Learn how the CS:GO Liquid team works and leadership issues

The story of Liquid can be summed up with huge ‘blood changes’ in the squad. We can see the changing characters always revolve around the AWPer position (AdreN/S1mple/Koosta/Pimp/jdm64), and this always attracts the attention of the audience. If it weren’t for the mismatched AWPer position, it would have been a lack of coordination. The issues always revolved around individual dramas, position disagreements, and what was said on the stream. Sometimes Liquid’s story revolves around the right EliGE star or the young talent Twistzz gradually feels “drained” of the team’s performance and vision. With Stanislaw’s recent departure, a move that marks another roster change, it can be seen that Liquid’s story now focuses solely on the leaders, coaches and systems created. from these people.

Ever since Hiko and GBJames joined, Liquid has always relied heavily on the coach but has struggled with the IGL (captain). GBJames talked about his experience with Thooorin about his time with the members during 2015/16. He just had to create a foundation so that each member could make their own decisions, and also support in-game calls. AdreN was heavily criticized for his individual play, having to both shoulder the burden of the IGL role and find it difficult to match his skills in the European arena. AdreN and GBGames were both eliminated for peacemaker to replace him as the ‘6th’ member – both taking on the role of IGL as well as the team’s coach. But when Valve’s coach rule went into effect at the end of 2016, Liquid was forced to be flexible.

Nitr0 was forced to take on the IGL role, while peacemaker was replaced by Zews. The squad is once again having problems both inside and outside the game. Even when Stanislaw joined after the ELEAGUE Major and took over the IGL, Liquid continued to fail at key moments.

As Stanislaw said above TwitLonger, people were largely dependent on Zews’ leadership long before Stanislaw joined. He wanted to push “systematic gameplay based on methodical implementations, as well as a liberal play” during his time as IGL. Obviously everyone is focused on the first thing (the system), but Stanislaw’s IGL is not. While Stanislaw is trying to bring his CS:GO strategy in with Zews’ help, the quality of the team makes it impossible for Stanislaw to fully take control.

Systems have been ingrained in Liquid since the days of GBJames and Peacemaker. That was one reason Stanislaw had to leave. This style of play is not for players who don’t understand the importance of teamwork. This playstyle is effective against stronger opponents or tactically seasoned teams to compensate for shooting skills. For Liquid, they need to know the tempo of the game, know when and more importantly do that any to complete the assigned tasks without being caught or losing people.

We need to understand the above issues to understand the success of Liquid after the last transfer window, when Nitr0 became IGL and Stanislaw did. lurker position. This change makes Liquid more confusing but also somewhat more interesting.

We can understand the reason for this change if we look at Liquid’s internal dynamics, but it is a completely different story in terms of theory. Nitr0 used to be annoyed with the IGL position after Valve’s change of coach rules was applied, now he is leading the team to play against world-class teams, using one of the heavy game styles. structurally strong. Furthermore, Liquid mainly use Inferno map to play – a map that is quite complicated to rotate and choose to position – a map that they always have a difficult time before the break.

While EliGE and Twistzz are always bright spots when watching Liquid play, leadership in the team contrasts with the way the team plays, in a deeper perspective. Thanks to this way of playing, Liquid was able to win the key moments as well as transform the talent between EliGE and Twistzz to win. We take a look back at events before the transfer break like the ECS S3 Finals, where TwistZz and EliGE scored 1.19 and 1.24 ratings but still lost to Astralis – it’s worth mentioning that they won the same opponent in New York after the period. break (in BO3). Liquid’s stars are always in a certain form. Unfortunately, leadership issues as well as major decisions in the team have not been as expected.

Really this “system” is very detailed, not just the implementations and what to follow in the middle of the round. Stanislaw/Nitr0 is extremely good at extracting information as well as not being hasty – a mistake that NA teams often make. This pair is ready to play ‘default’ and deploy in the late round so Stanislaw can ‘lurk’ while the mains focus on getting kills. Talking about the meta play of the current top teams, Liquid is similar to Astralis, North and G2 after Malmo. These teams are all trying to find stability and success in the ‘system’ way of playing. It can be said that Liquid’s success comes from the stable performance of its members, but we can’t deny that part of its success comes from adopting a ‘system’ style of play.

With the gameplay carefully developed by Zews and the experience playing on this map, Inferno became the foundation to implement this structure play. Twistzz and EliGE work together to capture apps and put pressure on area A. Meanwhile, Nitr0 and Stanislaw are on the other side of the map, communicating with each other to get information for more flexible decision-making. in the middle of the round. Nitr0 will try to hit the bomb-site to pave the way while Stanislaw can support the rear if things don’t go well, and lead from the back in a ‘lurking’ role. When things get out of hand, Zews is always there, ‘time-out’ to adjust and reorient.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiFYtmxHD0w

Analysis of EliGE’s gameplay at Inferno

The flexibility of the two IGLs in the game is not limited to the Inferno map. Liquid’s other strong maps are Cobblestone and Mirage. These two maps were also successful with good shooting form plus solid handling in the middle of the round, thanks to the shared roles between Stanislaw and Nitr0.

From watching and listening to interviews and trying to find hints in the game, it seems that Nitr0 is no longer the IGL it used to be. As an entry fragger, Nitr0 tries to open the door when attacking the site to help the team find loopholes, and prefers to be a decoy for EliGe and TwistsZz to switch lives. This is understandable because his real role is to lead the people behind the bombing phase and 3v3/2v2 situations. Therefore, it will complement the decision-making ability of each star in the team. As the second caller, Stanislaw ‘calls’ based on the information and plays he got in the middle of the round as a lurking.

This arrangement has been a huge success for Liquid. Thanks to it, the strategy becomes more unpredictable and complex than the T side, but it also makes Stanislaw less influential in the game by taking on the role of lurker. Therefore, the inclusion of Steel is a rather curious decision.

Steel used to ‘call’, play the entry fragger position and many other roles if needed. Twistzz also played in the lurk position with Stanislaw in the past and he expressed his desire to play in this position. If this is to happen, will Twistzz play the ‘lurker’ left behind by Stanislaw and Steel play in the front when Steel was still playing against kNg at G3nerationX in late 2016? Or will Steel show his versatility and replace Stanislaw: both lurk and second caller but he did on Immortals?

It will be interesting to see how this new roster plays out. But no matter how Steel adapts, the absence of Stanislaw in the game will put more pressure on Nitr0. This change continues to focus on leadership in Liquid. Obviously we’ve seen Nitr0 shoot poorly, as did AdreN before, but at least Nitr0 still does well with its shooting and calling responsibilities. Now, we will see how much success Stanislaw has contributed in the past, and if the caller’s price is too high for Nitr0 to trade his shooting form.

Whether or not Nitr0 succeeds, the system and discipline introduced by Zews and his predecessors will always remain. And whether or not the current system could change, maybe to something easier to learn like pronax’s mid-round calls, or the ‘feeling’ call from Happy.

Successful or not, Liquid continues to be guided by its leaders and the liberal playstyle often seen in NA, but sticking to the system. Just because they don’t play the same way as a traditional NA team doesn’t mean they don’t have the same internal issues that are common among the top teams in their region (and did happen in Liquid). Liquid have proven themselves, but the question now is can they match up with other CS:GO regions?

Source: cybersport