Group C Chongqing Major: Liquid international squad tops group

The Chongqing Major is Team Liquid’s first event since TI8 – it’s an opportunity to hoard important DPC points after the team missed the Kuala Lumpur Major.

Liquid previously had a rough start. They lost the qualifying round for the Kuala Lumpur Major. A week later, Liquid qualified for the first Minor but decided to withdraw due to “health issues”. A few weeks later, Liquid parted ways with legendary TI7 coach Lee “Heen” Seung Gon. However, in mid-December, the team decided to attend the Megafon Winter Clash in Moscow, Russia and won the championship without losing a single match. “Liquid is back” became a hot topic of late 2018 when the team won the right to attend the Chongqing Major.

However, something unexpected happened. Team Liquid arrives in China without superstar mid Miracle-. Miracle- said he had a personal emergency so he couldn’t join the team.

We would like to confirm that Miracle is unable to attend the Chongqing Major. He was excited to play; unfortunately, an urgent personal matter occurred at the last minute. We request that fans respect his privacy during this time, and we will provide updates when possible.

— Team Liquid (@TeamLiquid) January 16, 2019

Former Wings Gaming carry, Chu “shadow” Zeyu was forced to help Liquid at this Major. Shadow was a TI champion and no one will ever forget his Wings journey at TI6, but after that he barely competed. In addition, the language barrier that kept him from the rest of Liquid made fans and experts worried for the team in the group stage.

Liquid placed in Group C with The Pango, J.Storm and Vici Gaming – the group that is considered the “easiest” of the four groups. However, Liquid were not considered a candidate here, but they showed themselves to be a force to be reckoned with in the opening match, against The Pango. Shadow got himself a Rampage that ended the game confidently. However, the language problem seems to persist. That was most evident in the second game, when Liquid used a teamfight lineup that didn’t work well, allowing Pango to come back in the mid-game and push the game into the third game.

Game 3 was extremely interesting, the two sides struggled back and forth for nearly an hour, Pango pressured all the time with an active lineup. They cornered Liquid to their base, gaining mega creeps, but couldn’t end the game. Liquid’s tenacity reminds us of their TI7 team, of their four-for-one plan. That helped Liquid make an amazing comeback to overcome The Pango.

We’re back with our second set of the day at the #ChongqingMajor as we play against Vici Gaming!

? https://t.co/kTlJR9m8DJ pic.twitter.com/ujxY5pTH2p

— Team Liquid (@TeamLiquid) January 20, 2019

Vici Gaming was the team’s second opponent in the group stage, and Liquid once again struggled in the laning phase. This time, Shadow farmed better and helped the team turn the tide in game 1 and game 2. Team Liquid’s journey will continue on the next game day, facing Team Secret.

Vici Gaming took 2nd place after a convincing 2-0 win over The Pango. Unfortunately for Chinese fans, this means that VG will face fellow LGD in the first round of the Chongqing Major playoff.

The first playoff day will be the four quarterfinal series. No one will go home yet: the four winners will take the top eight, while the four losers will drop to the second round of the losing bracket.

According to VPesports