanding to covering Dota 2 news. On December 8, 2012, Liquid expanded their esports franchise into multiple games for the first time, with the recruitment of a North American Dota 2 team.[2]

On January 6, 2015, Steven "LiQuiD112" Arhancet joined Victor Goossens as co-owner of Team Liquid, officially commencing the merge between former Team Curse Gaming under the Team Liquid banner.[8]

On September 27, 2016, Team Liquid sold its controlling interest to aXiomatic Gaming, an investment group including Golden State Warriors co-owner Peter Guber, entrepreneur Ted Leonsis, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, and AOL co-founder Steve Case.[9]

On December 16, 2017, Team Liquid disbanded their Halo roster.[10]

Ownership

aXiomatic

Industry	Entertainment and sports
Headquarters	Utrecht  , Netherlands
Key people	Bruce Stein (CEO)
Website	https://www.axiomaticgaming.com/

aXiomatic is an entertainment and sports management company. Investors for the group include businesspeople Peter Guber, Tony Robbins, sports Magic Johnson, Ted Leonsis, and technology Steve Case, Eric Lefkofsky.[11][12] The chief executive officer is Bruce Stein, the former chief executive officer and chief operating officer of Mattel Toys, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Kenner Products (Hasbro).[13] On September 27, 2016, aXiomatic announced that it had acquired controlling interest of esports organization Team Liquid.[14][15][16]

Other investors include Dodgers executives Lon Rosen and Tucker Kain, Warriors executives Rick Welts and Kirk Lacob, the Washington Nationals owners at Lerner Enterprises, Chicago Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney, Donn Davis, co-founder of Revolution and managing partner of Revolution Growth, Zach Leonsis, VP and general manager of Monumental Sports Network, Mark Ein, chairman of Kastle Systems, CEO of Capitol Acquisition Corp, and founder and owner of the Washington Kastles,[17] and former NFL player Dhani Jones.[18]

It was announced that Victor Goossens and Steve Arhancet would continue their roles as co-CEOs of Team Liquid after the acquisition.[19]

Websites

Main websites

• TLnet – Originally branded as "Team Liquid", the tl.net website primarily provides StarCraft II coverage but also has some coverage for StarCraft Brood War, Counter-Strike Global Offensive, Heroes of the Storm, and Super Smash Brothers Melee. With the launch of StarCraft II, TLnet has grown into the largest StarCraft community on the internet, with over 220,000 active members and over twenty four million total posts. The website employs four person full-time staff at their New York City office to work on the site.[20]
• Team Liquid – Website focusing on Team Liquid esports team coverage.
• Liquipedia – Is a volunteer-run wiki covering various esports, beginning with Starcraft: Brood War and currently covering more than 35 unique titles.[21]

Tournaments and events

In addition to running a community site and team, Team Liquid also hosts a variety of tournaments and events.

Team Liquid Starleague

The two iterations of the TeamLiquid Starleague (or TSL for short) have been the largest StarCraft: Brood War tournaments outside of South Korea. The first TSL sponsored by Razer in 2008 was highly anticipated at the time, sporting all of the world's top Brood War players. It was topped one year later with 2009's TSL 2, which featured a total prize pool of over $20,000 and remains the largest non-Korean Brood War tournament to date. With the release of Starcraft II, Team Liquid announced a third installment, sponsored again by PokerStrategy.com with a prize pool of $34,700.[22] The tournament took place between March and May 2011. On April 25, 2012, a fourth installment was announced (TSL 4).

Team Liquid StarCraft II Open

The TL Opens are one-day open single-elimination tournaments alternating between the NA and EU battle.net servers. The eight TL Open events that lead up to the TSL 3 also served as a qualifier for the TSL.

Team Liquid Legacy Starleague

Announced on January 1, 2013, Team Liquid would be hosting a series of online tournaments for "foreign" players of StarCraft: Brood War.[23]

Community events

• TL Attack: Modeled after a Korean TV show called Bnet Attack, a professional player plays games against non-professionals while chatting with the hosts.
• Liquibition: A King-of-the-Hill mode that is played best of 7 games.
• TL Arena: A professional player will be matched up with inferior opponents. With each win he gains, another handicap is added that limits his game play options, until he loses or he has defeated a certain number of opponents.

Esports team

History

The gaming clan "Liquid" was founded by Victor "Nazgul" Goossens near the end of 2000, after he decided to leave his previous clan. Liquid started with four members for the first months and grew to eight players over the following year. The members of the Liquid clan were handpicked by Goossens based on both personality and talent.

With the arrival of StarCraft II, Team Liquid announced plans to become an active Pro-Gaming Team. Shortly after, sponsorship by The Little App Factory was announced,[24] which qualified them as a sponsored professional team. This allowed Team Liquid to pay their players a salary and send the team to events around the world. The team got a dedicated news site separate from the more community oriented site at www.teamliquidpro.com, announced and released on May 10, 2011.[25]

On August 13, 2012, three players traveled to Korea in order to live in the OGS training house and compete in GOMTV's Global StarCraft II League (GSL).[26][27][28] Of the three players entering the preliminaries, only one, Dario "TLO" Wünsch qualified for the first two GSL events. He was eliminated out in the Second and First rounds respectively.

The third GSL was the strongest showing of Team Liquid thus far. Three players, Hayder "Haypro" Hussein, Jos "Ret" de Kroon and Jonathan "Jinro" Walsh qualified for the main tournament. While Hussein lost first round and de Kroon in 2nd, Walsh made to the semi-finals, losing 0–4 to the eventual winner Jang "MC" Min-Chul.

In 2012, during GSL Season 2, members Song "HerO" Hyeon Deok and Yun "TaeJa" Young Seo made it to the Round of 8 of the Code S tournament, with TaeJa being eliminated while HerO advanced to the semi-finals of the tournament.

On March 2014, Team Liquid announced that it had picked up two legendary Melee players: Ken, who is known as the "King of Smash" and KoreanDJ, who is widely considered as the first player to defeat Mew2King ever since he was considered a God, thus starting its Smash team. After acquiring Curse Gaming, it also signed Hungrybox, who is considered to be one of the Five Gods of Melee, and Chillin, who was the first player to defeat Ken during his prime. On August 11, 2015, it picked up top Super Smash Bros. for Wii U player Nairo, who was the only player to knock ZeRo out of a tournament, ending ZeRo's 55 win tournament streak at MLG World Finals.[29][30] On September 28, 2015, Team Liquid announced that KoreanDJ resigned from the organization and retired from competitive Smash, citing persistent hand and wrist pains.[31]

On January 6, 2015, Liquid acquired the Team Curse's League of Legends roster, which consisted of Quas, IWillDominate, Voyboy, Cop, and Xpecial. The team finished the LCS Spring regular season in 6th place with a 10-9 record. On Week 5 and 6 of NA LCS Piglet was benched and replaced on the starting roster by KEITHMCBRIEF in an effort to try to improve their standings.[32] In the playoffs they beat Counter Logic Gaming 3–0, before losing to Cloud9 3–2 and finishing in 3rd.

One week after the Curse merger, it was announced that Team Liquid acquired a Counter Strike: Global Offensive team that previously played under the title "Denial eSports".[33]

On January 24, 2015, it was announced that HTC had become an official sponsor of Team Liquid.[34]

On September 28, 2015, Team Liquid and Piglet parted ways after another failed qualification bid for the League of Legends World Championship, just a few hours after KoreanDJ resigned from the team.[35] However, this was apparently a fake leak, as just a few hours later, Team Liquid announced on its Instagram that Piglet has extended his contract until November 2016.[36]

On October 9, 2015, it was announced that Liquid would once again be fielding a Dota team, after more of a years absence from the competitive DotA scene. Signing the team formally known as 5JungZ, the new Liquid Dota would consist of a medley of new and old European talent.[37]

Management

Victor "Nazgul" Goossens is a founding member, now co-owner and chief executive officer of Team Liquid. Nazgul originally competed in Brood War prior to forming Team Liquid.

Steve "LiQuiD112" Arhancet joined the Team Liquid staff when Team Curse merged with Team Liquid. Since the merge, Steve has taken the role of co-owner and chief executive officer and primarily manages the League of Legends team.[38]

Rosters

Game	Nat.	Name	IGN	Role
Apex Legends		Gage Meyer	Cali	Player
		Thomas Cook	Flanker	Player
		Brenden Marino	Casper	Player
		Lucas Håkansson	Mendokusaii	Player
		Justin Kellar	Kellar	Player
		Kevin Nguyen	Wonderfuls	Player
		Brandon Singer	Nocturnal	Player
			Mad_Ruski	Coach
Artifact		George Maganzini	Hyped	Player
Clash Royale		Frank Oskam	Surgical Goblin	Player
		Diego Becerra	DiegoB	Player
		Cristian Herminio Sánchez Hernández	KaNaRiOoo	Player
		Egór Akhmetzyanov	Egor	Player
		Erick Benamu	EB7	Coach
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive		Jonathan Jablonowski	EliGE	Player
		Russel David Van Dulken	Twistzz	Player
		Keith Markovic	NAF	Player
		Jacky Yip	Stewie2K	Player
		Michael Wince	Grim	Player
		Jason O'Toole	moses	Coach
Dota 2		Michael Vu	miCKe	Player
		Maximilian Bröcker	qojqva	Player
		Samuel Svahn	Boxi	Player
		Tommy Le	Taiga	Player
		Aydin Sarkohi	iNSaNiA	Player
		William Lee	Blitz	Coach
Fortnite[39]		Thomas Mulligan	72hrs	Player
		Jake Brumleve	POACH	Player
		Noah Wright	Vivid	Player
		Evan Barron	Cented	Player
		River Handley	Riversan	Player
		Alex Bonetello	Fiber	Player
		Josef	Stretch	Player
		Dmitri Van de Vrie	mitr0	Player
Hearthstone		Janne Mikkonen	Savjz	Player
		Bertrand Grospellier	ElkY	Player
		Frank Zhang	Fr0zen	Player
		Raphael Peltzer	BunnyHoppor	Player
		Ryan Murphy-Root	Purple	Player
League of Legends		Jung Eon-yeong	Impact	Player
		Mads Brock-Pedersen	Broxah	Player
		Nicolaj Jensen	Jensen	Player
		Edward Ra	Tactical	Player
		Jo Yong-in	CoreJJ	Player
		Joshua Leesman	Jatt	Head coach
		Jang Nu-Ri	Cain	Assistant coach
		Kevin Bracken		Analyst
League of Legends (Academy)		Thomas Tran	Jenkins	Player
		Shern Cherng Tai	Shernfire	Player
		David Bloomquist	Yusui	Player
		Samuel Oh	Rikara	Player
		Johnson Cao	Cao	Player
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS		Jim Gunnar Eliassen	Jeemzz	Player
		Jord van Geldere	ibiza	Player
		Thierry Kaltenback	Kaymind	Player
		Anssi Pekkonen	mxey	Player
		Tanner Curtis	7Teen	Coach
Quake Champions		Shane Hendrixson	rapha	Player
		Tim Fogarty	DaHanG	Player
Rocket League		Emil Moselund	fruity	Player
		Francesco Cinquemani	kuxir97	Player
		Jack Packwood-Clarke	Speed	Player
		Lukasz Zyromski	Lukasz	Manager
StarCraft II		Dario Wünsch	TLO	Player
		Grzegorz Komincz	MaNA	Player
		Marc Schlappi	uThermal	Player
		Yun Young Seo	TaeJa	Player
		Clément Desplanches	Clem	Player
		Kevin de Koning	Harstem	Player
Street Fighter		Naoki Nemoto	Nemo	Player
		Ryota Takeuchi	John Takeuchi	Player
		Genki Kumisaka	Gen	Player
Super Smash Bros. Melee		Ken Hoang	Ken	Player
		Juan Debiedma	Hungrybox	Player
		Kashan Khan	Chillindude	Player
		Luis Rosias	Crunch	Player
		Daniel Rodriguez	ChuDat	Player
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate		Samuel Buzby	Dabuz	Player
Tekken		Genki Kumisaka	Gen	Player
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege		André De Jesus Oliveira	neskgwa	Player
		Thiago Dos Reis Castro Silva	xSexyCake	Player
		Paulo Augusto Arneiro Lourenço	psk1	Player
		Luccas Molina	Paluh	Player
		João Deam	Muringa	Player
		Adenauer Alvarenga	Silence	Coach
		André Kaneyasu	Sensi	Coach
Valorant		Adam Eccles	Ec1s	Player
		Dom Sulcas	Soulcas	Player
		James Affleck	Kryptix	Player
		Connor Blomfield	Sliggy	Player
		Adil Benriltom	ScreaM	Player

Source:[40]

Alienware Training Facility

Alienware Training Facility in Los Angeles

In 2017 Team Liquid finished constructing its Alienware Training Facility in Los Angeles, which is designed to act as the training grounds for Team Liquid's CS:GO and League of Legends teams, as well as their esports headquarters. The facility houses non-players such as owner Steve "LiQuiD112" Arhancet and 1UP Studios, Team Liquid's in-house production studio, so that all departments of Team Liquid could work together. Team Liquid's sponsor Alienware supplied all the PC's to the Alienware Training Facility.[41]

References

1. "Highest Overall Team Earnings". Esports Earnings. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
2. Horton, Samuel (December 8, 2012). "Team Liquid ventures into Dota 2". SK Gaming.
3. Payne, Marissa. "These five gamers just won $11 million playing 'Dota 2'". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 13, 2017.
4. O' Brien, Joe (August 25, 2019). "Team Liquid claim fourth domestic title with LCS Summer victory - Final placements". Dexerto. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
5. "Team Liquid - Intel Grand Slam". ESL Gaming. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
6. "About TL.net". Teamliquid.net. Retrieved February 6, 2011.
7. "TeamLiquid.net becomes TL.net". Retrieved April 18, 2019.
8. Farrelly, Steve (January 7, 2015). "Curse Gaming Folds into Team Liquid to Become One Super eSports Organisation". AusGamers. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
9. "Warriors owner buys controlling interest in TL". September 27, 2016.
10. "Liquid Takes a Step Back from Halo". www.teamliquid.com.
11. John Gaudiosi (September 27, 2016). "aXiomatic CEO Details ESports Plans Beyond Team Liquid Acquisition". Alistdaily.com. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
12. Magic Johnson, Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images (September 28, 2016). "Magic Johnson joins Warriors, Capitals co-owners in deal for Team Liquid - Article - TSN". Tsn.ca. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
13. "Esports ownership group aXiomatic acquires controlling share of Team Liquid". The Esports Observer. September 27, 2016. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
14. "Team Liquid sells controlling interest to Golden State Warriors co-owner". Espn.com. September 27, 2016. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
15. Lieberman, David (September 27, 2016). "Team Liquid: Peter Guber & Ted Leonsis Lead Buying Group For Esports Franchise". Deadline. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
16. "L.A. Tech: Sports titans jump into competitive gaming with e-sports acquisition". LA Times. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
17. "aXiomatic Acquires Controlling Interest in Team Liquid, a Leading Professional Esports Franchise". www.businesswire.com. September 27, 2016. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
18. Diamond Leung (September 28, 2016). "Magic Johnson's ownership group buys e-sports franchise". SI.com. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
19. Tech Insider (September 27, 2016). "Warriors, Wizards co-owners and Magic Johnson buy eSports team". Business Insider. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
20. "TeamLiquid HQ". Retrieved August 18, 2016.
21. "Liquipedia.net". Retrieved April 13, 2018.
22. "PokerStrategy.com TSL3". Retrieved August 18, 2016.
23. "TeamLiquid Legacy Starleague". Retrieved August 18, 2016.
24. "Presenting TLAF-Liquid'!". Teamliquid.net. Retrieved February 6, 2011.
25. Team Liquid - Professional StarCraft 2 Team - TeamLiquidPro: Home Sweet Home Archived July 7, 2014, at the Wayback Machine May 11, 2011
26. "Homecoming: Liquid' to Korea!". Teamliquid.net. Retrieved February 6, 2011.
27. Gaudioso, John (September 23, 2011). "Pro Gamer Shawn "Sheth" Simon Talks MLG, StarCraft II and the Future of eSports". Retrieved November 26, 2011.
28. "oGsLiquid House Tour". Giantbomb. Retrieved November 26, 2011.
29. "A New Challenger Approaching: Liquid'Nairo - Team Liquid - Professional Gaming Organization". Retrieved August 18, 2016.
30. Womack, Barrett. "ZeRo on MLG, Nairo and the Next Chapter". Retrieved August 18, 2016.
31. "All good things must come to an end - Team Liquid - Professional Gaming Organization". Retrieved August 18, 2016.
32. Bumblebee (February 16, 2015). "LCS News: KEITH moved to starting roster for week 5 Author".
33. "Introducing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive". teamliquidpro.com. January 13, 2015. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
34. "HTC Sponsors Team Liquid". teamliquidpro.com. January 24, 2015. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
35. "Piglet and Team Liquid may part ways". September 28, 2015. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
36. "TeamLiquidLoL on Instagram: "@Liquid_Piglet extended his contract with Team Liquid on September 21 2015 to November 20 2016 #ImBaaaaack #LCS #LeagueofLegends"". Instagram. Retrieved September 29, 2015.
37. "Liquid Reincarnation". teamliquidpro.com. October 9, 2015. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
38. "INTERVIEW: Team Liquid co-owner Steve Arhancet discusses the rise of eSports - and what's next for the sector". Mcvuk. February 16, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
39. "Team Liquid Pro - News - Dropping Into Fortnite". www.teamliquidpro.com. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
40. "Players - Team Liquid - Professional Esports Organization". www.teamliquidpro.com. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
41. "Alienware Training Facilities". www.teamliquidpro.com. Retrieved March 2, 2019.

External links

• Official website

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Wings Gaming	The International winner 2017	Succeeded by OG