Team Liquid’s history in Dota 2 goes back to 2012 when the organization put together an interesting North American squad comprised of former Complexity Gaming players Tyler "TC" Cook, Michael "ixmike88" Ghannam, and Brian "FLUFFNSTUFF" Lee, with former Evil Geniuses offlaner Sam "BuLba" Sosale and Quantic Gaming’s Steven "Korok" Ashworth.
The team was active throughout the year and enjoyed generally strong results, which earned them a direct invitation to The International 2013. Liquid ultimately landed in eighth place at the event, but their run at TI3 is largely remembered for their amazing upset win over LGD China in a lower bracket best-of-one series.
As is tradition, the team was given a major shakeup after The International. Ixmike88 took a break from professional Dota 2 and was replaced by Max "qojqva" Brocker from mousesports, and Korok was traded to Team Dignitas for Peter "Waytosexy" Nguyen.
The new roster was solid on paper, but wasn’t nearly as successful as it had been previously. This led to a dramatic moment with the team when FLUFFNSTUFF blasted the organization, his teammates, and himself on the official Team Liquid blog. Team ownership harshly criticized FLUFFNSTUFF for the move and he later apologized, but still broke off from the team a few weeks later and was replaced by Jimmy "DeMoN" Ho.
This change actually helped Liquid return to form to some degree, and eventually saw them qualify for The International 2014. Unfortunately, the team fell well short of expectations at the event, which resulted in another disastrous shuffle.
Demon’s contract expired and Waytosexy left. This prompted Liquid to pull out of Dota 2 entirely for the 2014-2015 season.
After watching how that season panned out, Liquid signed the 5Jungz lineup that had qualified for the Nanyang Dota 2 Championship. That team included the trio of Kuro "KuroKy" Salehi Takhasomi, Lasse Aukusti "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen, and Ivan Borislavov "MinD_ContRoL" Ivanov, which would serve as the core of Team Liquid for years to come.
The team had very strong showings throughout its debut season, including grand finals appearances at both the Shanghai and Manila Majors and a first-place finish at the inaugural Epicenter event. The season ended with a disappointing eighth-place finish at The International 2016, but the best was yet to come for Liquid.
Shortly after TI6, the team added Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi. A few months later, Maroun "GH" Merhej joined and completed the roster that established Liquid among the Dota 2 elite.
The lineup actually got off to a rocky start which included early exits from the Kiev Major and the 2016 Dota Asia Championship, but the team stuck it out and eventually took first at StarLadder Season 2, Epicenter 2017, and DreamLeague Season 7.
Those wins established Liquid as the favorites to win The International 2017, and they fulfilled that promise in impressive fashion. The team was knocked into the lower bracket early, but pushed through there all the way to the finals. This set up a showdown against Newbee, which Liquid won in dominant fashion.
KuroKy and company didn’t repeat that performance in the following season, but were still highly successful thanks to six top-four placements at majors and a fourth-place finish at The International 2018.
Things would slow for the team following that achievement..
The 2018-2019 season started strangely as Team Liquid pulled out of the first minor, which also kept them out of the first major. This was followed by the departure of longtime coach Lee "Heen" Seung Gon. After finishing in second place at the MDL Disneyland Paris Major, the team decided to drop longtime core player MATUMBAMAN. Liquid then added former Pain Gaming and Digital Chaos player Aliwi “w33” Omar as its new mid, which paid off as the team took second place at The International 2019.
That was the end for an era of Team Liquid.
A few weeks after TI9, the organization announced that KuroKy and company were splitting off from Team Liquid to form their own esports brand. Team Liquid was firm in revealing the news that it had no intentions of withdrawing from Dota 2 after losing this roster.
Ahead of the MDL Chengdu Major qualifiers, Liquid announced that it had signed the former Dota 2 roster of Alliance. Liquid is hoping to transform the Scandinavian squad into yet another behemoth in Dota 2.
