Team Liquid threw the presiding idea, that rosters aren’t going to be shaken up until teams get back into the offline tourneys, with reckless abandon as ‘Nitr0’ stepped down from his five-year tenure within the team to give way to a new and generally unproven fragger from T2 Triumph.
There were concerns as Liquid stepped into the server against Ze Pug Godz; Liquid was the absolute favorite stepping in, but questions were centered around how well Grim would be able to step in T1 CS:GO; after Astralis stumbled heartily following the sudden absence of Gla1ve and Xyp9x, dropping out of the top five for the first time in years, there were absolutely concerns that Team Liquid would have a long and arduous road ahead of them.
The concerns were quelled with relative ease, however; whether it was due to ZPG’s performance or if Michael ‘Grim’ Wince is simply that impressive is immaterial at the moment.
Grim himself picked up an eco-Ace against ZPG in Inferno that ZPG looked competent in, after a rather one-sided match on Vertigo had Team Liquid walking away on a (16-5) scoreline.
Yet the top fragger in the server for the series was Grim by a mile; Grim stepped up and offered a massive 53 kills on the server, while the next highest was Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski at 36 – a differential of almost 20 if you prefer not to do math in your off-time.
Michael Wince netted an astoundingly high Rating 2.0 of 1.72; rivaling that of the statistically greatest professional Counter-Strike player, ZywOo.
After falling prey to Gen G. and Evil Gensiuses in more recent showings, it’s entirely plausible that this newest pick-up of Grim could actually bring about a new era of competition for the beloved NA CS:GO team that never seems to stop.
Unfortunately, it will be a while before we get to see Liquid back in the server; their next upcoming match is taking place on the 19th of August, meaning we have ten days until Liquid collide with Cloud 9 as many wonder if this was a fluke, or indeed a new era of Liquid dominance.
Considering that other teams have been struggling in the online matches that competitive CS:GO finds themselves currentrly beholden to (along with the rest of esports due to the pandemic), this shake up could prove to be a simple fluke that arrives by way of latency or opponents.
Right now, however, Liquid looks impeccable, and it’s a far cry from the struggles that Astralis went through when they picked up new talent in the current era. We likely won’t see global competition again, which allows us to discern precisely who the best CS team is, until the pandemic is over. Which should provide ample time for the team to clarify tactics and positions.
