TI 6 Team Preview: Team Liquid

Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi’s boys are currently one of the top Dota 2 teams and their rise to fame began when the Team Liquid organization signed his 5Jungz team last October. The roster has remained the same ever since and this has resulted in a series of strong performances which earned them a direct invitation to TI 6.

Despite their failure to qualify for The Frankfurt Major, success came relatively quickly as KuroKy and his squad only needed one month before winning an event, the Dota 2 Champions League Season 6. Their performances kept improving and scoring second place at The Shanghai Major in March came as no surprise. They subsequently landed several more second places, but it was in Moscow where they broke their runners-up curse in Premier events by winning EPICENTER in May.

 

Roster:

Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen – position 1
Adrian “FATA-” Trinks – position 2
Ivan “MinD_ContRoL” Borislavov – position 3
Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka – position 4
Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi (c) – position 5

 

2016 achievements:

EPICENTER – 1^st

ESL One Manila – 2^nd

The Shanghai Major – 2^nd

The Manila Major – 2^nd

The Summit 5 – 3^rd

Star Ladder Star Series Season 13 & i-League Season 1 – 3^rd-4^th

 

Current form:

July – 66.67% (4 wins, 2 losses)

 

Top 7 most picked heroes this month:

 

Top 6 most banned heroes this month:

 

KuroKy is the most influential figure for Team Liquid – a Dota veteran from the old days, he knows the game inside out. He is also the team’s captain and drafter.

Up to patch 6.88b, the team used to pick lineups with pushing potential, but over the past month KuroKy has chosen a more diverse hero pool, experimenting with heroes who are popular in the current meta. Generally, Team Liquid like to use JerAx as a roaming ganker, most recently with Shadow Demon. The other two most used Supports – Elder Titan and Oracle – have a win rate of 100% over the last month for Liquid.

Generally not famous for the diversity of his hero pool, MinD_ContRoL has played 13 different heroes this month. He is a player who is rarely in the spotlight, but is one of the most stable performers in the squad. He is good at creating space for his team and is present in team fights when necessary, as well as split pushing.

The other experienced player on the roster is FATA-, who prior to joining Liquid had not played at the highest level of Dota. Playing alongside KuroKy and his teammates has helped him to improve his game and become one of the strongest Midlaners on the scene. Some of his signature heroes, particularly Razor and Death Prophet, are not currently very popular, but Razor is a hero who usually finds his way into the meta at The International.

Team Liquid have enjoyed solid form throughout the year and will start The International with the reputation of being one of the top teams. Despite this, the team have managed to land just one win since the beginning of the year (EPICENTER) despite securing a number of second places. Team Liquid have reached the final of a Major twice this year and have been denied both times so they will be motivated more than any other team to make the final step and win TI. They certainly have what it takes.