Is the Hype Dead for Team Liquid at MSI 2019?
By Wyatt Fossett ·
Probably not. However, their performance on Day 2 of the group stage asked a lot more questions than it answered.
It’s been a long time since North America was respected as a top-tier region in professional League of Legends, and this year’s MSI was gearing up to be the best change for NA to take a stand. Their representative, Team Liquid, is probably the best team the region has had in its history and ever sent to an international competition.
In a quick sweep of Phong Vu Buffalo in the play-in knockout stage, Team Liquid bought their pass to the main event. Day 1 in Hanoi saw the Liquid talent shine and go up to 2W - 0L after two games. However, on the second day of the tournament Team Liquid faced much tougher opponents, and they dropped both of their games.
Now, heading into Day 3 with an even 2W - 2L record, some have refreshed their opinions on the LCS 2019 Spring Split Champs.
Team Liquid’s top-laner Impact spoke into the criticisms against TL’s North American “slow” style, telling Travis Gafford that “we’re not playing safe, we’re making sure.”
“We’re looking to fight more,” added Impact. He would also go on to state that G2 Esports’ Caps Sylas got fed and he was playing out of his mind out of the mid-lane. “I cannot 1v1 him,” said Impact.
When asked if Team Liquid will be able to fix their issues by tomorrow, Impact responded with “I’m not scared,” and it showed in his composure during the interview.
One of Team Liquid’s strongest abilities -- heavily on display during the LCS Finals -- is their ideal composure. The five of them never really seem to get shook on of off of the stage, whether they win or lose.
Even though they beat Team Liquid, G2’s bot-laner Perkz spoke highly of TL’s high-ranked bot duo “He [Doublelift] got ahead and won that lane, and I lost my mental. They are really good,” he added. Perkz also noted that G2 won their game against Team Liquid in the draft phase, which has been something brought up in the criticism of the squad after two days of Group Stage play.
“We’re losing our focus in the mid to late game,” said Impact, before thanking his fans for support him and his team through MSI so far.
Will Team Liquid be able to shape-up their drafts, and early-games in order to turn the trend around in the Group Stage? With two easy wins over the lower-tier teams, there’s a very high chance that North America’s representative will be in the top four teams come the end of the Group Stage, which will send them on to the knockout playoffs.
“We need to fix it [their problems], I don’t want to go home early,” mentioned Impact when referring to their scrims later tonight.
The MSI 2019 Group Stage continues Sunday, May 12th at 12:00 AM Pacific Time with Team Liquid taking on SK Telecom T1.