Scouting Report: Team Liquid’s — Inferno
This will be the first scouting report on a team I’ve done for this series. Much like individual players, I will be summing up the general trends I’ve seen from the team over time. But for Liquid specifically, they made a shakeup in roles after the Krakow Major break that have made them a much stronger team than it was before. The team is filled with skilled players, but their primary way of winning is through tactics. The tactics inform what roles each player takes, and each player has a specific area in which they can excel. I’ve decided to focus on their inferno as it is their best map and the one they want to make their home map. These are the roles in general:
T-side -
stanislaw/nitr0 — B control.
EliGE/Twistzz — aps control.
Jdm — Flex (can be used to help take b, hold mid for any peeks, or be moved to top mid/boiler to look for a pick).
In the actual hit, nitr0/twistzz are the first wave, JDM holds an angle, EliGE will trade/finish the round. Stanislaw is the lurk.
Ct-side
EliGE/nitr0 — B control
JDM — top mid control/playmaking
stanislaw/Twistzz — A site
EliGE, nitr0 and JDM are the primary plays on the Ct-side to take the fight to the enemy at the beginning. Nitr0 can also secondary AWP.
*Note: All roles are not set in stone, these are just the most likely trends I’ve seen from the team and players. They can switch it up depending on situation, tactic, position, time, weaponry, or economy.
For this one, I’ll just focus on the map that I think is their best, Inferno.
Inferno is the map that Liquid have decided to try to make their home map. From a meta standpoint, it’s an astute choice as inferno is a map that most top teams don’t ban. So in a theoretical game theory sense, you will always get to play this map. (Sidenote, this is the meta trend that BIG used to get their way through Swiss Groups at Krakow Major). We have 5 games to look at:
TL vs Astralis ESL NY and EPICENTER, TL vs SK ESL NY and ELeague, and TL vs North EPICENTER.
The map has Liquid able to win from both sides of the map, neither side has yet to be a signature side for TL. Against Astralis, Team Liquid has a much stronger T-side, but their Ct-side conversely has had harder times dealing with Astralis in map control. Against SK and North, their Ct-side has been stronger and is the primary reason for their victories on that map over both teams. On Ct-side, TL need JDM to have an AWP as this is one of his better maps and he can take over the game from that side (TL vs SK comes to mind).
On T-side, nitro and stanislaw do B control while elige/twistzz take control of aps and top mid. Once the map control is established, they run various kinds of hits: A wraps, executes, fakes, 4–1’s. The most surprising round I’ve seen from them is a fake A execute, followed up by two players one at aps and one at top mid looking to make noise and fight while the other three hit B. One of the most surprising aspects is how strong their force buy executes are on either site.
