Team Liquid has won the championship in the US League of League of Legends, the LCS, four times in a row. However, the Spring Split 2020 went totally wrong. They didn’t even make the playoffs. A loss to Cloud 9 cost them the last chance for the finals. The star of the team, Doublelift, says there was poor communication.
This is how the season went: After 18 matches in the league, Team Liquid stands at 7-11 in the second to last place in the LCS. Thus, they miss the playoffs.
According to a statistics site, no LCS champion has ever missed the playoffs in the following season. Team Liquid is thus setting a negative record.
Team Liquid only changed one position before 2020
This was the situation before the start of the league: Team Liquid was the dominant force in the US League LCS in 2018 and 2019. The rise of the team began in 2017, after a restructuring. At that time, TSM, the reigning champion, decided to part ways with AD Carry Doublelift. Team Liquid seized the opportunity and signed him:
- Doublelift, Midlaner Pobelter, and jungler Xmithie had already won championships for CLG in 2015 and were to form the new foundation for Team Liquid in 2018, the core.
- They were joined by the two South Koreans Impact (Top Lane) and CoreJJ (Support)
- Midlaner Jensen joined the team at the end of 2018 for Pobelter
Team Liquid was considered “deadly”. The bot lane was strong, and the communication in the team was good.
After the 4th championship in 2019 and a early exit at Worlds, the jungler Xmithie (28) was traded for the younger Broxah (22), who was brought in from Fnatic in Europe. Otherwise, the LoL team remained intact.
Also in 2020, Team Liquid was considered the clear favorite to win the championship. They were at the top of every power ranking.
Broxah had visa issues and had to miss the first 6 games for Team Liquid. Somehow, there were issues from the start.
Poor communication is said to be the culprit
Why did the year go so poorly? During the season, there was turmoil around the star AD carry Yilang “Doublelift” Peng (26). He admitted to not being fully motivated.
The Spring Split in LoL is hardly worth anything anymore after a rule change, as it no longer counts for qualification to Worlds. Therefore, Doublelift finds it hard to play his best LoL and truly make an effort, he said in an interview.
Doublelift even temporarily lost his starting position, but then returned to the team.
In a stream a few days ago, the 26-year-old said that the communication in the team is no longer working. The players see situations differently.
He never understands what the plan is, which is why the team is often unprepared to respond to opportunities. As a result, they can never take the initiative and play passively.
Doublelift said he has usually been the “shotcaller” for the teams he has played for, but he is not anymore.
This is what it’s about: Team Liquid’s strategy was to keep the core together and to swap out one player, the “weakest link”, for a “younger” one each year. This method worked well with Jensen, but not this year.
Apparently, the difficulties in the team were greater than expected. After 4 seasons at the top of the US League of Legends, not much came together this year. It seemed that after the LoL Worlds 2019, the last bit of drive was also missing. It seems to have been difficult for the stars to get excited about the everyday league life after Worlds.
The turmoil with Broxah’s visa, Doublelift’s motivation, and the Coronavirus apparently prevented Team Liquid from regrouping and finding form.
Anyone who hoped for a miracle over the weekend and that Team Liquid would somehow save the season saw their dreams dashed now.
All hopes for Team Liquid were dashed by Cloud 9. They stand at 17-1 at the top of the standings after the regular season. Cloud 9 had undertaken a major restructuring before the 2020 season: They traded their longtime star, the AD carry Sneaky.
