In an effort to push toward a better standing in international competition, Team Liquid has acquired Origen’s Barney “Alphari” Morris and FlyQuest’s Lucas “Santorin” Larsen, adding the final members of their 2021 starting lineup.
Team Liquid’s 2020 season was all about redemption. After the team stumbled through Spring in ninth place due to Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen’s delayed arrival to Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng’s unmotivated play, TL made a substantial change over the mid-season break.
Trading Doublelift to TSM and promoting Academy ADC Edward “Tactical” Ra worked wonders for the team in terms of gameplay. With the addition of Joshua “Jatt” Leesman as head coach, the team dominated the regular season toward a first-place finish.
While TL only finished third in the Summer playoffs, Tactical and his crew carried their momentum to the prestigious 2020 League of Legends World Championship. After conquering the play-in stage, the TL squad fared well in the group stage with a 3-3 scoreline, ultimately being eliminated after G2 Esports lost to Suning, costing TL a potential tiebreaker.
- Golden Guardians releases its entire LCS roster
- FlyQuest releases mainstay duo Santorin and WildTurtle
Even though Santorin was part of a Worlds-attending team in FlyQuest, he saw it as a bittersweet experience that still felt different due to the coronavirus epidemic changing how they played. He hopes that Team Liquid will provide a more rewarding journey, backed by a bigger and louder crowd when the epidemic happens to end.
While Alphari will still have to settle in to the new region, the EU top-laner is not alone in his TL endeavors. He will be reuniting with former teammate Jonas “Kold” Andersen who now acts as a strategic coach for Team Liquid.
The Welsh player is also looking forward to synergizing with Santorin due to the innate relationship of their top-laner and jungler roles.
In the lineup, the two will have world-class mid-laner Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen and a fortified bot-lane with rising star ADC Tactical and Worlds champion and veteran support Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in.
With other teams making drastic moves to improve the state of the LCS, Team Liquid is looking not only to keep up, but to take over the league with its newest star recruits.
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