Team Liquid knocked out of Worlds 2023 in org’s worst ever result

While GAM is the strongest minor region team in the world and the only one that made it to the Worlds 2023 Swiss stage, it was still a surprise to see them take down Team Liquid in decisive fashion. With TL being the first team knocked out in Swiss, this is the worst Worlds result in the org’s history.

Near Airport jokes aside, NA’s record internationally hasn’t exactly been stellar. While many were hoping that’d change at Worlds 2023, Golden Guardians getting decimated by Team BDS didn’t exactly instill hope in fans from the region.

What’s more, Team Liquid’s start at the event was promising. They gave T1 a run for their money in their very first match of the event, making many feel as if they’d be a real contender.

However, mid laner APA had a surprising shift from contesting Faker to going 0-9 against Palafox, APA and Team Liquid as a whole quickly fell apart at Worlds 2023 despite a promising start.

Team Liquid eliminated from Worlds 2023 by GAM

It’s at the point where even fans from North America have a hard time being hopeful when it comes to teams from their region. Between the aforementioned collapse of Golden Guardians and Cloud9 getting bested by T1 without being able to kill a single member, it’s been a rough year so far.

And, though NRG has been a beacon of hope with their 2-1 record, Team Liquid looked to be a strong team at first. With the roster having 2 world champions on it, hopes were high that this team would be able to put NA on the map.

Unfortunately for Team Liquid, GAM would upset expectations and take out TL to keep Vietnam’s hopes alive at Worlds 2023.

Team Liquid has had a turbulent go of things in 2023 despite signing 2022 world champion Pyosik into the jungle and building a team around TL’s best Challengers players and top-tier Korean talent. On paper, their team was built to get results.

In practice, they weren’t able to improve fast enough. Though they’ve come a long way from their eighth place finish in LCS Spring 2023, the team ultimately never came together.

Pyosik wasn’t able to defend his title, though he had an incredibly strong showing at Worlds 2022 and took the loss hard. Team Liquid’s only win was a game that he carried, and his Lee Sin performance against T1 was a huge part of why TL made that match look so close.

To make matters worse, this is the Team Liquid’s worst placing at Worlds in the org’s history. Their loss here has them being eliminated in 15/16th place. In the past, TL has been eliminated in the group stage, but they’ve never been at the bottom. They’ve missed World Championships in the past, sure, but this is the worst result they’ve had in a year that they’ve made it to the event.

It isn’t yet clear how Team Liquid’s disappointing showing at Worlds 2023 will affect their roster and whether or not they’ll be looking to make changes going into next year.