History
The website was released on May 1, 2001, by Victor "Nazgul" Goossens and Joy "Meat" Hoogeveen under the domain teamliquid.cjb.net. On September 22, 2002, the website was moved to the address of teamliquid.net. A day later the very first poll was posted as a vote for the website's name with the teamliquid.net name winning over other suggestions such as likwit.com. On April 5, 2019, it was announced that the website would be moving to the domain tl.net, with teamliquid.net becoming an alias for teamliquid.com in the future. Although Team Liquid was primarily known as a '' StarCraft'' news site, there are many sub sections on the forums dedicated to other games as well. It was announced on August 30, 2012, that Team Liquid would be expanding to covering ''Dota 2'' news. On December 8, 2012, Liquid expanded their esports franchise into multiple games for the first time, with the recruitment of a North American ''Dota 2'' team. On January 6, 2015, Steven "LiQuiD112" Arhancet joined Victor Goossens as co-owner of Team Liquid, officially commencing the merge between former Team Curse Gaming under the Team Liquid banner. On September 27, 2016, Team Liquid sold its controlling interest to aXiomatic Gaming, an investment group including Golden State Warriors co-owner Peter Guber, entrepreneur Ted Leonsis, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, and AOL co-founder Steve Case. On December 16, 2017, Team Liquid disbanded their '' Halo'' roster. In 2020, the organization introduced Blue, an anthropomorphic horse, as its mascot. Blue has been featured in the organization's merchandising campaigns and collaborations.Ownership
aXiomatic is an entertainment and sports management company. Investors for the group include Peter Guber, Tony Robbins, Magic Johnson, Ted Leonsis, Steve Case, and Eric Lefkofsky. The chief executive officer is Bruce Stein, the former chief executive officer and chief operating officer of Mattel Toys, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Kenner Products (Hasbro). On September 27, 2016, aXiomatic announced that it had acquired controlling interest of esports organization Team Liquid. Other investors include Los Angeles Dodgers executives Lon Rosen and Tucker Kain, Golden State Warriors executives Rick Welts and Kirk Lacob, the Washington Nationals owners at Lerner Enterprises,Websites
Main websites
*TLnet – Originally branded as "Team Liquid", the tl.net website primarily provides ''StarCraft II'' coverage but also has some coverage for StarCraft Brood War, Counter-Strike Global Offensive, Heroes of the Storm, and Super Smash Brothers Melee. With the launch of ''StarCraft II'', TLnet has grown into the largest ''StarCraft'' community on the internet, with over 220,000 active members and over twenty four million total posts. The website employs four person full-time staff at theirRosters
Tournaments and events
In addition to running a community site and team, Team Liquid also hosts a variety of tournaments and events.Team Liquid Starleague
The two iterations of the TeamLiquid Starleague (or TSL for short) have been the largest ''StarCraft: Brood War'' tournaments outside of South Korea. The first TSL sponsored by Razer in 2008 was highly anticipated at the time, sporting all of the world's top ''Brood War'' players. It was topped one year later with 2009's TSL 2, which featured a total prize pool of over $20,000 and remains the largest non-Korean ''Brood War'' tournament to date. With the release of ''Starcraft II'', Team Liquid announced a third installment, sponsored again by PokerStrategy.com with a prize pool of $34,700. The tournament took place between March and May 2011. On April 25, 2012, a fourth installment was announced (TSL 4).Team Liquid ''StarCraft II'' Open
The TL Opens are one-day open single-elimination tournaments alternating between the NA and EU battle.net servers. The eight TL Open events that lead up to the TSL 3 also served as a qualifier for the TSL.Team Liquid Legacy Starleague
Announced on January 1, 2013, Team Liquid would be hosting a series of online tournaments for "foreign" players of ''StarCraft: Brood War''.Community events
*TL Attack: Modeled after a Korean TV show called ''Bnet Attack'', a professional player plays games against non-professionals while chatting with the hosts. *Liquibition: A King-of-the-Hill mode that is played best of 7 games. *TL Arena: A professional player will be matched up with inferior opponents. With each win he gains, another handicap is added that limits his game play options, until he loses or he has defeated a certain number of opponents.Esports history
''StarCraft'' and ''StarCraft II''
The gaming clan "Liquid" was founded by Victor "Nazgul" Goossens near the end of 2000, after he decided to leave his previous clan. Liquid started with four members for the first months and grew to eight players over the following year. The members of the Liquid clan were handpicked by Goossens. With the arrival of ''StarCraft II'', Team Liquid announced plans to become an active professional esports team. Shortly after, sponsorship by The Little App Factory was announced, which qualified them as a sponsored professional team. This allowed Team Liquid to pay their players a salary and send the team to events around the world. The team created a dedicated news site separate from the more community oriented site, announced and released on May 10, 2011. On August 13, 2012, three players traveled to Korea in order to live in the OGS training house and compete in GOMTV's Global ''StarCraft II'' League (GSL). Of the three players entering the preliminaries, only one, Dario "TLO" Wünsch qualified for the first two GSL events. He was eliminated out in the Second and First rounds respectively. The third GSL was the strongest showing of Team Liquid thus far. Three players, Hayder "Haypro" Hussein, Jos "Ret" de Kroon and Jonathan "Jinro" Walsh qualified for the main tournament. While Hussein lost first round and de Kroon in 2nd, Walsh made to the semi-finals, losing 0–4 to the eventual winner Jang "MC" Min-Chul. In 2012, during GSL Season 2, members Song "HerO" Hyeon Deok and Yun "TaeJa" Young Seo made it to the Round of 8 of the Code S tournament, with TaeJa being eliminated while HerO advanced to the semi-finals of the tournament. At the end of 2023, Kim "Cure" Doh-wook and Clément "Clem" Desplanches reached the semifinals of ESL SC2 Masters: Winter 2023 Finals, at Dreamhack Atlanta. Cure lost to Dark 3-1 while Clem defeated Serral 3-1 and reached the finals. In the grand final, Clem competed against Dark and beat him 4-1. At the start of 2024, Kim "Cure" Doh-wook was eliminated in the Round of 8 of Master's Coliseum 7, losing 3-4 against Solar. In February 2024, Clément "Clem" Desplanches reached the Quarterfinals in IEM Katowice 2024 but lost 3-0 against Serral. In February 2024, Kim "Cure" Doh-wook reached the Semifinals in IEM Katowice 2024 but lost 3-0 against Maru. Clément "Clem" Desplanches has assured his direct spot in the Esports World Cup 2024 in Riyadh by winning SC2 Masters Winter 2023. Kim "Cure" Doh-wook has assured his direct spot in the Esports World Cup 2024 in Riyadh by reaching top 4 at IEM Katowice 2024. Both Clément "Clem" Desplanches and Kim "Cure" Doh-wook stopped in the Knockout Round 3 of ESL SC2 Masters: Spring 2024. Clem lost 3-0 to HerO while Cure lost 3-2 to Shin.''Smash Bros.''
In March 2014, Team Liquid announced that it had picked up two ''''League of Legends''
On January 6, 2015, Liquid acquired the Team Curse's ''League of Legends'' roster, which consisted of Quas, IWillDominate, Voyboy, Cop, and Xpecial. The team finished the LCS Spring regular season in 6th place with a 10–9 record. On Week 5 and 6 of NA LCS Piglet was benched and replaced on the starting roster by KEITHMCBRIEF in an effort to try to improve their standings. In the playoffs they beatOther
One week after the Curse merger, it was announced that Team Liquid acquired a '' Counter Strike: Global Offensive'' team that previously played under the title "Denial eSports". On October 9, 2015, it was announced that Liquid would once again be fielding a ''Dota'' team, after being absence from the competitive DotA scene for more than a year. On October 21, 2016, it was announced that Liquid would be fielding a professional Civilization VI team, captained by former world champion Civilization player MrGameTheory. On August 7, 2020, Team Liquid announced their entrance to the Valorant esports scene by signing the fish123 roster, soulcas, Kryptix, L1NK, ec1s. Alongside these four players, they also added ScreaM as the fifth player. On February 24, 2021, Team Liquid parted ways with ec1s and added Jamppi into the roster. On April 23, 2021, Team Liquid announced changes to their Dota 2 roster on Twitter. Samuel "Boxi" Swann is taking a break from Dota to spend more time with his family. He will be replaced by Saeed Samail "SumaiL" Hassan. On December 25, 2021, analyst and translator Leon "Arthur" Lee interviewed Team Liquid coach, William "Blitz" Lee, who talked about the formation of the team, MATUMBAMAN and Zai, captain iNSaNiA and opponents at the Dota Pro Circuit. On 22 September 2022, they were announced as one of the 10 partner teams for the Valorant EMEA league. On May 5, 2023, Team Liquid became the first Dota 2 team to score the minimum number of DPC points and qualify for The International 2023. On November 21, 2023, Team Liquid announced its departure from Rocket League. In May 2024, Team Liquid announced it was officially re-entering competitive '' Apex Legends'' play after signing the orgless team "Legacy" ahead of the 2024 ''Apex Legends'' Global Series (ALGS) Split 1 Playoffs LAN. It marked Team Liquid's return to the ''Apex'' scene, after leaving in December 2022. The roster is made up of Saul "YanYa" Ocampo, Luis Enrique "Neazul" Ramos Suarez, Alexis "Jaguares" Martinez, and Steven "Pistillo" Rojas as the coach. On February 13, 2025, Team Liquid enteredSponsors
On January 24, 2015, it was announced that HTC had become an official sponsor of Team Liquid. In June 2022, Liquid partnered with Honda as a title sponsor for their ''League of Legends'' team, with the team renamed "Team Liquid Honda". On 19 May 2025, Liquid announced that their partnership with Honda had ended due to a social media controversy where Rainbow Six player Lucas "DiasLucasBr" Dias posted an image of an atomic bomb on X, referencing the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki duringManagement
Victor "Nazgul" Goossens is a founding member, and currently co-owner and chief executive officer of Team Liquid. He originally competed in Brood War prior to forming Team Liquid. Steve "LiQuiD112" Arhancet joined the Team Liquid staff when Team Curse merged with Team Liquid. Since the merge, Steve has taken the role of co-owner and chief executive officer and primarily manages the ''League of Legends'' team.Alienware Training Facility
In 2017 Team Liquid finished constructing its Alienware Training Facility in Los Angeles, which is designed to act as the training grounds for Team Liquid's CS:GO and League of Legends teams, as well as their esports headquarters. The facility houses non-players such as owner Steve "LiQuiD112" Arhancet and 1UP Studios, Team Liquid's in-house production studio, so that all departments of Team Liquid could work together. Team Liquid's sponsor Alienware supplied all the PC's to the Alienware Training Facility.References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Liquid, Team 2000 establishments in the Netherlands American Internet groups Apex Legends teams Counter-Strike teams Defunct and inactive Overwatch teams Dota teams Dutch sport websites Esports teams based in the Netherlands Esports teams established in 2000 Esports websites Fighting game player sponsors Hearthstone teams Heroes of the Storm teams Internet properties established in 2000 League Championship Series (esports) teams StarCraft teams Super Smash Bros. player sponsors Team Razer Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege teams Valorant teams