BERLIN, GERMANY - With Cloud9 and Clutch Gaming eliminated from the tournament, North American fans rested their hopes for the sole remaining NA team left in the group, Team Liquid. But as the group stage came to a close, Team Liquid only managed to get a 3-3 record, falling off short by dropping games against Damwon Gaming and returning world champions, Invictus Gaming as the group stage concluded, effectively kicking them out of group stage and tournament.
Coming in as NA's top seed, wining LCS championship four times in a row and making it to Mid-Seasonal Invitational finals, Team Liquid had high expectations from fans around the globe to deliver in what seems to be the team's strongest season to date. With the addition of former Cloud9 mid laner, Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen and former world champion support, Jo "CoreJJ" Yong-in, the team was expected to come out of groups and do some damage in the knockout stage of the tournament.
But the competition in their group proved to be difficult as DWG and IG made use of TL's weaknesses and inconsistencies. Poor draft choices were also made as they gave opposing teams their comfort champions. The TL star jungler, Jake Kevin "Xmithie" Puchero's small champion pool was exploited by the teams, banning out his comfort picks while Jensen seemed to be under a lot of pressure, making big mistakes and giving out solo kills against IG mid laner, Song "Rookie" Eui-jin which snowballed the game against TL.
Fans were quick to put the blame on Jensen and Xmithie after the games, but Team Liquid AD Carry and leader, Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng swiftly defended his teammates, posting a video on twitter.
With this lost, all three NA representatives are eliminated from the tournament.
Coming in as NA's top seed, wining LCS championship four times in a row and making it to Mid-Seasonal Invitational finals, Team Liquid had high expectations from fans around the globe to deliver in what seems to be the team's strongest season to date. With the addition of former Cloud9 mid laner, Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen and former world champion support, Jo "CoreJJ" Yong-in, the team was expected to come out of groups and do some damage in the knockout stage of the tournament.
But the competition in their group proved to be difficult as DWG and IG made use of TL's weaknesses and inconsistencies. Poor draft choices were also made as they gave opposing teams their comfort champions. The TL star jungler, Jake Kevin "Xmithie" Puchero's small champion pool was exploited by the teams, banning out his comfort picks while Jensen seemed to be under a lot of pressure, making big mistakes and giving out solo kills against IG mid laner, Song "Rookie" Eui-jin which snowballed the game against TL.
Fans were quick to put the blame on Jensen and Xmithie after the games, but Team Liquid AD Carry and leader, Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng swiftly defended his teammates, posting a video on twitter.
With this lost, all three NA representatives are eliminated from the tournament.
