Team Liquid
| Team Liquid | |
|---|---|
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| Location: | The Netherlands[1] |
| Founded: | 2000 |
| Manager(s): | |
| Sponsors: | The Little App Factory, Razer, Twitch.Tv |
| Divisions: | StarCraft (series) |
| Website: | http://www.teamliquid.net/ |
Team Liquid is a popular StarCraft news website and community, as well as a successful StarCraft team, founded by Victor Goossens and Joy Hoogeveen.
Contents |
[edit] History
The website was founded on May 1, 2001 by Victor "Liquid`Nazgul" Goossens and Joy "Liquid`Meat" Hoogeveen under the domain teamliquid.cjb.net. On September 22, 2002 the website was moved to the current address of teamliquid.net with this post signifying the grand opening. A day later the very first poll was posted as a vote for the website's name with the current name winning over other suggestions such as likwit.com. Since then, teamliquid.net has become the central platform for everything Starcraft. Through the efforts of its staff, the site's moderation has become tailored to the community. Additionally, because of the high concentration of professional players present, teamliquid.net has become the central site for people to improve at the game, meet outside of it (i.e. Barcraft), and access a wealth of Starcraft discussion and resources not seen anywhere else.
[edit] Community Site
The Team Liquid website primarily provides StarCraft pro-gaming news coverage, discussion forums for the Blizzard Entertainment games StarCraft and StarCraft 2 and live video streams of events and games. With the launch of StarCraft 2, Team Liquid has grown into the largest StarCraft and StarCraft 2 community on the internet with over 220,000 active members and over eleven million total posts. The website employs four full-time staff at their New York office to work on the site.[2]
[edit] Content
The website has several features in addition to the forums, including –
- Liquipedia – A StarCraft & StarCraft Pro-Gaming wiki featuring articles about players, tournaments, strategy and other StarCraft Brood War & StarCraft II information.
- The TLPD – A Player Database that records results from tournaments for players in Brood War and StarCraft II. The Database also calculates an ELO rating for players.
- TL Power Rank – A subjective ranking of players in the Korean Progaming Scene.
- Team Liquid Fantasy Starcraft – A Fantasy sport league based around the Korean Progaming Scene.
- Calendar – A calendar on the right sidebar displaying upcoming and past events in the community, such as shows and tournaments.
- Live User Streams – A list of current live first-person streams by pro-gamers and standard community members.
- News - An aggregation of current eSports news [3]
[edit] Tournaments and Events
In addition to running a community site and team, Team Liquid also hosts a variety of tournaments and events for the community to enjoy.
[edit] Team Liquid Starleague
- The two iterations of the TeamLiquid Starleague (or TSL for short) have been the biggest "foreign" (non-Korean) StarCraft tournaments. The 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.[4]
[edit] Team Liquid StarCraft 2 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.
[edit] 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 that is played in Bo7 mode.
- 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.
[edit] Team
The clan Liquid was founded by Victor "Liquid`Nazgul" Goossens around the end of 2000. Approximately three months after leaving his previous clan, [i'm], Goossens made the decision to start his own 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 are handpicked by Goossens based on both personality and talent.[5] The team is sponsored by The Little App Factory, Razer USA[6] and Twitch.Tv.[7] The team has a dedicated news site separate from the more community oriented site at www.teamliquidpro.com, announced and released on May 10, 2011.[8]
[edit] Current Roster
Victor "Nazgul" Goossens – Playing Manager – Protoss
Hayder "HayprO" Hussein – Zerg
Tyler "Tyler" Wasieleski – Protoss
Dario "TLO" Wünsch – Zerg
Jonathan "Jinro" Walsh – Terran
Jos "Ret" de Kroon – Zerg
Shawn "Sheth" Simon – Zerg
Song "HerO" Hyeon Deok - Protoss
Choi "Zenio" Jung Min - Zerg
[edit] Former Members
Chris "HuK" Loranger - Protoss to Evil Geniuses
[edit] Move to Korea
With the arrival of StarCraft 2, Team Liquid announced plans to become an active Pro-Gaming Team. Shortly after, sponsorship by The Little App Factory was announced,[9] which qualified them as a sponsored professional team. This gave Team Liquid a budget and allowed them to pay their players a salary and send the team to events around the world. On August 13, three players traveled to Korea in order to live in the OGS training house and compete in GOMTV's Global StarCraft II League (GSL).[10][11][12]
[edit] Performance in Korea
Of the three players entering the preliminaries, only one, Dario "TLO" Wünsch qualified for the first two GSL events. He was knocked out in the Second and First rounds respectively.
The third GSL was the strongest showing of Team Liquid so 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 it all the way to the semi-finals, losing 0–4 to the eventual winner Jang "MC" Min-Chul.
[edit] Notable Results
- 2nd -
North American Star League Season 2 2011 SC2 Championship - Song "HerO" Hyeon Deok - 2nd -
2011 North American Battle.net Invitational - Shawn "Sheth" Simon - 1st -
2011 European Battle.net Invitational - Jos "Ret" de Kroon - 3rd/4th –
Sony Ericsson Starcraft II Code-S January 2011 – Jonathan "Jinro" Walsh - 3rd/4th –
Sony Ericsson StarCraft II Open Season 3 – Jonathan "Jinro" Walsh - 1st –
MLG Dallas – Jonathan "Jinro" Walsh - 1st –
PokerIdol.com SC2 EU Championship – Dario "TLO" Wünsch - 1st –
Assembly Winter 2011 SC2 Championship – Jos "Ret" de Kroon[13] - 1st -
DreamHack Summer 2011 SC2 Championship – Chris "Huk" Loranger - 1st -
Homestory Cup 3 - Chris "Huk" Loranger - 1st -
DreamHack Winter 2011 SC2 Championship – Song "HerO" Hyeon Deok
[edit] References
- ^ "About TL.net". Teamliquid.net. http://www.teamliquid.net/about/. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
- ^ TeamLiquid HQ Announcement
- ^ Cody. "http://www.ign.com/blogs/ign-esports/2011/07/14/teamliquid-net-ign-pro-league-season-two-coverage". IGN.
- ^ Pokerstrategy.com TSL 3 Announcement
- ^ "IPL 3 Groups, Stream Info, LoL and much more!". IGN. http://uk.ign.com/ipl/news/2011/09/22/ipl-3-groups-stream-info-lol-and-much-more. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
- ^ Goossens, Victor. "Razer Sponsors Liquid". Teamliquid.net. http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=220364. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
- ^ TwitchTV Sponsors Liquid
- ^ Team Liquid - Professional StarCraft 2 Team - TeamLiquidPro: Home Sweet Home
- ^ "Presenting TLAF-Liquid`!". Teamliquid.net. http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=138553. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
- ^ "Homecoming: Liquid` to Korea!". Teamliquid.net. http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=143731. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
- ^ Gaudioso, John (23 September 2011). "Pro Gamer Shawn "Sheth" Simon Talks MLG, StarCraft II and the Future of eSports". http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2011/09/23/pro-gamer-shawn-sheth-simon-talks-mlg-starcraft-ii-and-the-future-of-esports/. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
- ^ "oGsLiquid House Tour". Giantbomb. http://www.giantbomb.com/giant-bomb-in-korea-ogsteam-liquid-house-tour/17-3516/. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
- ^ Ret Sweeps Assembly Gold SK-Gaming.com
