The curse is lifted! Team Liquid have finally sealed the deal at Epicenter and won their first major tournament, breaking a streak of second place finishes, including the one at ESL One Manila, which gave fans flashbacks to Cloud9 back in the day. But now that they have overcome that obstacle, it’s almost commonly accepted that Team Liquid are the strongest team in the scene at the moment. So, ESL One Frankfurt - look out, because the Team Liquid train will be hard to stop for just about any team out there.

Position	Player	Most played heroes (patch 6.87)
Carry	MATUMBAMAN
Mid	FATA-
Offlane	MinD_ContRoL
Support	JerAx
Support	KuroKy

From a statistical point of view, Nahaz is already touting Team Liquid as the favorite for the Manila Major and by extent of ESL One Frankfurt. And who can really disagree at the moment? Liquid is performing like a well oiled machine and it all starts with KuroKy’s superior drafts, as Swindlezz pointed out during Liquid’s run at Epicenter. No matter who you ask, they are all in awe of the recent results and specifically the way Liquid handle themselves. There is no one thing that you can point out and counter as every player poses a huge threat to their opponents with their incredible variety when it comes to drafts. The only thing we have to ask ourselves is - what Earth Spirit nerf are you talking about? JerAx clearly didn’t get the memo and it continues to be one of the most successful heroes for the team and should be way up there when it comes to banning priorities. Of course then you will have to let one of the current meta heroes slide through, which is exactly what makes Liquid so dangerous.

Recent performances

Consistency at the highest level is probably the best summary for Team Liquid recently. While other teams fluctuate between flashes of brilliance and mediocre outings, Liquid have been putting in top notch performances in every tournament they participate in. Since the Shanghai Major they have reached the grand final of every major and minor tournament they participated in and are boasting a plus 70% winrate in the last three months. It’s hard not to see them as the final boss at this stage.

• Record over last 3 months: 40-16
• Record on patch 6.87: 11-4
• Recent tournament results
  • Shanghai Major: 2nd place
  • ESL One Manila: 2nd place
  • Epicenter: 1st place

Recent matchups against ESL One Frankfurt teams

Unless your name is Team Secret or Wings Gaming, you will have lost all your recent matches against Team Liquid, it’s as simple as that. OG, compLexity and Alliance know that feeling first hand and will surely be working tirelessly on a strategy to break Liquid’s spell of superiority. Teams will have more chances to figure them out ahead of ESL One Frankfurt and we can wait to find out if anyone can outplay our new Dota 2 overlords.

OG

• 2-1 at Epicenter
• 2-0 at Epicenter

compLexity

• 2-0 at Shanghai Major
• 2-1 at Epicenter

Alliance

• 2-1 at Shanghai Major

Watch Team Liquid live in Frankfurt!

Team Liquid are looking to reach another ESL One grand final and this time Wings Gaming won’t be there to stop them. Do you think they can go all the way again?

We already took a closer look at Alliance and we’ll be rolling out more previews as the tournament inches closer. Don’t forget to stay in touch by following ESL Dota 2 on Twitter and Facebook.