Team Liquid made a ton of changes in the past two weeks. We're going to look at the new dynamic as they make a push for playoffs and attempt to avoid relegation in this split.
Week 7 has finally ended, and the dust is all settled. Liquid broke even this week with one win and one loss. They fell 2-0 at the hands of Cloud 9, and managed to edge out a shaky three game set against EnVyUs. Piglet was mechanically solid in the mid lane, but struggled to carry his laning phase into the midgame during most of these games. In the bot lane, Doublelift seems to have returned to form. He's really playing at a top level again. Let's take a look at the two series in a bit more depth.
Shadow of the Colossus
Against Cloud 9, Team Liquid was able to put together some good looking early game performances. In the first game, they were able to control the game for the first fifteen minutes, but threw a team fight at dragon that allowed Cloud 9 to get back into the game. After that, they managed to win a few more fights before Matt and Piglet got caught roaming in the top jungle. This allowed C9 to grab the Baron and take the reins. Cloud 9’s strong decision making was then able to carry them through the rest of the game.
Game 2
Reignover made some big plays early in the second game. He seems to be back to playing at his peak performance, possibly due to his confidence in his new laners. Cloud 9 was able to take this game pretty handily after that. The Draven pick did not do as much work as was suggested by a Doublelift tweet earlier in the week, and Matt’s positioning was still bad in this game. Piglet seems to finally be coming into his own in the mid lane. He has a strong laning phase and great mechanics, but he needs to impact late game fights more. He was able to solo kill Jensen on more than one occasion over the series.
Relegation Roulette
Coming off their Cloud 9 loss, Team Liquid needed to win this series against EnVyUs to keep themselves in the playoff hunt with only four games left in the season after this one. Piglet continued to perform well in the laning phase of the first game, and Reignover impacted the game in a big way across all lanes. Liquid lost a big dragon fight at eighteen minutes. They struggled in a few fights after that, and almost let Seraph pull NV out of a bad place, but finally found the fight they wanted at 32 minutes, and were able to close out the game shortly after that. This might not be able to be the case in the future. Better teams will usually close out games when given this many handouts.
Game 2
In the second game, NV took advantage of a struggling bot lane early doors, and Lourlo had a hard time as well. This was his only rough performance of the weekend, so it should probably be overlooked. One thing to note over the series is that Team Liquid struggles to put good wards down in the first fifteen minutes and has been surprised a lot. They didn't play very defensively while behind in this game, and Ninja was able to get a huge lead. He was able to snowball, and EnVyUs surgically picked apart TL in 26 minutes.
Game 3
Reignover took an aggressive stance early in the rubber match. The whole early game was sloppy on both sides, and NV grabbed a six thousand gold lead. Lourlo made some big plays, and Ninja followed suit, but the difference maker in this game for Team Liquid was the carries. Piglet and Doublelift absolutely took over when it came to teamfights, with Piglet's Ahri quite impressive. It seems like he can finally teamfight as an assassin, at least when he's ahead. That brings up the question of whether or not his woes as a feast or famine ADC are carrying over to the midlane, but he looks good for now. Liquid secures a Baron at 29 minutes, and claw from behind to take down the game.
Overall, the new iteration of Team Liquid showed a lot of promise. The talent is there, but there are a lot of issues to work through. Their late game teamfights are not great, and they have to fight better around objectives as a whole. Matt's positioning and decision making left the team wanting, but this will probably be remedied when Adrian joins Doublelift next week. On the other hand, the carries look great. Reignover has a renewed strength, and Lourlo is a rock in the top lane. These guys definitely have playoff potential if the cards shake out correctly.
