Team Liquid’s efforts during the offseason to try and rebuild has failed to produce the desired result of a place at Counter-Strike 2’s first Major. The North American-based international squad fell at the American RMR final played on early Tuesday.
Team Liquid faced Complexity in the final, and the former started well with a win on map one, but Complexity overcame that to grab the best-of-three. Complexity’s win ensured North America’s representation in Denmark after Brazilian teams paiN, Imperial, FURIA, and Legacy took the first four spots.
Team Liquid’s streak of eight Major attendances in a row has ended as a result of the loss. The roster was formed just three months back after a very complicated offseason in CS’s history.
The young roster was led by ex-Heroic’s Casper “cadiaN” Møller, but despite the hype following its formation, they struggled to get through the early regional qualifiers. It must be noted that the only offline tournament that the team attended since the rebuild was at BLAST Premier Spring Groups, albeit it was expected that Liquid would qualify for the Danish Major with relative ease.
The team was stronger than the other lower-tiered teams from the Americas, and they were expected to pick one of the five slots easily. However, by day four, team Liquid were on the brink of exit.
Meanwhile, the Swiss format plus the availability of five slots meant that despite both Complexity and Liquid losing just a single series (both to FURIA) at the RMR, they had to meet with a 2-1 record in the elimination game, a scenario that Complexity’s Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski reminded viewers about.
“I feel really bad for them: it’s a crappy format and unfortunate that we both had to play FURIA and face off against each other here,” EliGE said.
Daniel Ademiju Idowu
