After failing to qualify for the Boston Major, Team Liquid's 9k trio swept the finals of DreamLeague over Escape Gaming.
In perhaps their first convincing performance since the Fall Reshuffle, Team Liquid have managed to snag 90,000 bucks by winning the sixth season of DreamLeague. Facing off against them were Escape Gaming, led by player-turned-caster-turned-player Troels 'syndereN' Nielsen and backed by the insane clutch support plays of Yazied 'YapzOr' Jaradat. Escape were definitely the underdogs going into this tournament, and no one had predicted them to reach the finals. Both the teams, however, were playing with stand-ins: Maroun 'GH' Merhej for Team Liquid and Kalle 'Trixi' Saarinen for Escape Gaming.
Let me tell you something: when you know what you need to do in the game, you don't feel any more stress.
Team Liquid faced a lot of instability following the Boston Major. They had taken Sam 'BuLba' Sosale as their support after the International, but they had to let go of him because he had not played the support role competitively for one and a half years. They then tried out GH, a Lebanese 9k MMR pubstar known for his Io and Earthshaker, who was playing his first LAN at DreamLeague. He mentioned in his post-game interview, "It's my first LAN so I'm trying my best not to disappoint." When asked how he was keeping himself relaxed on the big stage in front of the large audience, he replied, "Let me tell you something: when you know what you need to do in the game, you don't feel any more stress."
It would be interesting to see what would remain of the rosters after the tournament, but it would be safe to say that GH perfectly fits in the playmaking 4 role that Liquid had been longing for after Jesse 'JerAx' Vainikka's departure for the team. However, Trixi played consistently well throughout the tournament, too, and might permanently replace Maurice 'KheZu' Gutmann as Escape's offlaner.
