Team Liquid

Overview

Team Results

Team History

Team Liquid [help] [edit]
Team Information
Coaches:	N/A
Manager:	Robin "Bumblebee" Nymann
Team Captain:	Victor "Nazgul" Goosens
Website:	Team Liquid Pro Team Liquid
Sponsor:	The Little App Factory Razer TwitchTV
TLPD:	Team Liquid International Team Liquid Korean
Twitter:	TeamLiquidnet
Player Breakdown
Number of Players:	9
2  2  5
History
Created:	2000
Recent Player Trades:	TaeJa from SlayerS (2012-03-29) Zenio from oGs (2011-11-21) HerO from oGs (2011-08-10) HuK to EG (2011-08-16)

To read about Team Liquid's Brood War history, click here

Team Liquid is a StarCraft 2 professional team, founded in the Netherlands in 2000. Originally a Brood War clan, the team switched to SC2 during the SC2 Beta in 2010, and became one of the most successful foreign teams. The team roster's achievements in premier events include winning the 2010 MLG Dallas, Assembly Winter 2011 and both DreamHack Summer 2011 and DreamHack Winter 2011. The team is also known for its early involvement in the Korean scene, through a partnership with Old Generations allowing its players to practice in Korea and to compete in the GOMTV Global Starcraft II League. As such, the team has been present in Korea a longer time than any other foreign organisation, and had also been the most successful in GSL so far. Team Liquid is one of the best-known and one of the most widely supported teams of the StarCraft II scene, and notably had some of its players mentioned in mainstream media.

Team Liquid's activities include the organization of several events, the most notable being the Team Liquid Starleague, an online premier tournament which third edition was one of the most highlighted foreign events of 2011.

Team Liquid's name is also strongly associated to its website, TeamLiquid.net. Launched on May 1st 2001, it developed throughout the years into the focal point for the report about the Korean professional Brood War scene in the foreign community. TeamLiquid.net eventually became the most-browsed StarCraft-related website in the world, gathering thousands of members (including several professional players) and centralizing news about the global SC2 scene. The website also feature a progaming database, the TLPD, as well as a wiki dedicated to Brood War and StarCraft 2, the Liquipedia.

History

Main article: Team Liquid History.

Early days and first steps in StarCraft II

Team Liquid was originally a StarCraft: Brood War clan created by Victor "Nazgul" Goosens around the end of 2000. The clan's website, TeamLiquid.net, developed into one of the most active StarCraft: Brood War websites in the world.

The team got on board with StarCraft 2 during the beta, and upon the official release of the game, its line-up was featured four players: the long-time member Tyler "NonY" Wasieleski, the Random player Dario "TLO" Wünsch, the TeamLiquid.net moderator Jonathan "Jinro" Walsh, and the three-time DreamHack champion Hayder "HayprO" Hussein. With the arrival of a sponsorship from The Little App Factory in July, Team Liquid became a fully-fledged pro-team.

Right after Wings of Liberty's launch, the team signed a partnership agreement with the Korean organisation Old Generations, which allowed Team Liquid to become the first foreign team to be involved in the Korean scene on a concrete basis. The move also demonstrated the team's commitment to the South Korean scene as part of its overall development plan. Through this partnership, Liquid's roster (which had been reinforced in September by the arrivals of Joseph "Ret" de Kroon and of the winner of the 2010 MLG Raleigh Chris "HuK" Loranger) flew to Korea and competed in the first seasons of the GOMTV Global Starcraft II League, with mixed results. While TLO, Ret and HayprO were systematically eliminated in the early rounds, Jinro eventually realised a memorable achievement in the 2010 GSL Open Season 3: he indeed made his way to the semifinals where he was eliminated by MC, which was the best performance for a foreigner in the Korean league so far.

Despite its focus on the Korean scene, Team Liquid did not neglect the foreign tournaments. In October and November, its line-up achieved three podium placements in premier events: HuK took third place in both the IEM Season V - American Championships and the 2010 MLG D.C., and Jinro gave Liquid its first major victory in the 2010 MLG Dallas. The team was remarkably successful in the latter event, with four of its players reaching the top 8; Nazgul also proved that he was more than just a regular team manager by defeating the reigning MLG champion IdrA during the early rounds of the competition.

Focus on the Korean scene and HuK's success in Europe

On January 1st 2011, Team Liquid announced its upcoming TeamLiquid StarLeague 3, a premier online event featuring top players from all around the world battling each others for a $34,500 prize pool scheduled to kick-off in March. The team was very successful in January and February: TLO, who had headed back in Europe two months before, won the PokerIdol.com European Championship (a major offline event held in the UK). A few days later, Jinro repeated his performance from the last GSL, and reached the semifinals of the 2011 GSL January Code S, notably defeating the reigning champion MC twice in a row in group stage. In February, Team Liquid's roster brought back its second victory in a premier event, as Ret triumphed over MorroW in the finals of the Assembly Winter 2011. The Dutch player would be a lot less successful in the 2011 March GSL Code A (he was eliminated in the first round) and headed back to Europe, leaving HayprO, Jinro and HuK as the only Liquid players left in the oGs-TL house.

HuK's time under Team Liquid colors reached his peak in June 2011, when he won the DreamHack Summer 2011 and the HomeStory Cup III within a week.

Jinro also marked a step backward in March, being eliminated of the Code S in the round of 16. He wouldn't be the only player of its team competing in the next Code S though, since HuK made his way through the Code A and the Up and Down matches, hence making Liquid the first foreign team succeeding in placing two representatives in Code S. At the end of the month, the TeamLiquid StarLeague 3 kicked-off, and while it was a success in terms of viewership and entertainment, it turned out to be a disappointment for Liquid's roster; all of its players but Tyler were eliminated in the first round, and the latter dropped out the tournament as well in the next round. Team Liquid suffered another bit of an upset in the 2011 MLG Dallas held during the first weekend of April. Jinro being unable to defend his crown because of a busy schedule, it was TLO who realised the best performance for the team with the fifth place of the tournament and was the only member to reach the top 8. The tournament also featured a memorable event if the rivalry between HuK and IdrA, as the latter quit prematurely a game after his opponent used his Sentries to hallucinate some Void Ray (IdrA eventually knocked-out HuK the day after).

Team Liquid's performance decrements continued in the 2011 GSL Code S May, with both HuK and Jinro failing to proceed to the playoffs, meaning that they would have to fight for their Code S seeds in Up & Down matches. The Canadian player retained his seed, but Jinro fell in Code A for the first time since the Code A/S inception. Both of them soon remained the only players from the team left in the oGs-TL house, as HayprO headed back to Europe a few days later, after two unsuccessful attempts to qualify for Code A. He joined his teammate TLO in his recently-created joint progaming house located in Sweden.

These setbacks didn't prevent the team from securing another sponsor, a Liquid welcomed Razer as its new head sponsor (alongside The Little App Factory) on May 8th.

Things didn't get better in early June, with Jinro's and HuK's anecdotal runs in the 2011 GSL Super Tournament (eliminated in first and second round, respectively). Ret made it to the 2011 MLG Columbus top 8 (seventh place), while TLO realised his worst performance in the American circuit by far, with the twenty-eighth place. The explanation of this under-performance came a few days later, when the German player announced that he was experiencing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in both hands, and therefore had to take a break from playing StarCraft II. The situation took a turn for the better at the end of the month, when HuK went on a winning streak in foreign events. The Canadian player indeed won the DreamHack Summer 2011 in a dominating fashion, losing only three games in the entire tournament, and became one of the few foreigners who won a premier event in which notable Korean players were participating. One week later, he won the HomeStory Cup III as well, defeating fellow top Protoss players MC and NaNiwa on his way to the coronation.

Upheaval in the team and HerO's big break

A few days after his memorable achievements in Europe, HuK succeeded in retaining his Code S seed in the 2011 GSL July, reaching the round of 16. The next week, he had for the first time of his career the opportunity of competing in the GSTL (as a member of oGs-TL), and delivered a convincing performance against team Prime, knocking-out Check and MarineKing in order to claim victory for his team. His teammate Jinro on the other hand made a short-lived run in Code A, and failed to earn a spot in the Up & Down matches. The next week, during 2011 MLG Anaheim day one, Team Liquid signed its first player in roughly ten months and welcomed Shawn "Sheth" Simon, a Zerg player usually praised for his manner. Liquid was the most succesful foreign team in this MLG, placing five players in the top 20, while HuK was the best-ranked foreigner with the seventh place.

The team provided a significantly poorer performance in the Assembly Summer 2011 one week later. HuK's elimination in the group stage was indeed the main upset of this tournament, and his teammates weren't much more successful. It was just a temporary setback though, since both Ret and Sheth qualified for the BlizzCon 2011 during the following days, being the winner and the runner-up, respectively, of the European and North American Battle.net Invitationals.

On August 10th, Team Liquid welcomed the first Korean player of its history, Seong "HerO" Hyun Deok. This good news was tempered by Jinro's defeat in the first round of the 2011 GSL August Code A the same day, meaning that the Swedish player would have to fight for a Code A seed in the next preliminaries.

In the Code S, HuK advanced again to the round of 16, but Liquid fans would soon find out that the his match versus Killer ought to remain his last appearance with the blue shirt. It was indeed revealed, a few hours after the match, HuK was leaving Team Liquid for Evil Geniuses, where he would partner with his long-time rival IdrA.

In the months following his recruitment, HerO made his big break in the foreign scene, winning the DreamHack Winter 2011 and reaching the finals of the North American Star League Season 2.

Liquid fans had another major source of disappointment in early September, when Jinro failed to qualify for the upcoming 2011 GSL October Code A, which would therefore be the first GSL he didn't attend since his first participation in November 2010. The Team still managed to have one of its player competing in the Korean league though, with HerO making his way through the preliminaries. His run in the Code A wasn't overly enthusiastic and he missed his chance to enter the up & down matches, but he delivered a decent showing for his first attendance to a foreign offline event, to the DreamHack Valencia Invitational, where he defeated IdrA. Jinro's miseries continued in early october in the IEM Season VI - Global Challenge Guangzhou, his first participation in a foreign live event in months, where he was ended up at the last place of his group. The next major gathering occurred in Atlantic City the next day, during the IGN ProLeague Season 3. Team Liquid realised a mixed performance as Ret, who reached the quarterfinals, was the only member getting through the first round. The team was upset again two weeks later by the outcomes of the 2011 MLG Orlando. With Ret's ninth place being the best placement for Liquid's roster, it was the first time the team failed to have at least one player in the Top 8 (except for the first event of the 2010 circuit, the 2010 MLG Raleigh, where the team didn't attend). At the end of the month, Sheth and Ret were both eliminated in the BlizzCon 2011 loser's bracket round 2, while HayprO was eliminated in Electronic Sports World Cup 2011's group stage. A week later, Jinro failed again to qualify for the upcoming GSL Code A. The only good news in this disappointing October was the signing of the streaming service Twitch.TV as a new sponsor.

In November, the whole roster was gathered for the first time in a while in the 2011 MLG Providence. This tournament was the theater of one of the biggest upset of the season as HayprO, who had shown average performance during the past months, went on a commanding and unexpected run. He indeed made his way through the championship bracket as the underdog, and became one of the only three Zerg players who defeated NesTea in an official match. Mvp barely stopped HayprO at the seventh place, the best result for Liquid in this event. The day after, the team introduced its new recruit, the Korean Zerg player Choi "Zenio" Jung Min, formerly on team oGs, and announced the upcoming production of a documentary made by Michael Krukar and dedicated to the team. In the DreamHack Winter 2011 held during the next week-end, Team Liquid realised its best performance since June; HerO indeed won the tournament, narrowly defeating PuMa in finals, hence making his big break on the global scene and giving Team Liquid its fourth victory in a premier event, while Ret gave a solid impression by taking the third place. HerO and Zenio earned their spots in the next GSL up & down matches a week later.

In early December, HerO and Sheth attended the NASL Season 2 main event. The latter was barely eliminated by PuMa in the first round, while HerO made a clean run to the finals, notably defeating Sen 4-0. HerO had to settle with the second place though, being unable to beat PuMa for their second encounter in the final of a premier event. On December 8th, Team Liquid made a terrible performance in the IPL Team Arena Challenge 1, being all-killed by SaSe for team Quantic Incredible Miracle. The team was eliminated in loser's bracket round one the next week, being overwhelmed 5-1 by Team ReIGN. In the last days of 2011, HerO was upset in the 2011 Blizzard Cup, being eliminated in group stage without a single win. He wasn't more successful in the GSL up and down matches, failing to proceed to Code S, unlike his teammate Zenio who therefore allowed Liquid to have one representative in Code S for the first time since Jinro's drop in Code A in April. At last, TLO and HayprO announced their upcoming return in Korea.

2012

In early 2012, Liquid suffered an upset in the HomeStory Cup IV, where Ret, HayprO and HerO were eliminated in the group stages. The latter participated in another European event before going back to Korea, the IEM Season VI - Global Challenge Kiev, and was upset again by an elimination in group stage. Zenio, who was also attending this event, delivered a much better performance and took the fourth place of the tournament. Three days before, Zenio had dropped in GSL Code A, after placing third in his Code S round of 32 group. On February 1st, Team Liquid entered the IPL Team Arena Challenge 2 and made a much better impression than in the previous season, defeating coL.MvP 5-2 in the first round. Further, the team announced that it would finally participate in the Evil Geniuses Master's Cup Series VII. One week later, Ret attended the IEM Season VI - Global Challenge Sao Paulo alone, and took the third place of the event.

Player Roster

f.l.t.r: Ret, Tyler, Sheth, TLO, Nazgul, HayprO, HerO, and Jinro

Currently Jinro, HerO and HayprO are based in Incheon, South Korea, in the oGs-TL house. TLO is expected to join them within the following weeks, while Zenio is living and is practicing by himself in South Korea. Ret, Tyler and Sheth are living in their native countries, the Netherlands and the United States respectively. The opposite picture depicts the roster as it was in August 2011, during the 2011 MLG Raleigh (therefore missing Liquid's latest additions, Zenio and TaeJa).

Active

Best Yearly Result:

		ID	Name	2010	2011	2012
Sweden	Z	HayprO	Hayder Hussein	C525th	A77th	B717th
SouthKorea	P	HerO	Song Hyeon Deok	Y-	A1st	E Ro4
Sweden	T	Jinro	Jonathan Walsh	A11st	E Ro4	H1Ro32
USA	P	NonY	Tyler Wasieleski	A44th	G1Ro16	E949+
Netherlands	Z	Ret	Joseph de Kroon	A77th	A11st	A33rd
USA	Z	Sheth	Shawn Simon	Y-	A99 - 12th	B919 - 24th
Korea	T	TaeJa	Yoon Young Seo	H1Ro32	H1 Ro32	F2 Ro8
Germany	Z	TLO	Dario Wünsch	A55th	A55th	H1Ro32
SouthKorea	Z	Zenio	Choi Jung Min	F2Ro8	G1 Ro16	A44th

League Icon Explanation
= Assembly = Blizzard Cup = BlizzCon = DreamHack = Electronic Sports World Cup = Global Starcraft II League = Global Starcraft II League - Code A = HomeStory Cup = Intel Extreme Masters = IGN ProLeague = Iron Squid = Major League Gaming Pro Circuit = North American Starleague = Team Liquid Starleague = World Cyber Games

Former

		ID	Name	New Team
Canada	P	HuK	Chris Loranger	Evil Geniuses

Organization

		ID	Name	Position
nl	P	Nazgul	Victor Goosens	CEO
dk	P	Bumblebee	Robin Nymann	Team Manager
bg	r	disciple	Ivailo Monev	Art & Design
us	P	Treehugger	Alex Schieferdecker	Media
us	r	Ares	Monu Singh	Replay Manager
uk	r	R1CH	Richard Stanway	Site Development
ca	r	Kennigit	James Lampkin	Marketing

Grounds

Even though Team Liquid doesn't own a team house by itself, it has access to two practice facilities: the oGs-TL house, located in Incheon, South Korea, which is the home of team Old Generations, and the Stockholm Joint European Team House, a facility set by TLO in 2011 in order to offer good training conditions to European players. Furthermore, the team owns a place in New York City where its headquarters are settled.

oGs-TL House

As the first foreign team involved in the Korean SC2 scene on a durable basis, Team Liquid has a base in Incheon, 50 kilometers away from Seoul and its GOMTV studio. This base is actually the training house of the Korean team Old Generations with whom Liquid has had a partnership since August 2010. The first members to move in were Jinro, Nazgul, and TLO, who went to Korea right after signing the agreement. They were followed by HayprO on October 8th, and by Ret and HuK in November, increasing the number of Liquid players in the practice house to four. TLO, Ret, and HayprO each headed back to Europe in November 2010, March 2011, and May 2011, respectively. Jinro and HuK therefore remained as the only Liquid players left in the oGs-TL house until roughly three months later, on August 10th, HerO was added to the team (HerO was already living in the house at the time, being a former member of Old Generations). Just six days later, HuK signed for Evil Geniuses and subsequently left the team and house as well. Even though another former member of Old Generations was recruited in November 2011 (Zenio), Jinro and HerO remained the only members from the team in the house, since Zenio had specifically left the Korean team as he prefered to live on his own. In 2012, former inhabitants TLO and HayprO decided to go back to Korea roughly one year after their departures, with HayprO arriving on January 15th, 2012 and TLO expected to join them in the near future. The German player eventually flew to Korea on May 15th.

Stockholm Joint European Team House

On April 12th 2011, during the 2011 DreamHack Stockholm Invitational, TLO, who was missing the Korean practice experience with having other pros around all the time, announced that he had asked fellow players SjoW, MorroW, Bischu and Maven to move in with him in a joint venture pro-gamer house located near Stockholm. Two weeks later, the first information about the place were released, describing a house placed in the middle of a forest, 20 minutes away from Stockholm and 15 minutes away from the nearest beach. Notable guests include HayprO after his departure from the oGs-TL house, as well as Apollo, alongside whom TLO broadcast several events toward the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012. However, the house lost all of its Team Liquid members, as HayprO headed back in Korea On January 15th 2012, and TLO left in August 2011.

Team Liquid HQ

In November 2010, the team unveiled its New York City headquarters.

On November 24th 2010, as TeamLiquid.net head programmer R1CH and Team Liquid counsel Hot_Bid were appointed full time staff members, the fans were told about team's headquarters located in New York City. The place, which was to become the home of the two above-mentioned members, can also accomodate any TL staff that wants to visit, and notably welcomed Team Liquid's founder and CEO Nazgul, as well as official staff members Heyoka, WaxAngel, Mango, and many others. The headquarters were also the theater of the finals of the TeamLiquid StarLeague 3 on May 15th 2011, when ThorZaIN defeated NaNiwa in order to claim the $15,000 winner's prize.

Media

As an organisation which puts an emphasis on the community development, Team Liquid naturally dedicated itself to improve the communication between the esports industry and the fans, and therefore developed tools and piloted projects aiming to fulfil this objective.

Websites

TeamLiquid.net

Main article: TeamLiquid.net.

Liquid's website was founded on May 1st 2001, by Liquid`Nazgul and Liquid`Meat with the name teamliquid.cjb.net and some pages of this first website have luckily been preserved and can still be seen. On September 22nd 2002, the website moved to its current address, with the grand opening post being a recap of the 2002 SKY OSL semifinals. The next day, the website featured its first poll ever, which confirmed teamliquid.net to be the domain name. The website grew bigger and bigger throuhghout the years, eventually becoming the main source of StarCraft-related information on the web. Its increasing success led Team Liquid to appoint two two full-time staff members, in November 2010, R1CH and Hot_Bid, who would be living and working together at the new headquarters in New York City. On top of its forum, the website also has several features which are described here.

TeamLiquidPRO.com

The latest addition to TeamLiquid.net was a spin-off of the main website called TeamLiquidPRO, which was launched on May 11th 2011. TeamLiquidPRO was designed as an area dedicated to the coverage of the Liquid Team, as well as a better representation of its sponsors. Hence, the website features VODs of Liquid's players, detailed profiles about them, as well as an event calendar. Furthermore, by being the central nerve about the coverage of the team, it would allow the main domain TeamLiquid.net to better focus its efforts on being a central hub for the entire community and fans of all teams, not just Liquid.

TLPD & Liquipedia

The TLPD (Team Liquid Progaming Database), which was launched on July 28th 2007, is a tool that lists and presents statistics and factual informations about the players, teams, maps, and tournaments. Liquipedia on the other hand is a StarCraft-dedicated wiki which was launched on June 6th 2009. Originally set to focus on the strategy aspect of StarCraft: Brood War and to present informative articles about useful build orders or use of special tactics, the wiki was later enriched by famous players bios, information about current and past leagues, and team histories.

On March 9th 2010, during StarCraft II Beta, Team Liquid lanched its Liquipedia 2, which was scheduled to provide the same spectrum of information on the StarCraft II scene. While Liquipedia I is more focused on the Korean Brood War professional scene, Liquipedia II eventually came to gather informations from all over the global StarCraft II scene, and especially made a name for itself for the swiftness and the accuracy of its tournaments live-update. This particular aspect was highlighted in 2011, when several well-known shoutcasters checked Liquipedia II on stream in order to know about the recent results of the tournament they were casting (namely RotterdaM during the HomeStory Cup IV, or TotalBiscuit and Apollo during the Battle in Berlin).

Publications and shows

TeamLiquid: Attack!

Main article: TeamLiquid: Attack!.

TeamLiquid: Attack! is an event where ordinary players from Battle.net become champions of the community in single combat with a guest progamer. The hosts of the show, who are observing the game, engage the guest in conversation while they are playing. Originally modeled on Korean TV programs like MBCGame's Battle.net Attack, the show has continued from Brood War into StarCraft II and has many of its own traditions. To provide additional challenge, the player is typically called upon to use a creative or unlikely strategy while answering questions from the hosts; this can tax even a professional player's multitasking ability.

Liquid` Weekly

On August 6th 2010, right after the official release of StarCraft II, Team Liquid launched a weekly news review dedicated to its activities. Each edition featured informations about the team and its roster, inside sightings, replays, VODs, and/or short interviews. The last issue took place on April 21st 2011, after which Liquid` Weekly's assignment was taken by the newly-created TeamLiquidPRO.

Issue #1 Issue #2 Issue #3 Issue #4 Issue #5

Issue #6 Issue #7 Issue #8 Issue #9 Issue #10

Issue #11 Issue #12 Issue #13 Issue #14 Issue #15

Issue #16 Issue #17 Issue #18 Issue #19 Issue #20

Issue #21 Issue #22 Issue #23 Issue #24 Issue #25

Issue #26 Issue #27 Issue #28 Issue #29 Issue #30

Issue #31 Issue #32 Issue #33 Issue #34 Issue #35

Documentary: Liquid Rising

In November 2011, Team Liquid released a mysterious picture which led the fans to speculate on what it would mean for the team. On November 16th, it was revealed that the first pictogram was about the upcoming production of a documentary directed by Michael Krukar and dedicated to Team Liquid, which was scheduled to be released on February 2012. On February 6th 2012, the team released an interview with the filmmaker, and reiterated its will of releasing the documentary by the end of that month.(The two others pictogram were about a new TL shirt design, and the recruitment of Zenio). On March 6th 2012, Hot_bid announced that the Liquid documentary had been further delayed due to the recruitment of Zenio into the team. The documentary is now set for release at the end of April 2012.

Gallery

• 

  The team in November 2010, gathered for the 2010 MLG Dallas.

• 

  Victor "Nazgul" Goosens, CEO and co-founder of the team.

• 

  Robyn "Bumblebee" Nymann, team manager since March 2011.

• 

  Tyler "NonY" Wasieleski, member since October 23rd 2008.

• 

  Jonathan "Jinro" Walsh, member since March 29th 2010.

• 

  Dario "TLO" Wünsch, member since March 29th 2010.

• 

  Hayder "HayprO" Hussein, member since July 2nd 2010.

• 

  Joseph "Ret" de Kroon, member since September 8th 2010.

• 

  Shawn "Sheth" Simon, member since July 28th 2011.

• 

  Song "HerO" Hyeon Deok, member since August 10th 2011.

• 

  Choi "Zenio" Jung Min, member since November 21st 2011.

• 

  Yoon "TaeJa" Young Suh, member since March 29th 2012.

• 

  Chris "HuK" Loranger, member from September 25th 2010 to August 16th 2011.

Interviews

• Massive thread with interviews with all 5 active players and an overview of each
• Team Liquid founder Nazgul talks about the alliance with oGs

External Links

• TeamLiquid.net
• TeamLiquidPRO.com
• Liquipedia I
• Liquipedia II
• TLPD
• Team Liquid Wikipedia Page