Image: Ubisoft/Joao Ferreira
Recent history suggests that Team Liquid are likely headed for at least a top four finish, given their start this week at the Six Jönköping Major.
Since the Siege esports calendar was changed to feature three Six Majors in a season, only four teams have started the group stage with four regulation victories -- and Team Liquid have done it twice, once at the Mexico Major and now again at the ongoing Jönköping Major.
Bizarrely, Lorenzo “Lagonis” Volpi is the only Six Major champion on Team Liquid and only joined ahead of Stage 3. His more esteemed teammates like Luccas "Paluh" Molina and André "nesk" Oliveira are still looking for their first title.
“The confidence is high, but we know that this is the only first part of the tournament. We need to improve during this tournament if we want to win,” Lagonis explained in a written interview with SiegeGG after the second day of play.
Team Liquid’s confidence together can be seen in their results the Jönköping Major, but also comes as a shock when realizing that the team only managed to practice with Lagonis for 10 days before the start of the stage.
Yet, in one of the most difficult groups of the competition, all of their players are performing. When Luccas “Paluh” Molina doesn’t have a good game, Gabriel “AsK” Santos or André “NESKWGA” Oliveira show up. Even their second support, Pablo “resetz” Oliveira, has been very proficient at mopping up their opposition.
“Everyone is comfortable and all players figured out the right way to help the team,” explained Lagonis. He also reaffirmed that the team wants to do “well in this tournament” and that his players are aware that they must “live the moment at its maximum.”
That awareness was visible in their matches at the Major, as well. Despite strong victories against SANDBOX Gaming (7-1) and Heroic (7-5) on the first day, things were not as easy for them on the second day.
Against the current world champions, TSM, Lagonis shared that “they did some attacks that we have not played against yet.” Meanwhile, against SANDBOX Gaming, Liquid showed their resilience by coming back from a 0-5 deficit and kept their unbeaten record going in incredible fashion.
“The Blitz ban was because they used (it) in a match in the Korean league,” said Lagonis of the surprising ban choice. “In the first five rounds, we were not doing the wrong plays, we were doing the right plays but without ‘perfection’, bad execution basically. (But) we kept a positive energy and this helped the comeback.”
Team Liquid will now be playing today against Heroic at 1:30PM CET (UTC+1) and then TSM at 6:30PM CET for a spot in the playoffs, but they only need one point from either game to lock that in.
“We are going for this third day aiming to keep in first in our group. It's really important to get the first seed going for a playoffs in a Major like this. At the end, we are doing the same preparation and studies for this last day,” concluded Lagonis.