In less than two weeks, we get to witness the first ever esports stadium event in the Philippines in the form of ESL One Manila from the 22nd to 24th of April. As one of the invited teams, we’ve long been anticipating the performance of Team Liquid’s boys in blue (although how many boys in blue are there again?). As one of the few teams with perseverance throughout the post-Shanghai shuffle period, we’re excited to see if it paid off for them.

Remaining unchanged since their inception as 5Jungz in August 2015 - which feels like an eternity in current Dota 2 time - Team Liquid has been getting stronger and stronger as the stakes get higher in the leadup up to TI6. The players have all managed to excel in their roles, with JerAx and KuroKy switching up the support roles flawlessly based on their matchups, every now and then showcasing the intriguing support Phoenix by JerAx. But the crowning jewel of their recent play must be MinD_ContRoL’s Nature’s Prophet, which brings with it a huge win rate for the Europeans and will surely be a focus in the banning phase for opposing teams.

For this iteration of Team Liquid, the recent tournament result at the Shanghai Major has been their biggest feat to date. With only Team Secret being able to resist them, the likes of Alliance, MVP Phoenix and Evil Geniuses have already learned the hard way that Team Liquid’s consistency is not just for show. They will certainly be among the favorites to take home the ESL One Manila trophy!

Position	Player	Most played heroes (patch 6.86)
Carry	MATUMBAMAN
Mid	FATA-
Offlane	MinD_ContRoL
Support	JerAx
Support	KuroKy

Recent matchups against other attendees

ESL One Manila will mark the first chance for Team Liquid to get back at Team Secret, who beat them twice at the Shanghai Major including the grand finals. They have also played against a number of the other teams recently, but haven’t faced new look EHOME, Mineski and Fnatic in a while, which will surely make for some interesting games.

Wings Gaming

• 0-1 at StarLadder Season 13/i-League Season 4

Team Empire

• 1-1 at Dota Pit League Season 4
• 2-1 at Shanghai Major Qualifier

Team Secret

• 0-2 at Shanghai Major UB finals
• 1-3 at Shanghai Major grand finals

compLexity

• 2-0 at Shanghai Major

For the group stages they have been seeded into group A with compLexity, Wings and Mineski, which on paper sounds like a manageable task based on recent results, but surely they won’t make the mistake of underestimating their opponents at this stage.