Big roster changes for Team Liquid’s LoL team

Team Liquid seem to have had enough of finishing third-fourth in the LCS and failing to qualify for Worlds. This team wants a lot more and they have made the necessary changes to get it.

Right now, a quick look at Liquid’s roster gives us a deeper understanding of a global trend: Western teams no longer limit themselves to Western players. Or, to put it differently, South Korean players no longer limit themselves to regional teams.

Team Liquid’s new roster

Liquid released almost their entire roster at the end of last season and they have signed a few new players from South Korea. They already had Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in, but now they have two more South Koreans: Park “Summit” Woo-tae and Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon.

Both of these players have joined from very strong teams. One used to play for FunPlus Phoenix while the other was a member of DragonX, the team that won the LoL World Championship in 2022.

The new Liquid roster looks much stronger than the previous one, simply because South Korean players are the best in the world. The more of them you have on your team, the better you will do.

It feels a bit strange to see Liquid using so few American players but their new approach makes perfect sense. However, it remains to be seen if they can implement it well enough to obtain the results they are hoping to get.

Liquid’s Chances in LCS 2023

In 2022, three teams always defeated Liquid in the LCS: Evil Geniuses, 100 Thieves, and Cloud9. The failures suffered against these opponents meant that the team would not be able to take part in any international tournament.

In League of Legends, you only get two chances per year to prove yourself outside of your region and gather foreign fans. One is at Mid-Season Invitational and the other is at Worlds. Hopefully for Liquid, in 2023 they will succeed in their mission to qualify for at least one of these two tournaments.

It is not yet clear how strong the opposition will be in North America. What’s certain is that the strong teams from last season are doing their best to sign exceptional players and perform even better in 2023. In particular, 100 Thieves is believed to have secured a contract with Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng and possibly even Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg.

If they manage to bring in some strong players, 100 Thieves could ruin Liquid’s plans. But it’s still very likely that Liquid will succeed in 2023 because all they need is to be in the top three and they will play at Worlds.

Header: Team Liquid