Team Liquid

From Liquipedia Smash Wiki
[e][h]Team Liquid
Team Information
Location:
Manager:
Brittany "JunoTheCat" Lattanzio
Links
History
Created:
2014-03-18

Team Liquid is a professional gaming team founded in the Netherlands in 2000. Originally a StarCraft: Brood War clan, the team switched to StarCraft II during the Wings of Liberty beta in 2010 and became one of the most successful teams based outside of Korea. On December 6, 2012, it was announced that the team had formed a Dota 2 division.[1] On March 18, 2014, Liquid took its first step into the Fighting Game Community by picking up SephirothKen and KoreanDJ to start a Super Smash Bros. Melee team, making it the first team with an eSports pedigree to join Smash.[2] On January 6, 2015, Team Liquid announced their merge with Team Curse.[3]

Team Liquid is also strongly associated with its website, TL.net. Launched on May 1, 2001, it has developed through the years into a focal point for StarCraft and Dota 2 coverage, eventually becoming the most-browsed StarCraft-related website in the world, gathering thousands of members (including professional players - among them Ken and KoreanDJ before they joined the team) and centralizing news about the global SC2 scene. On August 30, 2012, Teamliquid.net announced expansion into Dota 2 coverage[1] and has since expanded to Smash coverage. The website also features a progaming database, the TLPD, as well as a wiki dedicated to Brood War, StarCraft 2, Hearthstone, Smash, Heroes of the Storm, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike, Liquipedia.

Entry into Smash[edit]

Liquid co-owner Nazgul made the following announcement on the team's website and invited fans to discuss it:

Today marks a historic day for the Liquid team as we are ready to unveil our two newest members: Liquid`Ken and Liquid`KDJ.

Last October a documentary was released that followed the players and competitive scene of Super Smash Brothers Melee. It received a lot of praise and I would go as far as to say that I have never seen better esports content. If you haven't seen it I would check it out as it's a nice way to relax, and will make it easy to understand why we're adding players for Smash.

I've been pretty focused on just a couple games and after seeing the documentary it was like a whole new world opened up. I was blown away by the depth of this game and that it was still going strong after so many years without any support. The scene that is behind Smash is amazing. The game is 13 years old and has stood the test of time over and over again. The game is deep and deserving of being an esport.

After many years of absence in 2013 Smash Melee made its return to EVO, the largest fighting game tournament in the world. It snuck in through the backdoor by winning a poll measured in charity donations. It shocked the world by getting 700 entrants, the most ever for a Smash tournament, and 130,000 unique viewers, the second most watched game out of all eight games at EVO. At Anaheim, MLG will be bringing Smash back after a long, long absence. After 13 years, the game might just see their biggest year yet.

Smash is a bit of an outcast in the fighting game community. As an esport there hasn't been support from Nintendo and the balance of the game is largely held in place by many bugs that were never intended to be in there. It reminds me a lot of Brood War in so many ways.

The players we start a team with are KoreanDJ and Ken, two legends that together with our announcement will announce their official comeback to competitive Smash. They're incredible players and personalities. Ken actually is a huge BW/SC2/Dota, and Liquid fan and appeared on the popular TV show Survivor. KoreanDJ used to visit TL over ten years ago for BW replays and plays an amazing violin.

Having worked with both guys for a while now I am confident as ever that they will do a great job representing our team and sponsors. Recently KDJ took it to M2K at the Smashing Grounds tournament and went 2-3 with him, twice. An incredible feat for someone making a comeback. This announcement has been one of the coolest things we've ever done and I hope it is only the start. They will do a great job representing us.

-Liquid`Nazgul (Victor Goosens)

Smash Brothers director Samox also produced Team Liquid's Smash video announcement for YouTube. Waytosexy welcomed Ken and KDJ on behalf of the Dota 2 team and revealed himself to be a Smash enthusiast, while Snute did the same on behalf of the StarCraft team while himself revealing that he had played Melee extensively in 2002, especially as Yoshi, and equated high-level Melee play to high-level StarCraft micro (the RTS shortening of micromanagement, meaning unit control.)

History[edit]

Player Roster[edit]

Active[edit]

Melee Players[edit]

PlayerMainJoin Date
United States Ken
Ken Hoang
Marth
Join Date: 
2014-03-18
United States Hungrybox
Juan Manuel Debiedma
Jigglypuff
Join Date: 
2015-01-06
United States Chillindude
Kashan Khan
Fox
Join Date: 
2015-01-06
United States Crunch
Luis Rosias
Fox
Join Date: 
2016-07-09
United States ChuDat
Daniel Rodriguez
Ice Climbers
Join Date: 
2017-06-14

Ultimate Players[edit]

PlayerMainJoin Date
United States Dabuz
Samuel Robert Buzby
Rosalina
Join Date: 
2019-03-07
Canada Riddles
Michael Kim
KazuyaTerry
Join Date: 
2022-05-25

Former[edit]

Former PlayersFormer Players
PlayerMainJoin DateLeave DateNew Team
United States KoreanDJ
Daniel Jung
SheikMarthFox
Join Date: 
2014-03-18
Leave Date: 
2015-09-28
United States Nairo
Nairoby Quezada
Zero Suit Samus
Join Date: 
2015-08-12
Leave Date: 
2016-08-16
United States Salem
Saleem Akiel Young
Steve
Join Date: 
2018-02-09
Leave Date: 
2019-02-27
Japan Atelier
Towa Kuriyama
WolfPokémon Trainer
Join Date: 
2021-09-01
Leave Date: 
2023-07-15

Organization[edit]

ID Name Position
Netherlands Nazgul Victor Goossens Founder, co-owner & Co-CEO
United States LiQuiD112 Steve Arhancet Co-owner & Co-CEO
Canada JunoTheCat Brittany Lattanzio Manager

Gallery[edit]

Logos[edit]


External links[edit]

Sources[edit]

References[edit]