Since 2000, Team Liquid has taken the esports industry by storm. As a professional sports team, they have raised up through the ranks, starting with StarCraft. They are now active in 14 of the industry’s most popular games. The team is made up of more than 60 esports athletes.
A History Making Team
Team Liquid has already made history for winning more prize money than all the other teams active in the industry. They have been awarded trophies in many countries, for many different games.
Thanks to two consecutive wins at The International 2017 as well as the Supermajor 2018, the European chapter of Team Liquid has made a name for themselves as DOTA 2 players. Also in 2018, the North American team ranked number one in the League of Legends universe. They have taken home top honours for competing in games of PUBG, CS:GO, FortNite, Melee, Street Fighter, and Rainbow 6: Siege.
The Road to The Top
During their StarCraft days, Team Liquid took the major step of recruiting their first players to become professionals in the industry. Two years later, they acquired the North American team that would compete in DOTA 2. As the team continued to grow, they joined forces with Team Curse, combing their roster of players as well as their staff.
In 2016 Team Liquid partnered up with Xiomatic. This entertainment/sports company The next year Team Liquid was recruited by Disney to participate in the company’s Accelerator program. Since late 2017, the team has won more money in tournaments than any other professional esports team.
A Mulit-faceted Team
For Team Liquid, it’s about more than just playing the game. They weren’t content to remain nothing more than a successful esports team, so they expanded into an empire. They are all over the media, running player/fan communities online, and have their own media studio. Like other teams in the industry, they also create video content for commercial use. In addition, they run one of the Internet’s most trusted and used sites providing all the latest esports industry news and information. A subset of the team is Liquid Media, representatives for select team members to help guide them in their professional esports careers.
Team Liquid Partnerships
When you are as popular in your industry as Team Liquid is, partnerships become lucrative deals. Theirs include Alienware, Monster Energy, SAP, Honda, Twitch, Hyper, Huya and Secret Lab. These partnerships benefit the team as well as their fans.
Team Liquid has successfully utilized Alienware’s hardware line to help the team grow even stronger and more powerful. Their players love using Alienware products because it is easy to customize each one.
Today’s Team Liquid
As of spring 2019, Team Liquid created a roster specifically to start competing in Apex Legends, the battle royale hit of Respawn. They switched their focus away from Call of Duty Blackout for this reason. With four of their players veterans of battle royales, the team is always ready to recruit more. Last year they openly called for potential new players to try out for the team.
Much of the credit for the popularity of Apex Legends goes to the simple fact that it isn’t anything like Fortnite, one of the leading games in the esports industry. Apex Legends is run differently when it comes to gaming events and tournaments.
Team Liquid Proving Grounds
Team Liquid does a lot to support their industry. One of their biggest efforts to date is their Proving Grounds. This is a series that hosts gaming tournaments in various communities. The team organizes each tournament and is responsible for the running of each one.
Tournaments are run through Discord, a voice chat program designed for esports gamers. Most of them pay between $500 and $1000 to each tournament winner.
The team uses Proving Grounds to help them find new players to add to their Apex Legends roster. It is their goal to make it easier than ever for new and upcoming players to form teams. All Proving Grounds tournaments are open to professional and amateur players. This was a deliberate move to motivate inexperienced players to try their skills against experienced opponents. The goal is to help as many new gamers as possible break into the industry.
Other tournaments that Team Liquid have shone the spotlight on include The Box. Team Liquid has joined forces with Hungrybox to make The Box even bigger. Going forward the tournament will consist of two different events.
The action centres on Super Smash Bros Ultimate, with The Juice Box, a large tournament to be held every week. In comparison, The Lunchbox would be a smaller monthly tournament limited only to subscribers. You can view The Juice Box tournaments on Team Liquid’s official Twitch Channel.
It is easy to see how committed Team Liquid is to the esports industry. They are more than just a team of players. They are also passionate about contributing to the industry and giving opportunities to players who might not come by them otherwise.
