Three years ago, Team Curse merged with Team Liquid and rebranded their League of Legends team. At the time, Team Solomid reigned supreme with over the NALCS. At the time, Team Liquid had never seen success as they consistently placed 4th no matter how good or bad the season was for them.  As esports developed owners of Team Liquid and TSM, Steve “LiQuiD112” Arhancet and Andy “Reginald” Dinh respectively, branched out to other games signing teams and players in PLAYERSUNKNOWN’S Battlegrounds, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Hearthstone, CS:GO, and many more. Team Liquid and TSM would always battle it out to compete for the title of best North American team, but TSM would usually come out on top, that is until 2016.

2016 was the year that Team Liquid sparked the rivalry that would cascade into other esports. Liquid`Hungrybox stole the show with a reverse sweep to reset the bracket and win against the former best player in the world, Alliance Armada. From that point on, Liquid would begin to dominate the esports scene. TL’s DOTA 2 team won the largest esports tournament in the world, The International. TL made major improvements immediately following the win. They got into more esports than TSM and even signed some of their former players. In 2018, Team Liquid finished their Alienware Training Facility for their new League of Legends roster. They signed former TSM AD Carry, Doublelift, after TSM chose to drop him from the roster. They demolished the Spring Split and ended first while TSM ended 5th. The summer split ended just a couple of weeks ago and the Team Liquid is showing that the meme “Paid by Steve”

TSM started making waves in Fortnite even though their LoL team was faulting. Players like Myth, Daequan, Hamlinz, and CaMills were signed to compete in squad Fortnite tournaments. These players had a strong following initially and were deemed the best players in the game by many. Quietly, TL signed a team themselves of Chap, POACH, 72Hrs, and Strafeshot. These players didn’t provide content or have a following initially, but they chose to focus on winning instead. As the Fortnite Summer Skirmish has gone underway, the Liquid boys have been consistently coming out on top over the likes of FaZe, Ninja, and many others. Liquid is starting to overtake the competitive scene and TSM is starting to lose face as people are beginning to question some of the players on the team. With the acquisition of Vivid, Liquid is expected to dominate Fortnite for the foreseeable future.

Even though TSM has been struggling in the public eye, the players are starting to hit their stride. TSM’s LoL team took a win off of TL in their last match up and TL has even chosen not to face them in the semifinals. TSM Leffen, a SSBM player, convincingly took down Liquid`Hungrybox during EVO and took first place from winner’s bracket. As Clash Royale and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate begin to develop, we will soon see who will win 2018.