Cover Image Courtesy: Intel Extreme Masters
The fifth direct invite for IEM Sydney 2019 has just been announced. The Katowice major quarterfinalists, Team Liquid, which is the second-best team in the world currently have accepted the invite and will be competing in the $250,000 event.
For the third consecutive time, Qudos Bank Arena will be the venue for the event which will be taking place from 3rd-5th May 2019.
Team Liquid has had a rough start to the year, suffering a loss to ENCE in the quarterfinals of IEM Katowice 2019. This, in particular, was a huge blow for the side who were expected to face Astralis in the finals and probably repeat what had occurred in the finals of iBUYPOWER Masters IV earlier this year.
Liquid has been quite consistent in achieving a second or a third-place finish in multiple events over the last six months but victory has eluded them on far too many occasions. Its high time that the team steps up and starts claiming trophies.
Last time around Liquid was knocked out of the North American Qualifiers by NRG, making this their first ever appearance at the Australian mega event. They have a mighty impressive line-up, hope they are able to keep up to their reputation and don’t fizzle out.
The current Liquid line-up is as follows,
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Nicholas ‘nitr0’ Cannella [IGL]
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Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski
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Russel Van ‘Twistzz’ Dulken
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Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic
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Jacky ‘Stewie2K’ Yip
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Eric ‘adreN’ Hoag [Coach]
Opinion
Liquid definitely deserves the invite as the team might have missed out on multiple victories but have recently been achieving quite a lot of success, winning both SuperNova Malta 2018 and iBUYPOWER Masters IV.
They will be itching to prove a point after the loss to ENCE and this seems like a big enough event to come out and silence all the haters.
The teams announced for the event till now are as follows,
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FaZe - Direct Invite
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MIBR - Direct Invite
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NiP - Direct Invite
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Liquid - Direct Invite
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BIG - EU Qualifier
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NA Qualifier (Under Debate)