Liquid’s new competitive model: Counter-Strike ‘anonymous’

We are in the Liquid era. The boys took the IEM Grand Slam and then won at BLAST Pro Los Angeles, IEM Chicago. To create this era, Liquid developed a new competition model. A playstyle that matches the unique qualities of each individual Liquid, helping them to beat the competition. Liquid has almost perfectly developed the art of Counter-Strike roleless (‘anonymous’).

Origin of anonymous CS

Counter-Strike ‘anonymous’ is not a new idea, but its theory has previously been nearly impossible. To understand why, we need to understand where the term ‘role’ comes from. ‘Role’ is a shorthand to describe the general direction of play and the resources each player contributes to the team. The development of the game shaped the role of the players. At first, people tried to create squads with 5 big players, but they didn’t last long as players jostled for resources and positions.

The best example is SK 2017. Fernado “fer” Alvarenga and Joan “felps” Vasconcellos. Both wanted to be an active open fragger, but fer prevailed due to his slightly better form. Felps is forced to play according to the team’s assigned roles and then splits the team.

Roles are the most common way a player plays, based on their talent and/or how they want to play Counter-Strike. In theory, five members could play in all sorts of different positions, but in practice, no team could achieve that… until Liquid showed up.

Liquid doesn’t really come up with theories for this playstyle, but simply evolves naturally with its roster. In 2018, Liquid made an unexpected change: becoming one of the first major teams to abandon mainline AWPer. The team eliminated Joshua “JDM64” Marzano to bring in Keith “NAF” Markovic. In the announcement video, Wilton “zews” Prado talks about their move away from having a traditional AWPer and wanting more ‘all-purpose AWPer’ on the team.

It was the first step in Liquid’s journey to the ‘unknown’ CS style the team is using today. Everyone was shocked at the time because everyone believed that the team always needed an AWPer expert to become the best team in the world. Liquid not only challenged that principle, but overthrew it.

Liquidity in Liquid’s 2019 roster

Liquid brought in five players with the ‘right person at the right time’ to create an ‘unknown’ style. Their roster is: Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella, Jonathan “EliGE” Jablownowski, Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken, NAF, and Jake “Stewie2K” Yip.

All five players are highly skilled. Nitr0 was North America’s hope in 2015 and someone everyone believed could become an international superstar. Jacob “Pimp” Winneche commented that EliGE is the most talented teammate he has ever met. EliGE’s stability and game sense put him among the top 5 players in the world in 2019. Twiszz has extremely high shooting skills compared to any North American player, and he was once the top 5 best player. in the second half of 2018. NAF was one of the top players in early 2018 and his shooting ability could turn the series around. Stewie2K was one of the best entry-fraggers in the world while at Cloud9 and proved to be unfailing with Liquid.

Elige is the most talented player I’ve ever had the honor of calling my teammate. He didn’t always got to show it in my time in Liquid, but my god has he stepped it up a notch. The dual between him and device as the two top performers for respective teams is essential ????

— Jacob “Pimp” Winneche (@Pimp_CSGO) June 21, 2019

Despite possessing outstanding skills, all five players need more experience to be flexible enough to effectively use this ‘anonymous’ style. All five players have learned a variety of roles in Counter-Strike: entry, being 2nd in the team, lurking, or playing passively. Nitr0, NAF, Stewie2K and Twistzz can all handle AWP. EliGE is the only one who hasn’t used AWP much, but his rifle skill is suitable for everything from lurk, attack or clutch. He is also the best krieg player currently in CSGO.

Attack, Lurk and AWP

“I think the game has only three roles: attacker, lurk, and sniper. Everyone can play as a support” – Januxz “Snax” Pogorzelski

This quote comes from Snax’s interview with HLTV when he explained the concept of roles in his own words. Although Snax was later kicked out of Mouz to make way for STYKO, we still use his quote to analyze Liquid’s flexibility.

All Liquid players have attack and lurk abilities. Three of them can AWP. First, we’ll start with the variety of lurkers as this role can change depending on the map or situation.

Taking Nuke as an example, there are three common lurk scenarios. When Liquid takes the outside with four members, NAF will be the main lurker. When they want to pretend to control outside and attack bombsite A, nitr0, EliGE or Stewie2K can lurk outside. Finally, Liquid can enter lurk by rushing a person to vent. They used to do it with Stewie2K, NAF or ELIGE.

In the usual default Overpass, Liquid will put NAF lurk B. If they want to push B, the team will put Stewie2K lurk in the middle to create space when hitting B. In split situations, any player can lurk long, A short or B.

At Mirage, Stewie2K is usually the lurk mid when they’re planning to play A or B. Sometimes Liquid uses EliGE. In other cases, if you lose someone in the default position, NAF can lurk palace or A-ramp to capture the opponent.

Dust2 is more diverse and depends on how the round is implemented. It can be anyone depending on the health, location and information the team has. If the team has controlled longs with AWP, Liquid can leave Stewie2K there to mess with the enemy and lurk. If playing A, the team can let nitr0 or TwistZz hold mid and lurk later in the round. If fake A and split-B, NAF or EliGE can lurk on the catwalk before joining the rest of the members.

All five of Liquid’s players can play as lurks, and that creates unpredictable diversity that makes opponents extremely uncomfortable. For example, at Dust2, Liquid had two ways to play 1-3-1 split B. The boys could let TwistZz or Stewie2K attack from the B hall and NAF or nitr0 play around the catwalk. TwitZz plays more passively than Stewie2K and they use smoke differently. NAF is usually more passive than nitr0, while nitr0 likes to create space for teammates. Basically, it’s still a 1-3-1 split, however, the method of countering Liquid depends on which member of Liquid is standing where.

The main attack trio

In general, Liquid uses three entry duos for map control: Stewie2K/EliGE, TwistZz/EliGE, and EliGE/nitr0. The main duo is Stewie2K and EliGE. You can see it at Nuke, Dust2 and Inferno. At Nuke, the team controlled outside, on Dust2, the duo took mid from the B tunnel, and these two guys kept bananas in Inferno.

What makes this duo so potent is the reconciliation of two of North American CSGO’s best entry pairs: Stewie2K/autimatic and nitr0/EliGE. Liquid combines Stewie2K’s proactive frag entry capability with EliGE’s stable frag ability and game sense.

Liquid uses TwistZz/EliGE duo for Dust2 and Overpass. At Dust2, these two guys controlled the short. At Overpass, they relied on the headshots of TwistZz and krieg from EliGE to clear long and mid. You can see that fluidity in the DreamHack Dallas semi-final against FURIA.

In the 8th round of the match, TwistZz and EliGE occupied the toilet and were pushing long. FURIA takes down TwistZz but EliGE uses his mobility to capture the retreating opponent and trade TwistZz for two frags.

Finally, the EliGE/nitr0 pair, Liquid can use this combination when they go together, controlling mid or long in Overpass. While this is a classic Liquid duo, it has changed over time as nitr0 often holds the AWP on the T side. In the EPL Season 9 finale, Liquid faced G2.

It should be noted that while Stewie2K and TwistZz often go first, that is not always the case. Liquid uses continuous flash to help them eat entry frags. You can watch the clip above, in addition below are Stewie2K and EliGE.

This round comes from the EPL Season 9 finale against G2. Stewie2K and EliGE often switch roles, with one entering banana first. In round 22, EliGE went ahead and Stewie2K flashed him, helping EliGE get a double kill.

Three AWPer

Liquid uses 3 AWPers: NAF, nitr0 and Stewie2K. They have a very distinct way of playing AWP and are a headache for T side opponents. NAF plays AWP more passively, but knows exactly when he needs to be active in the mid-late round or when he needs to play hard. Active period to take the opening kill in a map. Nitr0 is the standard AWPer, often preferring to corner and protect his area for the team, but good enough to get a lot of kills on defense. That’s why Nitr0 is the main AWPer in Overpass. Stewie2K is an AWPer that likes to create incredible moves and proactive map control for Liquid.

The semi-final of Liquid vs MIBR at IEM Sydney is a prime example.

In round 5, Liquid setup a double AWP with Stewie2K picked from Windows and nitr0 holding B hall.

In the 7th round, Stewie2K and NAF both had AWP. Stewie2K continues to be an active ‘playmaker’ when pushing to mid. That’s why Liquid had NAF as their second AWP in that round. Stewie2K plays more risky, more likely to die. So if we let NAF take the AWP, Liquid will have an AWPer that can cover Stewie2K and a ‘playmaker’ in the mid-late round if the team needs to pick.

You can clearly see this play in round 9. EliGE fell early on the connector and that forced Stewie2K to play A more passively. In this situation, Liquid’s plan B worked as the NAF pushed into the B-hall for information.

Liquid’s confidence

This style of play requires confidence. After all, most other teams have more pronounced roles as their players are more confident in certain roles: offensive, lurk or AWP. Liquid has to believe that every member of the team can make a breakthrough and that they can bounce back if things don’t go their way.

Part of that confidence comes from the members’ personalities. TwistZz realized a positive change from Stewie2K when he joined the team. In an interview with ESPN, TwitsZz shared the following, “I feel a lot of things have changed in the last two or three months: the ability to stay calm, to be happy, to be positive, to always laugh.”

Another factor comes from the fact that all of their players have the skills to win any situation. Nitr0 won 1v3 against Na`Vi when Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev tried to knife him:

NAF destroys Astralis with a 4th AWP phase:

Stewie2K beat FaZe with AWP in a 1v2 situation:

EliGE had an unbelievable clutch on the final map of ESL One Cologne:

TwistZz alone clutched 4 lives before Vitality:

Whoever is still alive on the team, Liquid knows they always have a chance to win that round.

New competition model

Offensive, Lurk, and AWP, their players can do it all. Liquid players’ flexibility has taken it to another level. Liquid found its way to play and through it created a new model of competition. And only the best teams can shape the meta. NiP did it in the early days of CSGO. Fnatic in the period 2014-2015. LG/SK period 2016-2017. Astralis in 2018. Now it’s Liquid’s turn. They have created a new paradigm, and won the Grand Slam, ushering in a new era for themselves and are strong contenders for this Major. Maybe Liquid will be one of the best CSGO teams people have ever seen.

According to Stephen Chiu