Team Liquid | Breaking Point

If you really want to win this series,

instead of blaming Piglet, let's talk

about what we can fix. And even if you

do think Piglet are problematic, you can

say it in a much more productive way.

No, I say Piglet is a problem.

Mhm. They just I just play

normal game.

We did voice chat with some random guys.

Why? They just after every game they

just do nothing. Oh, I do this, I do

this. They just doesn't have any plan.

They just

just shut They don't know what to do.

They just shut down. If they don't know

what to do, then we can help them and

get better.

Wait, I how I save five men?

I think saying something simple like,

"You guys I need want to get five men

priority. Can you help Can you push up

mid?" very good place to get back in and

winning these team fights. And it's

Liquid just sort of playing like it's

challenger solo queue saying We practice

really hard

before we always play.

But

in LCS day, I just feel like everyone

just want to lose and go home

fast.

Surprisingly, in the last four years, we

had never done a boot camp in Korea. So,

they went there and I had Loco spearhead

the initiative and put together where

the boot camp would be at, what teams

are going to scrim, and what hotel would

we stay at, what the food situation be.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to fly to

Korea. We were working on a very large

partnership deal for Team Liquid that

would have sizeable impact on what 2017

would look like for the company. And

that took priority over the boot camp.

It was the first time where we did a

boot camp where I wasn't close by with

the team.

Mistake number one.

So, I started to hear some of these

problems and I tried to fix them

remotely and it just kind of wasn't

working.

Honestly, the Korea trip was a pretty

big failure before we even arrived.

Everyone was let down, but

especially I was let down. So, then that

made me frustrated and then eventually

my frustration just kind of led to a

blowup.

No, like you're playing it where you're

just going through the motion and

wasting your time instead of trying to

win or instead of trying to recover.

Like there's no talking about what we

should do afterwards. There's no talking

about how we're going to win mid game.

There's no talking about how we're going

to team fight. Like you're just

jungling.

Yeah, that's my job. I'm a jungler. It's

so effortless. Like you're not shot

calling. Shot calling is also part of

your job. Like talking to your

teammates, that's also part of your job.

What was going to be a really productive

boot camp and preparing during the off

season between the two splits ended up

turning into a complete behavioral

disaster. There was a few blowups

between the players and Loco that had

went so far that it was almost not

repairable. Follow the pride cuz I know

you really really want to win.

Like there's times where

Well, there's no pride. I already said,

"Yeah, I I made the mistake. It won't

happen again." I don't know what else

you want me to say.

Or you want me to get in my time machine

and go back before the scrim started and

play differently? Like I I'll try to

No, it's just how we deal with problems.

When I made a mistake regarding pick and

ban, I apologized and said it like, "I'm

sorry." Like and then we try to move on

instead. Like I literally we went over

the mistake. I saw that I was wrong and

I said, "Okay."

Wait, you guys you guys why come here?

You guys want practice, then you guys

come here, right? So, just

focus practice. Why

trying?

Even Josh you die, we still focus four

people, but you always going there.

And you always say say me you you want

win summer split, then you

should focus game.

Yeah, maybe not anymore.

Okay, then just don't practice. Okay.

Most of these players when they play in

the West, they don't just play against

the best team in their region. What they

do is they play all the teams in LCS.

And there may be sometimes when they

can't get practice against LCS, they

might play the odd challenger team in

scrims and so on. Unfortunately, they

are used to, first of all, having a

decent win rate. Even a team who's like

fifth or sixth in LCS, like Team Liquid,

might be able to in scrims have a 60-70%

win rate. Maybe they win a pretty decent

amount. If they go to Korea, the first

week they get there, they're going to

lose most of their scrims. If they play

the best teams, they're going to get

destroyed where they have almost no

chance to win. So, that in itself

destroys their confidence. And

unfortunately, especially younger

players, makes them think like, "Oh, not

only am I not going to win now, but how

could I ever win playing these

teammates? Something has to be done

right now. We have to fix it all." And

even worse, the secondary aspect is when

they are playing in the West and things

go badly, they can still keep telling

themselves, "You know what? There's a

lot we can still improve. As we keep

playing more tournaments, we'll get

better. Remember, last split was the

first split for these rookies." Now,

when you go to Korea, you feel like,

"Okay, right. No excuses. We're playing

the best teams in the world. This is our

best chance to get as good as we can get

now. We're going to see what the ideal

scenario is." Then when you lose, it

feels like, "Well, what else can we do?"

I mean, there's no there's no like we

can't go to the moon and play versus

Martians to get better. Like we just

played the best players. We're in an

ideal practice scenario and we're doing

even worse. We're doing really badly and

all our problems are very apparent.

That's going to come to an extreme head

when you're in this scenario of a Korean

boot camp. So, that's why I think if you

look in the past, the teams that have

gone to Korean boot camps who weren't

really cohesive units and didn't have a

very clear coaching philosophy and

didn't have the star players and the

role players in the right harmony in the

right balance, they're the teams that

get worse from the Korean boot camp

because it just adds more pressure and

unfortunately rips up you rips you apart

and the seams from the few elements that

were holding you together.

I think Josh is definitely an

interesting personality on any team.

Let's say Loco, Josh, or Piglet. Cuz all

three of those personalities are pretty

similar. They want to voice their

opinions. Like they all just get mad at

each other and having a lot of big

personalities on a team

can just lead to a lot of conflict.

Being better than other players in the

game doesn't give people right to like

act like babies and or on other

people. And that's not just for you.

Like that's for me and that's for Josh,

right? That's even for Phoenix, too. I'm

sure like on SKT, like Faker probably

has favoritism from Goma. And other

people feel that way about me and you.

And I still want to have like continue

to have a good relationship with you,

but I want it to be like a fair

relationship between you and me and me

and other people, too.

I think you should be more revered and

you should

have more faith. But for that to happen,

your play has to always be top notch,

which you've been good with, but your um

mentality and your behavior towards

things outside of the game also have to

be good.

Do you agree with the things I said?

Maybe.

Maybe that's the best answer I'm going

to get out of Josh and Piglet.

The way you treat us and the way you

treat Piglet is completely different.

Okay, if you feel that way, I'll try to

make sure it's fair as possible.

are facts on the table and everyone

feels the same way about it.

Okay, if you feel that way, then I'll

try to change it so it's not that way.

Whatever.

I mean, as you said, like we're going to

have different relationship with me and

him and like me and you and Yeah, you're

going to treat him like a baby that he

is and you're going to be hard on me

because yeah.

I'm a I'm the actual one that's working

hard to improve the things that I'm bad

at.

That was a bit emotionally charged, but

well, I mean

historically, Piglet's been the same

thing the whole time, though.

Yeah, it is. I mean, has Piglet

improved? Yeah. He has improved. So,

yes, he He has improved. Yeah, but like

the root problem is still there, as you

call them root problems. And those don't

seem to be going away anytime

I don't think he's improved that much,

though. Like he's spent an entire game

not talking. That's pretty impressive.

really bad. Everyone had an idea what we

were going to do, but Piglet's idea was

totally different. Oh no, he was just

lazy. Like we all went there and it's a

boot camp and that means we're going to

play all day. We're going to try super

hard and get ready for the next split

and try to win it because we were all

like super let down from getting fourth.

When we arrived like Piglet only played

the game during scrim hours and then

like after scrim hours he was out like

like with his girlfriend, with his

friends and stuff and like he was out

every night like drinking with like

Impact and Reapered his Korean friends

that were there too. So he was like

really awful work ethic that we're not

used to seeing Piglet have and it just

it frustrated me a lot because I'm

sitting there playing like 18 hours a

day with a wrist injury just like

killing killing my wrist and then I got

some dude just like jerking off. Okay.

And just doesn't

I'm I'm I'm still try hard. All right.

So from my definition of try hard, try

hard it's both in play and also in terms

of how you guys talk. So I don't think

you're trying hard when you're not

talking and I don't think Joshua is

trying hard when Joshua is being passive

aggressive. How I can talk like Okay,

let me finish and then we can go over

what is it like the little details of

it. Like there's time for Joshua to

actually like really helpful to you and

then you're like yo yo Piglet you need

to talk like what do you need bottom and

then there's time for Joshua to like

this is 4 v 5 like there's no

point to play this game like why are you

playing this? Can we just pause

here? Like

So whenever Joshua is like being emo or

Joshua is being aggressive or passive

aggressive I can be like yo Josh what

the are you doing? Like why are you

being passive aggressive? This isn't

helpful. Like I can try to be more

understanding of like why he's having

those problems and help him with those

problems and same thing for him to you

and then like you to Matt. Like when

Matt is having problems you're like

I can't play like my support

like doesn't know what to do in lane.

Like instead you can like we can tell

Matt how to play it better and then we

can be like supportive of him. I'm still

playing and I'm still trying my best and

still communicating as well but

Yeah, I can't lie but this feels like a

waste of my time.

It's a waste of everyone's time if we're

not going to try super hard as five and

only

if only someone Like what do you mean

Piglet doesn't say?

I mean words. Like he doesn't say a word

all game. He said like I think like a

total like five words maybe an

incomplete sentence that whole game.

I think like Phoenix fam and Matt

overall weren't that problematic. And

with Piglet I spent a lot of one-on-one

time and we talked about why he

shouldn't do certain stuff and how how

he should behave in certain ways. But he

had his expectations set and there was

no way of really going about it. Piglet

is pretty lonely in America.

He doesn't have that many close friends.

Only close friend I could really think

of would be Impact and Phoenix and cuz

Phoenix got a girlfriend about like last

split or two splits ago um him and

Phoenix have been pretty distant. And

then also Impact used to live with NRG

and NRG was really far from us. So

Piglet actually didn't have a lot of

close friends and he was really lonely

and he spent a lot of time just on Skype

with his girlfriend whenever we were

done with scrims and he needed to be

more incorporated with the team and he

didn't connect that well with the

players cuz they are much younger than

him and also the culture is really

different. So um the only people that he

could really like socialize with were me

and David and in spring split our

schedule was pretty intense. So on

Sundays I would take time off and

sometimes he would hang out with David

and sometimes David would take time off

so he was really lonely. So when he went

to Korea and he had a lot of

opportunities to see his friends, see

his girlfriend um he took a lot of them

so I would say during games itself his

motivation was really high but outside

of practice his motivation wasn't high

as it could be.

Wait, I left my phone downstairs and I

was hoping Piglet had one.

Instead of actually getting a charger.

We have one extra.

Well, I'm actually really responsible.

Probably the best one.

Start off about Korea. I definitely

loved Korea. Just being in Korea, all of

the

solo queue I played, all of the food I

ate, all the things that I did

in Korea was just amazing. But then

there was a lot of like flare sparking.

I think there was a lot of friction

getting built up because

of the sort of arguments that were

happening and I think the way that as a

team that we handled it was not good

because

it ended up

causing a bunch of

really just a lot of unnecessary

conflicts that really just built up over

the entire boot camp.

I don't know. I've never really been the

one to try to really relate with those

kinds of personalities. They seem really

out of my comfort zone. So when I like

confront like Loco or like Dardoch or

maybe even Piglet, those kinds of

personalities or yeah, not really what I

was used to. So dealing with it kind of

just avoiding confrontation. Just trying

to kind of just open everything would

just ride along smoothly and that caused

me to have a lot of regrets. Well, yeah

but I'm saying from my perspective. I

mean you can ask other people's opinions

if you want to.

be more open about calling each other

out and like deal with the

Like I mean I got to deal with myself

first. Like after I deal with myself

then sure I can call out other people.

Like I think it's just the coach's

responsibility cuz I can't

Well no cuz I can't call out Dardoch's

or Piglet's if I have

my own I have to like

everybody has to fix themselves before

they fix someone else. But you're the

coach. I mean I guess at some point like

if you have some People don't help each

If we wait for everyone to be perfect

and only perfect people can help other

people then like that creates the system

where if you're better at the game you

can just on people that are worse

than you at the game and then people

that are worse than you at the game just

get treated like garbage. For me I think

confidence-wise

I kind of just go up and down. Like it's

a really roller coaster effect.

Sometimes I'm really confident. I don't

care what anybody says. I'm I just think

I'm like the best player ever.

But other times I feel like I'm just a

worthless player and I have nothing to

contribute and

that like sort of emotional roller

coaster is like really bad when you're

in a like an environment where you're

expect expected to be consistent expect

like everything's supposed to be

constant. We should be practicing on

teamwork.

That happens when we lose games. Yeah,

cuz we have internal problems. I agree.

And we need to find success to improve

our internal problems but that comes

from

improving our gameplay which comes from

the 1 and 20 games that we actually

study

to get better as a team. I think it

comes from people being like my feelings

don't matter as much as the team's

success so I'll shut up.

Nobody's like that cuz we're not normal

people. We're all people with

not exactly normal mental states and

like we're all different people with

very So you think people are incapable

or people should be

It's just harder. Yeah, like it's it's

definitely a choice but it's not an easy

choice.

If it was easy then every team would

have good teamwork now. It's the teams

that decide my teamwork and my team and

my team's success is more important than

my personal feelings.

Or every team would have good teamwork.

Yeah, but There's also things that makes

it unnecessarily harder.

That could be easily fixed. I think

every team has that. It's up to

individuals to make their own choice.

I've not always struggled with being a

player and putting a lot of work into

being a player and

Matt was someone that succeeded um in a

lot of ways not by his own talent when

he was playing with Piglet cuz Piglet

was just extremely good. And Matt's

performance only dipped and a lot of the

confidence and ego he got to build with

that

suddenly was unmet and he was I guess

like he had like a

reality shock.

And he was questioning a lot of the

plays that he did, a lot of the

directions um

that was taken with the team cuz

um I believe like you should have the

best fundamentals, the best basic, and

you should constantly put work into

that.

Regarding what Piglet needs to say to

you, like if I say be specific and then

you say friendly environment, it's

really hard to help too. Like I can't

just tell Piglet be friendly and but if

you tell me specifically, "Yo Piglet, I

need you to say these things, this

thing. It helps you when you say this

thing." Then I can tell that directly to

Piglet. And whenever he doesn't do that,

I can be like, "Oh, you didn't do this."

But if you just say be friendly, I can't

be like, "Yo Piglet, why weren't you

friendly this game?" Cuz I don't know

directly

the solution to that would be like we

actually have to be friends. Like that's

like a solution.

It's not just like just say friendly

things.

Okay, what do you want in terms of

environment?

you see how like CLG is like a very like

friendly environment. They're like very

teamwork-driven and they got second in

MSI and like

Yeah, like I've I mean, I've talked to

you before like how CLG's environment is

ideal for people to improve. And like

for Team Liquid, it's like very

results-driven. Like if we're not

winning scrims, like it's a bad scrim.

And it's like the opposite for CLG. Like

if they're losing scrims, it's still a

productive scrim. And I thought that

that was like an optimal way to run like

scrims and like have practice.

And I think the key to that would be a

friendly environment, being friends with

all your teammates.

Yeah, like it's something that I've

asked before and like you should

probably work on. Okay, how do you want

to work on it?

I mean, to be honest, I don't have the

answer, but a good start would be to

yeah, try and be friends, I guess.

Okay, so whenever I suggest things like

let's go do this or let's go do this or

let's go do this or in the past where I

brought up what if the people being

friends with each other, you say stuff

like I don't think I can ever be friends

with this person. I don't think I can

ever be friends with this person. This

personality is too different. I don't

think I can do things with this person.

hard for me to see that, but I mean,

that's like what it takes to be a good

team, I think. So, I like try to

facilitate that and then try to get that

going, but people various people

complain about I can't be friends with

this person and they don't they won't

put their first foot forward and it's

hard to facilitate that at all and I

think you're part of that.

I mean, yeah, I mean, I'm asking you to

fix a problem I don't know how to fix

and I guess it's hard for you to fix it

yourself, so I don't know. You're right

and exactly right there.

He's saying something to reply to it,

like what you just said and you just

look at him bare in the face, close your

eyes and roll your eyes. Like that is so

disrespectful and

Yeah, like how do you think that makes

like Yeah, I mean, yeah, just straight

up, you don't take into like players'

feelings at all with anything you do as

a coach.

Like me and Piglet, for example, we can

take the harsh criticism that you give

because yeah, we have thick skin, but

like

all of us aren't going to have thick

skin and the way that you like treat

Matt and Sam is like

Yeah, that's dude. But

you you you like you treat You treat Sam

just as even worse than me and then you

say it's fine cuz of the relationship

and then Matt and Sam both separately on

occasions told me, "I want you to be

straight up with me and then just give

the criticism and the comments." And

then so I do exactly what's asked and

then you say how I treat Matt and Sam is

disgusting, but you treat Sam worse. How

is rolling your eyes in his face while

he's trying to make his point

giving criticism direct criticism?

What does he get from you rolling your

eyes?

the point straight up without like

But the way you hurt their feelings

while you're doing it,

it could be friendly. That's like the

whole point of this. Like I want to be

friendly, but if you make the same

mistakes over and over again, like don't

complain about things, don't do this,

don't do this and then we consistently

do it, like it's hard for me to like

care about you guys. Like I mean, your

mind you contradict yourself all the

time. Like just now you're using when

when you bring up a fault on yourself,

you bring up someone else's fault, which

in this case was mine instead of

admitting your own fault and then trying

to fix it.

it's hard for me. Let me let me finish

and

you you also just made excuses for

yourself on top of it, which you tell

Matt and others not to do all the time.

Okay, my bad.

And then you're being sarcastic instead

of trying to solve problems. No, I I

literally have been trying to

problem-solve this whole time with a

positive attitude towards this whole

situation. Okay.

perfect because you you answered

correctly and you you moved on

productively. Cool. Thank you, Loco. All

right, so anyway, regarding problems, if

you're not going to be specific about

things and if you don't do the things I

ask, I can't it's like really hard for

me to help you.

Okay, I guess I just didn't like your

perspective, but

Okay. Oh, I I've noticed Matt getting

down on himself a ton of times. There's

just a lot of things where

Matt's sort of in the same position as

me where if he sort of fails now or

falters in his career, then he's got

nothing to look back to because I don't

know if he dropped out of high school,

but I did. So I I definitely understand

the feeling he has where he feels like

I've talked to Matt separately and I

know he's said this in front of

everybody before where he knows he's

underperforming and I he feels like he's

not an LCS level player,

but he he he's got nothing else to do.

So he's got no choice than to feel like

he's bringing his team down, but show up

every day because he's got no other

options. You know what I mean?

So, yeah, I I understand where Matt's

coming from and I I I wouldn't wish that

kind of feeling on any any player ever

in the league.

Oh, no, it was extremely volatile Korea

in the scrim room, but outside of the

scrim room, we all loved each other.

It was awesome. Like going out and

I mean, I've always I've always loved

Piglet like a brother and I've always

had a ton of respect for him as a

player, but I mean

nobody's ever themselves when they're

frustrated or upset. You know what I

mean? Like there's a lot of things

people say that they regret when they

say when they say them angry or whatever

it may be and I'm I'm the same way. Like

there's a lot of things I've said during

scrims where I'm just like yeah, there's

no way I'm wrong on this where it's just

my ego talking and it's like yeah,

obviously I'm I'm wrong. Like

I come back to it. Like it was a a cycle

where it would be like

our egos would go at it in the AM and

then we'd be like, "All right, let's go

out for dinner." And then we'd go out

for dinner and like, "Oh, my bad today,

dude. Like sorry." But I mean, we were

still ego heads the day after. Nothing

changed.

Over the course of this Over the course

of this 36-minute game, I didn't talk

for 20 seconds straight.

Damn, I really checked out, dude.

And then now you're being What if it

This is what you do when you're checked

out and when I call you out on this?

Ooh, I'm checked out of real life, too.

you got me, dude. I mean, yeah.

That's insane.

You're being sarcastic. That's exactly

what you do.

Yeah, cuz it's dumb, too. Like

what the

It's what you do when you disagree. You

become sarcastic cuz you have nothing

logical to say about it.

I mean, I checked out for 20 minutes

during this during 20 seconds during

this 36-minute game. I wouldn't account

that to checking out during the whole

game like you said. Like you talk about

me speaking in absolutes, you spoke in

an absolute in this example. You checked

out this game. So I checked out all 36

minutes of this game. I don't think

that's accurate at all, Loco. I I made a

I made a I made a mistake.

I

mean, yeah, because I didn't check out

this game. I tried hard and I

got

Ask Matt. Ask the rest of the team. I

mean, Zig Zig thinks I didn't check out.

Say Piglet and Matt did. Okay, well,

that's two to three. I still think

that's not very good odds for you.

Two to two and also with coaching staff

as in yourself.

Coaching staff as in yourself. Yeah,

coaching staff as in myself as in the

person you said you would just listen

to. Yeah, but I'm not listening to

Cuz you don't agree with it,

it's Yeah, because I didn't

check out this game. Like no one's going

to know who checked out more than

myself, dude.

Matt thinks it's me

telling you can't joke around. Like you

think it's when I tell you you

shouldn't It's different, dude. Like I

Like if anyone checked out that game, it

was 100% Samson and you haven't said a

word to him. What do you mean I

haven't said a word to him? Like

you're using absolutes again where you

Like you get become hella emotional and

you use absolutes. The first thing I

called out was Sam and you guys checking

out a game. I called both of you guys

out. What do you mean I haven't said a

word to Sam then?

out on me only. Like whatever. And then

Sam disagreed and Sam's like, "Okay,

yeah, I was checked out." So there's

nothing more to go over, but you

disagree about you checking out. That's

why I harp on you. Okay, I agree, Loco.

I I'm agreeing with you. I disagree with

Loco 100%. It's absolute

Everything coming out of his mouth came

from the ass first. You can't take

criticism at all. I take criticism just

fine when it's actual criticism. Like

Cuz you're you don't get to be the one

that decides the actual criticism. when

I'm actually wrong and in the wrong and

I make mistakes, I admit it 100%, dude.

This is the direct cause of slow rate of

improvement. Like I thought we already

talked over this. You just listen to the

coach. Yeah, but if that game happens in

LCS, I'm going to talk the same amount,

100% because that was my role on the

team. Like my role wasn't to be a

shot-caller that game. It was to be an

aid.

And whether you agree or disagree, like

that's up to you, but I know what my

champion does and what my role on the

team was

Sorry.

I mean, the big problem I see with this

is like as I've kind of outlined to me,

unfortunately, if you're the owner and

you're having problems with the player's

attitude, what's unfortunate about this

specific instance of Dardoch is he is

literally the most valuable player in

the Team Liquid organization for League

of Legends because he's a star player,

he's at a position where there are very

few star players in LCS. And even worse,

he's a native North American player and

therefore he doesn't need a visa

situation. And also he doesn't need

import slot. So as a result, he is

literally the most valuable player in

your League of Legends team within your

organization. So the big issue for me is

not only do you have to kind of make

decisions that take you down a path

where the end result is he's always in

the team and something changes but he's

always in the team. Whether that be a

different coach or working in a

different way, he's always in the The

big problem to me is you can never have

leverage over that player for the

reasons I've outlined because ultimately

that will make them incredibly valuable

to other teams. So one of the big

problems with working with Dardoch is

deep down Dardoch must have known for

the entire split if things don't go my

way, if I don't like the way this coach

deals with me, if I don't like the way

our team does and we don't succeed, at

the end of it all, I have the ultimate

option which is stop trying to fix all

this, just leave, go to another team. To

me, the big problem is that had to have

been in the back of Dardoch's mind the

whole time. And that's why unfortunately

the decisions that were made I feel like

it's not that they were all wrong, it's

just that they led to a place where

eventually he could leave or would be

have to be removed.

Our secondary team was expected to be

competitive, expected to try to make

LCS, expected to try to win challenger,

while at the same time

every single move seemingly for spring

split was to help the main team thrive.

My name is David Lim and I have was the

head coach of Team Liquid Academy while

helping out with the Team Liquid LCS

team whenever I could.

Dardoch and Matt, two of the primary

players, supporting jungle, were taken

from them and then we didn't have many

options because Dom wanted to retire. It

really deterred from Team Liquid

Academy's spring progress. Taking over

for IWillDominate is Dardoch in the

jungle.

Dardoch started to develop a reputation

because he deserved one. He was playing

really well and because of that he put

more expectation on himself. With that

expectation comes eventually if your

teammates are failing you, burden. It

became hard for him to see through those

mistakes. But in spring, especially

after the CLG loss

Yeah, I'm disappointed that we're stuck

to either get third or fourth, but

yeah, better than our expectations at

the beginning of the split, I suppose.

When you're not competing for a

championship and you're competing for

third, fourth, it's a completely

different dynamic. Who would you

actually rather face between TSM and

Immortals? I don't have a preference of

TSM and Immortals. We're going to smash

whoever we get against. We're not going

to slow down for practice just cuz it's

like a less valuable match or anything.

We're just going to meet whoever we play

against, beat them and then move on to

next split.

I can tell he really wanted to win, but

he wanted to win

without hassle and it showed.

When you're an employee of a company,

there's a certain way that you need to

behave. And you know, Josh is he's

young, right? And he's still learning.

You can't harass somebody and then have

no consequences associated with it. So

at the time we decided, all right, well

let's

document every single thing that he has

done.

And at the same time let's also take a

look at the coaching staff in the

organization and look at the things that

we have contributed as well.

And let's list all of them out. There

needed to be consequences with Josh for

his actions and he needed to he needed

to understand that you can't you can't

behave that way. So

we suspended him at that time and the

suspension lasted for 2 weeks

um

on the calendar date. And we had to make

a decision on whether or not we would

use him

going into LCS or not.

With your behavior, the way that you

compete as an athlete, one of the things

that I think is an issue is your

uh self-awareness. You know, like your

ability to

recognize what you're doing and then

control your emotions. You just kind of

act as you feel.

And that's

a sign of immaturity.

Right.

You just kind of however you feel.

There's no thought to it. It's just all

reactionary based. When this happens

then things escalate really fast. I know

my role better than anyone in this

organization. I know my role. And I will

stand by that 100%.

Okay. So yeah, I mean you tell me a

bunch of and you say you don't

care.

Like you guys can't keep doing this back

and forth Like I'm going to

just cut it off right now. This is just

us listing issues. If you guys are going

to do the back and forth thing, you guys

need to like take a minute to step out

and cool down because that can't happen

if we're going to have a productive

meeting. All right. Like I don't I don't

want you to come in and go, oh can I

counter argue? I don't want you to argue

with points that are being made even if

you want to try to dispute and prove

your side. That's not the time for this

room. I actually think that even now

Loco's

he's obviously upset. Like he's

stand flicking his lighter. He's getting

he's like having to step out every 5

seconds because he's mad. Like this

isn't a productive argument either way.

Like he's obviously upset and it's like

really

like pissing me off. Okay. So what I

what I'd recommend is let's just take a

break um

and we'll just pick up tomorrow

on stuff.

This is like a work in progress.

That makes all the difference.

Can you Can you go

sit with Dardoch for a little bit and

just like

make sure he's cool and hey, just want

to see how things are going, you know.

I'm telling you Loco, the way that you

did that was sending a non-verbal

message to everyone in the in the room.

Yes.

No, you can't do that. Just wait a

second.

The non-verbal communication can be as

strong if not stronger than what you

actually say, okay? Um

and

you were communicating

based on how you did that. I'm mad, I'm

frustrated, Dardoch, I don't like

this. All these all these

things that you were saying just based

on how you acted. And I I mean I

Did you feel the same thing?

Yeah, it feels really obvious. It's

really obvious. But no, no, no, I'm

saying the non-verbal communication sent

that message to you.

It also sent that message to Dardoch. So

it's how you carry yourself. So instead

of let's say Nick, I think we should all

step out of the room. You should be

like, Nick, good idea. Why don't we all

just take a break? I got to piss. Let me

step out of the room fast, guys. Just

kind of regroup. And and and you and you

make eye contact with everybody. You

look at Dardoch, like cool, is it okay

if I step out? And then you step out.

That would have sent the message like

oh, I appreciate the suggestion about

going stepping out. I am not mad. I am

in control of my emotions. That's not

what happened.

And here's my advice is that this is an

area where you need to

develop. Like you have

a problem with

almost like Dardoch's kind of

funny in that way where you just show

your emotions very quickly. Well, I from

my point of view like I thought he was

going to cry. So no one told me to. I

was like, oh he's going to cry and

like I don't want it to be like a

mess. So I went and got him

toilet paper. Like look right behind

you. Like I don't want it to like make a

mess of himself and like I still cared.

Like so make sure like you're not crying

on yourself. Your perception's off.

Okay, in this instance it is. Your

intentions are good.

Your intentions are good. Your

intentions are great. We don't need to

dig into it anymore. All I'm saying is

that when we've talked about this so

funny how like so many things are so

similar, but about being more self-aware

of what is going on, it requires people

that care about you like me and

to give you feedback so that you can

develop. And it's not about judging,

it's not about it's literally so that we

can work together

in a better way. Just think more that

your communication is not just what you

say. It's how you act. It's fidgeting.

Like that,

you know? It is it's a lot of that

stuff. You know, um it everything is is

sending a message. Okay. Just be more

thoughtful about what you're

communicating even if you're not

talking.

And so the decision was, you know what?

Moon is hungry. He really wants to play

in LCS. He's been playing really well in

challenger.

Why not give him a shot? Let's see what

he has, you know, to offer. A lot of

rookies step up and I have absolutely no

problem giving someone that's really

hungry, that's works really hard, that's

proved results, an opportunity to prove

themselves. Especially when the

counterpart to that position is acting

more entitled. So for me it was a pretty

easy conclusion that yes, let's give

Moon a shot.

From what I've heard it's like mainly

Dardoch. I'm hearing a lot of it is like

attitude and communication problems.

It's never perfect. Like every team has

its problems.

I'm Galen Moon Holgate and I'm the

jungler for Team Liquid.

Our team kind of shoot on TLA's amazing

like everyone is so funny.

We're just like all really close

and it just feels like I fit in

perfectly here.

I just expect TLA to make LCS. That's

that's what everyone's in it for. Um if

it's any less than that then it's a

disappointment.

Since I won't have that much time with

the new roster and playing with the main

team for the first few weeks of LCS

it'll mainly just be us us gelling.

Me like figuring out the play style,

figuring out how to communicate with

everybody.

But I definitely expect us to be a

really strong team going into this

split.

The problem with removing Dardoch to me

over removing Piglet is I don't see what

the future of the main team Liquid team

is if you remove Dardoch. Like are you

just going to bring him back later when

his attitude's been readjusted that like

crazy all Willian term that

people use nowadays?

In that scenario I don't see it

happening. Like I don't see why he would

then come back later from another team

and suddenly be great and you're going

to insert him again. So you are

essentially giving up him being on that

team. Like okay, what's the best case

scenario? He goes to the challenger

team, wins challenger, and then you have

to sell the team and therefore he's not

on your organization anymore.

Or you could just bring him back into

the main team and you just avoided the

the problem of resolving him and Piglet

for a split. So in that scenario I think

Team Liquid as a team would actually be

worse if you remove Dardoch entirely and

just had Moon play for the whole split.

I don't think it would have been as

good. What's funny about this whole

scenario is I really wonder if after all

of this both of these players and Loco

Doco as well really can't look at it and

in hindsight realize oh actually we kind

of really need that Dardoch guy as the

jungler. Probably is a better investment

of our time and effort than trying to

find someone else who can play that

role. To me it's like try rather than

trying to fix one problem you try to fix

multiple problems at once and in

different directions. It's not really a

way to look at it and like there's no

real reason on paper as to why that

would work to me.

We have a two-time defending champion,

three new teams, a new best-of-three

format, and an all new battle theater.

The fight for worlds is on and the North

American LCS Summer Split starts right

now.

On stage the biggest tool you guys have

is each other and the communication

needs to be strong, okay? We're

a new team in a sense cuz we have a new

jungler and jungler's a huge

part of how we play the game and so the

information flow has to be there, okay?

I want everyone to talk. I know

we played really well in LCS and I know

we're going to rocket. There's

no other than

Santorin, Hard,

and Xmithie. How are you doing? Great.

How are you? I'm doing pretty fantastic

in a big stage. Yeah, we're in a big

stage today for this next one but we're

continuing our day of action with

newcomers Team EnVy taking on Team

Liquid. Now Liquid is coming into this

Summer Split after a top four finish but

we know these guys expected more and

they'll be coming into this summer ready

to play. Piglet and Phoenix they had a

great split last split. They were top

performers and Liquid they're going to

be looking to have those two veterans

bring the consistency from last split.

But something that won't be consistent

is going to be the jungler. You know

there's a big question surrounding

Liquid how they are going to adapt

losing Dardoch. That guy was such a big

part of their resurgence last split. Him

and Matt together were a shot calling

combo but he's not with the squad now.

Stepping in as Liquid's jungler is going

to be Moon who actually struggled to

find success last split on Energy but

this team seems confident that Moon has

improved. Yeah, he does have at least

two games to impress so we'll see if he

will be able to show us that. Going to

get onto this inhibitor. Lourlo has the

convergence drop. Moon pulls the

trigger. He gets into the back. Seraph

in the front. It's Piglet trying to

shred through. Moon goes low. He's

finally going to drop the Broxah. It's

5v4. Are facing loss. If they turn this

around they can't do it and it's EnVy

who drops the nexus and takes game

number one. And they found Piglet. He's

dead too. They might just try to end the

game right here. Moon gets caught and

drops the rest but EnVy are not

satisfied with just the inhib. They want

the nexus and they do claim their second

series victory here. Undefeated

We were a really really good

team last split cuz we put in so much

effort and we worked together as a unit.

Like that made that's what made us good.

But today what I want to see is I want

to see everyone just doing their

job. We gave each other individual roles

so we can rely on people to do their job

and work together as a unit and that's

what I want to see. And I want to see

people doing their job and if someone's

not doing their their job I don't want

to hear blame. I want to hear people say

yo yo it's fine. You can still do this

and I want us to work as a team. Week

one Matt's playing TSM.

Definitely looks like communication is

breaking down a little bit missing that

leader in the jungle and Liquid seems

uncoordinated currently. And then

they're not in the right place. Piglet

we he commented before the split that he

would never beat a Korean team with

foreign teammates and that's a bad

mentality to have. The bubble is low.

He's going to either choose to heal or

bubble and his biofrost is low. The kill

from Piglet goes over to Doublelift for

first blood and biofrost flashes in this

instant thinking he could save himself

but down. Teleport's down.

Wait, Moon's walking up. Walking up. Why

would Moon walk up? He doesn't think

Bjergsen has the damage at that point.

with the back line right now. Phoenix

looks like he gets taken down. Scrambled

up once again. Lourlo tries to stay on

the front line to mitigate some of that

damage with his ultimate but it's not

going to be enough. TSM will look to

take game one of the series over Team

Liquid.

I don't think

why we're losing is Moon's fault.

Primarily.

Could he have played better? Of course.

Is it his fault solely alone?

We wanted to give Moon an opportunity to

prove himself and unfortunately Moon did

not prove himself. You know, can Moon

improve? Can he kind of get out of this?

Of course. But in sports you don't have

the luxury of time. It was a large

intense consultative

mediation process that the organization

invested into improving Dardoch and he

was responsive to that. So at that point

we said look, let's get Josh back in

there and let's see what this guy's got

to you know, got to prove. That pushed

Liquid to the brink so Liquid are now

making adjustments. They will sub in

Dardoch for game two. The question is

will this change Liquid's fortunes

because that seems a little bit like

desperation there if they're subbing him

in even though they had suspended him.

Oh yeah. After the Korean thing where I

was implicated back in the team because

they would have gotten relegated without

me. They

made me promise to like do everything

like we had agreements. Like there were

things Loco wanted to see from me, I

wanted to see from him. We played nice

and then we went back to normal pretty

much. They want any chance but so is

Hotshot.

You guys got to calm the down.

Yeah, that was a lot. You guys got to

calm the down the comms, okay? Stop

screaming and just handle the

game slowly, okay? The communication is

really good but don't don't be frantic

about it, okay? It's not the end of the

world if if one of us talks.

Phoenix with the flash this time and

then Lourlo just used his

Eddie flashed.

My bad.

we should have killed Seraph. My

bad.

Very calling. All right. Play of a

lifetime, baby.

I think if people thought there were

easy solutions. People thought oh

if we just take Dardoch out for a little

while and bench him that'll teach him a

lesson and he'll really see how when we

bring in this other jungler we work

better as oh yeah we're way worse

with that guy. Please Dardoch come back.

So then that has accomplished nothing.

We'll be seeing Liquid in action in our

first series and we have to talk about

Dardoch returning to the lineup here and

what that means for Liquid.

Well, I love the storyline behind all of

this. You got a bad boy jungler who's

really talented but gets benched from

attitude and then he has to get brought

back just from his sheer skill and now

he has to make sure that he can quote

bring the team together back and make

these guys work. And to be honest in

that last game that they played last

week it looked like the entire team and

not him was shaky. We benched Moon back

to the to the TLA to bring Dardoch back

to carry our team. They know he can't

stop the flash on Broxah and they know

his ultimate is already down a little

bit.

Here we go. It's Dardoch in. FLASH ON

BROXAH IS GOOD. LOURLO DIVES IN UNDER

THE TURRET AND IT'S FIRST blood CoreJJ.

They're under the turret but Dardoch

more than enough health. He was probably

thinking all right I can carry this

team. I can lead this team. Ulti's way

back in after being forced to flash out.

Nexus turret number two does melt. The

nexus will fall on Team Liquid. A

convincing game number one. And as

things were falling apart he couldn't

control his emotions and he had really

bad comms where he was giving up really

early. He was saying, "Oh, we

lost. We can't win this game. What the

What are we doing?"

Let's do Baron or some

dude. I want to go to the next game

already. I I have to play this This

is so pointless. What the hell?

I just want to play the next one.

And

that was like the final nail in the

coffin. I think Piglet had told me real

talk

that some of his bad SKT days, there was

teammates of his saying that kind of

stuff and that's why he wanted to leave

that team.

And he didn't want to hear it anymore.

And

when it's a game day, no matter what, we

should be playing to win, no matter what

circumstances, and you shouldn't be

giving up.

I'm only sauce, dude.

I'm going I'm hitting sway, dude.

All right, we're up, dude.

That was like the real tipping point for

Piglet, I'd imagine, cuz I mean, I was

still pretty pretty tilted off that and

how Dardoch on LCS stage was saying,

"Okay, we'll just give up." I

was like, "What? Why would you say let's

give up

on LCS stage?" And then Piglet probably

tilted the hell out of like just off the

face of the earth.

Just saying take their KDAs or

some dude.

Take their KDAs.

Get in there, Samson.

This is my Malzahar KDA.

bye, Piggy.

He gave up in Piglet's eyes and Piglet

viewed that as very, very disrespectful

towards him and rest of the team. So, he

like I think that's when like off

trigger flipped and he was like, "Oh,

I'm no longer willing to work with

Dardoch." All right, can I end yet or

what?

God damn. Yeah, this one's a bit over,

boys. Do we get it over with or do you

guys want to keep playing? Just do that

then. Get up. Okay, just keep pushing.

When Piglet was playing on the main

team, the conflict and between Piglet

and Josh was pretty high. We decided to

move Piglet down to TLA and move Fabby

up to the main team. It was a mixture of

Piglet wanting a week break.

He's never had stage experience, so we

wanted to give that to him because he

asked for it.

It was We had a pretty easy week, so we

were just like, "All right, just throw

Fabby in." He had been working really

hard, honestly, on TLA and we thought he

deserved a chance. And situationally,

with Piglet feeling a little burnt out,

we wanted to give him kind of like a

mental break. Dardoch and Piglet really

didn't get along too well. I don't know

where you heard that from.

Piglet, we had issues on the team like

always and Piglet wanted a break, so we

gave him a week

to play on TLA. They didn't agree on

whether or not the game should be played

around like top or bottom. Dardoch

thought it was like a top-centric meta

at the time and Piglet thought it was a

bot-centric meta.

And they couldn't ever like reach an

agreement. Josh would do something that

would anger Piglet and then Piglet would

do something that would anger Josh. And

it got to the point where we would try

to work on the issue, we would

try to resolve it, talk through it, have

them express themselves, you know, and

it just wasn't working. It They just

kept butting heads over and over and

over and over.

TLA did have much more of a team

cohesiveness and I think Piglet saw that

from the outside and said, "Well, I want

to check that out." And Fabby wanting

stage experience kind of worked out in

that sense.

Instead of running two teams that were

kind of helping each other and that you

can move the roster back and forth, I

was running two completely different

teams and they weren't helping each

other. They were actually competing with

one another. And I had to make each team

as good as possible.

The other four players that were on Team

Liquid Academy really wanted to play

with Piglet. And on the other hand, we

had a lot of issues between Piglet and

Dardoch on the main team.

I thought, "Okay, well, what if Piglet

were to play for Team Liquid Academy?

How would he feel about that?" So, we

spent three or four days and we had

Piglet playing with the team and he

loved it.

He was just elated. He was like

communicating more, the other four

players loved him, he was super happy,

his mood went up, he

um

was just enjoying life. Like you could

just tell in his behavior. You know, I

would ask him, "Hey, Piglet, how's your

go Things are going?" He's like,

"They're amazing. I love it here. I love

playing for this team. Like teammates

just look up to me and and uh we're

winning and this is just fun. And I and

I and I want to go back to what's been

fun."

The alternative was, "Okay, well, then

why don't we move Fabby up to play for

LCS?" And leading into that decision,

Fabby was just decimating in NACS. Like

if you go back and watch the matches in

NACS where Fabby was playing before we

did the switch, his KDAs and how he was

carrying the game was just unreal. So,

it was kind of like, "Well, we're still

getting a really damn good AD carry for

the LCS team and Piglet's enjoying the

NACS team. So,

it was a logical choice. We were able to

combat the

conflict between Dardoch and Piglet.

Piglet was happy.

The main team was happy because Fabby

was

playing really well and his trajectory

was way up. So, at the time, it seemed

like, "Yep, that's a logical solution.

Let's go with that."

So, when I worked with Fabby on TLA, he

had a lot of motivation, he had a lot of

drive and he was actually a really good

player.

And I thought he would do decently well

and I thought at first he did this do

decently well.

Ask questions and talk to your

teammates, okay? Don't assume stuff. And

if you're not getting something done,

talk to each other. You guys We need to

come here and go, "Guys, what do you

want to do? You guys, what mental state

do we need to be?" Like if we're not in

sync, it's cuz you guys

Like in Challenger, I was like,

"Either I carry or we lose." But like

now it's like, "I'm not going to carry,

but I'm going to make sure Phoenix

carries or Sam carries or even Dardoch

carries." Like I'll make sure they carry

by playing, you know, utility style

where

I play to help my teammates rather I

play for my own like, you know, sake.

I'm not going to be farming bot all

game, trying to scale up. I'm going to

be grouping up more, looking for picks

with my teammates, moving around the map

with them, giving up farm for that. And

that's like sort of my style right now.

The story coming out of Liquid tonight

has to be the substitution of Liquid

Academy player Fabby in for Piglet at AD

carry. Not yourself. Or somebody else.

But he's going to need something more.

And he's knocked out from the turret.

Flashes over the wall, takes a lot and

Fabby gets the kill. Gate gets knocked

up and he's destroyed. Team Liquid are

going to break the base and try to end

this game taking a quick two to zero

over Phoenix1. Yeah, 26 minutes in the

game with the fizzle. Quickly, Dardoch

walled off once again. Pop goes the

weasel, runs north. Oh, Phoenix over the

wall. They want this fight, actually.

And it's going to be him zoning out O Q

who's actually surviving reasonably

well, has a hex drinker. Look at

KiwiKid, he's already going to be going

down. And the egg pop, it's two kills,

it's three kills. It's Liquid killing

absolutely everybody. And two more autos

will do it. That will be the game. That

will be the series. Liquid improve to

three and three. Yeah, before

Apex can respond, Morello tanking in the

dead. And Team Liquid two oh Apex.

Takes him out. THE AUSSIE'S CLOSE.

POWEROFEVIL FLASHES IN AND GETS OVER

WITH THE CHAOS STORM. And now Phoenix in

a blisteringly fast fashion, Ammolite

playing a two zero over Team Liquid.

Satoru going to come over to

PowerOfEvil. Oh my god, Dardoch gets his

over kill. Sneaky going to get plowed

down as well.

Yeah, Impact not enough to try and take

this down. Team Liquid is going to

charge forward and take down the Nexus.

Cloud9 will finally fall as Team Liquid

topple a giant to take the series.

Yeah, and C9 was looking so good last

week to come in It felt normal.

It felt real.

Oh, Lolo wants it. Sending United used

to try and save him, but Lolo is still

there with the damage. Might just get

it. In the midst of it all, and Dardoch

actually cleans up the back end. And now

Satoru

nervous at all.

I feel a lot better at all the games.

Well, just being on stage.

Just got to work on my play.

be a kill picked up. First blood goes

over to Fabby. And the only recourse the

fact that KFO gets the

Something Straight arrow goes to O Q.

That gives them time to take down the

Aery. This is hold off Liquid. The two

oh.

With that like the transition into LCS,

like addressing where my weaknesses lie.

I didn't have any game knowledge. I'm

learning more and more every week,

though.

I'm making my own calls, communicating

with my team. Like

I've only been like in the LCS for 5

weeks, so there's still so much

improvement to be done.

But it's definitely looking better right

now rather than worse.

And when I first talked to Piglet, it

was like, I love playing on TLA. They I

actually feel like I have a voice. Like

it actually feels like they respect me

and care about me and they want to play

with me.

He started getting kind of like I'm not

really feeling this as much anymore. And

so when I had my one-on-one with Piglet

it addressed that. Um

you know, the gist of it was Piglet,

like you're having a lot of issues with

like communication.

There must have been something that

happened between weeks four and week

seven obviously that made him just go

from I love this team to

I just want to retire.

I mean you know you're really good.

I know that I'm good. I know. So why not

be a good player and a good leader?

Right?

I like that idea.

I think you're a leader.

I think you have what it takes. You're

You're older than everyone on the team.

Do you know that? I'm just um

Um I'm just player.

So I mean I just addressed it as humanly

uh as possible and I just like

like this team like constantly makes

sacrifices for you. If you're going to

play on TLA, you have to understand

I don't think they're necessarily doing

anything wrong with like the identity of

like incorporating you into the team.

You know, they didn't necessarily choose

you to play with them cuz they had

Fabbie.

You came into TLA and we made that

accommodation for you and we talked to

the TLA members of that and they decided

to make their sacrifice knowing who you

were as a player but also just knowing

who you were as a person, they wanted to

play with you and they wanted to give

you the environment that they thought

you deserved. And I know you're a good

ass player. Right? Like one of the best

if not the best AD carry in the world.

Right?

I will

Can you be the best teammate in the

world? I think you can but you have to

make the sacrifice needed for that.

Yeah, so I mean a lot of it's

attitude, right?

Right? Right? Do you think a lot of it

comes down to attitude? Yeah.

Okay.

like

if they they bad I don't care. Like if

they attitude good, I I don't care even

they like bad team. Even they if

they like just like change the team and

if they like just like shitty team, I

don't care if they attitude good but and

if attitude good if attitude bad like I

care so much like my feeling so bad cuz

they like

just I don't only care attitude like

attitude so Yeah, I don't Right. We I'm

like la la

like

roster, right? After that and then they

they just like change something. So I

can't really face them. Okay.

You need to be able to talk, right? If

you're upset, you still need to be able

to communicate those things. Otherwise

he doesn't know what to do. Like if I'm

upset like

if I talk more Mhm. like I'm just more

I get more angry. I more get upset.

And that's just

boom. No, I know excuses. No excuses. I

just want you to talk to This is so

hard. Can you be strong? It's going to

be hard. It's so hard. So I try but I

like not 100%. Okay, I want you to sit

up and look at me, okay?

Aha. Okay, no. I want you No whining.

Aha.

Stop whining. Okay. Okay, sit up.

Sit up.

I want you to sit up and look at me.

Aha.

You're such a monkey. A monkey? Are you

serious?

Sit up.

Sit up and talk to me.

Sit up and talk to No, you you guys

should Yeah, say to him, you know?

Sit up and talk to me. He said me he

said me

monkey.

Cute cute monkey. Okay. You guys think

I'm monkey?

Maybe.

Okay, sit up and talk to me. Oh, why? I

don't I don't want to sit if I sit like

oh like I get

need I need

I need I need you to sit so you can

promise. And so our conversation was

kind of just a back and forth until he

until he kind of I think you were there

too until he kind of realized and agreed

yeah, I should give it another chance

and I should make more sacrifices for a

team that's constantly been

accommodating me and sacrificing for me.

You work and fix team attitude and

atmosphere.

Promise me that you will work on your

attitude.

Um but sometimes I I'm getting upset. I

know. Uh maybe not sometimes like Maybe

a lot of times.

Yeah. Okay, I know. All the lot of

times. I know. So I know but can you

promise that you will work on

Yeah, I tried I Okay, I can try. Okay, I

try

uh change my attitude and then

like but

I just

get upset too much. Right.

So

That's why we bought you so many bottles

of Chamisul. Oh, I should Oh, I should

do it today.

All right, take it easy though, okay?

All right.

Do you promise though? Yes? Yes. Okay, I

promise I work with you too, okay? Okay?

All right, tomorrow I know that you have

scrims and stuff so Up top is the dive.

Oh yeah, Moon dives. Orph legendary will

go down.

Poppers takes a lot but so too and takes

the series two to zero over Phoenix in a

very commanding win. Team Liquid Academy

have just secured the second We didn't

have the best week of practice for sure

but really good way to end up the

season. We have in We have six days

until playoffs. Solopool Scooback in and

Team Liquid Academy are cleaning up with

three kills and they're not going for

the dragon. They're heading towards the

Baron. Team Liquid Academy two to zero

so far. Will go mid. Knocks into a Blaze

Olive for a lot of damage. First blood

Golden Glue and hops over the Nexus but

the Nexus turrets are going down and

Team Liquid Academy will take the series

and advance to the Challenger Series

Finals.

We're a play making team. We either

dominate them or we play slow and it's

not how we play.

Look to dominate.

Look to dominate.

And we will win this series. Okay, guys?

But he actually drops before getting the

bullet. Equalizer tries to reset the

Cloud9 Challenger could be looking to

take this game here and now they drop

three. Nexus turrets themselves. We're

going to game three as Team Liquid

Academy take game two over Cloud9

disappeared by Cloud9 Challenger as they

pick up four kills. Solopool the sole

survivor will watch the Nexus fall.

But they do not stand a chance. Team

Liquid Academy even it up and we are

going to game five.

He's going to be the pick

and Rammus.

Hold the phone. Last second timer. The

North American Challenger Series Finals

as they take the Nexus and defeat Team

Liquid Academy. Team Liquid Academy's

going to have to play the 10th place

team as well as the ninth place team in

best of fives in order to qualify. So a

much tougher road for them in that

regard but uh

they can still do it, right? They

It is still in their own hands.

The thing with me and Samson's

relationship is I'm in a high stress

environment with my best friend and I

want to see him continue to be my best

friend and also my co-worker. So when

Samson is severely underperforming as

one of the worst top laners in North

American LCS, I'm obviously going to

tell him that I'm not going to go up to

him and be like, "Hey bud, you're doing

a real great job out there. Keep it up."

I'm going to be like, "Yeah, dude,

you're You got to You got to pick

it up or you're going to get

benched." And that's what I told him

every time he underperformed.

And he's come to me several times and

said, "Thank you for making me the

player who I am today." Samson's had

tons of improvements and he said he he

holds me responsible for a lot of his

improvement. And if I could go back and

talk to him differently, I tell him he's

to his face every time I believe

he's and he always fixes it. It is

a matter of harsh criticism and there's

a matter of people who take harsh

criticism well and I think Samson really

adapted. I think hearing it from his

close friend helped him a lot.

He's definitely like another brother to

me. In the past days and months, he's

changed me for better and for worse.

Like I poured my emotions into the team

and to him like

yeah, we grinded things together. We

worked on our problems together. We

improved as a duo together.

When I see I don't know if

No.

Darshan thinks you're a

Someone messed up two v one, I guess. I

don't know. Well, I mean speaking of who

would mess up a two v one, Lourlo. I

don't know. What is

Actually what

I don't know.

I don't know.

I think just having someone to Yeah,

just like rely on just like

always have someone like yeah, let's go

to 7-Eleven together. Let's go to

Cheesecake 7-Eleven. The guy that I can

go with somewhere without even like be

stressed around at me because like he

knows everything about me. I know

everything about him. So it's always

nice to have someone that you don't

actually have to talk to him cuz you're

just having a good time with him.

Who is this?

Schoolboy Q, dude. His new album. Sam's

out. I don't know who the that is.

I don't know who this is. Brew is white

boy rapper.

knows Tupac. He only knows Tupac. That's

my boy. That's how you got in that. No,

Drake. Me no care. Kanye.

Bad pop. No, I just want us to go crazy

today. these guys two v two. When have

we lost to them? It's like we can't

throw our lead. You guys have actually

never lost to them two v two opening of

the game.

We never lose two v twos to anybody.

Yeah.

We've got six months of synergy, dude.

Six months of in and IRL synergy.

No one Nobody's closer than me and Sam.

I don't know. That's for better or

worse.

think Darshan and Xmithie, dude? No,

they're probably That doesn't even

count.

They don't even really talk to each

other.

Bad pop. man.

Do I tweet the the picture of me and Sam

and the caption is Apex is free

or what? I'd say no.

just tweeted, "Prepare your cheese."

Well, do you have a picture of it?

that they need the cheese to win.

You've already tweeted that out. It's

important.

You You already tweeted that, Sam? No,

you don't talk people that are like

easily worse than you.

You don't talk to the better

people. Yeah, but they've talked us

before.

Just read Just retweet their tweets and

be like,

that. I got to make my own. I got to

hype up the match, you know.

For us, I think we have a lot of things

to work on still and like we're all like

still putting a lot of work. And I think

at the end of the day, like we'll have

like a really good shot at making

worlds, so. Playing it pretty well.

That's all T and Reignover take IT DOWN

AND FIRST BLOOD GOES TO DARDOCH. OOH,

UNLUCKY. That's rough. He's out of the

way, Shrimp. Not tanking up, but that

ultimate MIGHT BE ENOUGH. NO, not there

in time. Where is the rest of Team

Liquid? Have caught Apex off right down

the middle. Two levels, that is huge

here in this jungle priority and they're

trying to force fights. He does get it.

They're looking for the initiation.

Shrimp big ULTIMATE FINDS FABBBYY AND

MATT HUGE WAVE FROM CAIN AS WELL. THEY

COMBO WITH IT AND APEX, THEY FIND the

Miracle Team by a 4-0 win.

Shrimp going to be labeled Cain's down

here as well. Apex is looking to turn

things around. Shrimp's going to miss,

BUT THE ULTIMATE'S DOWN. HUGE AMOUNT OF

DAMAGE is expected. Takes out Matt.

That's one as well for Cain as he slays

Dardoch and Lolo. He's just there for

another kill. No one's listening to my

calls and then there's a mix of just

people trying to do their own thing.

Trying to get Fabbbyy and they will get

him, but that's a good ultimate. Lolo

now the target. Expecial knocks him up

as well, but Phoenix still alive and now

Apollo finally takes him out. Cain did

dive, but Apex going to clean up another

team fight. What a series from Apex. No

one would have expected them to take

down Liquid. Who This This was supposed

to be the easy match for Liquid. They're

supposed to take this series, move on

and fight C9 tomorrow, but Apex has

other plans and keep their playoff hopes

alive.

Certainly looking good as they'll take

the Nexus in game three and collect the

upset. And there's probably a lot of

things that everyone wants to think and

the same thing as always right after we

lose there. If you don't have any

replay, if you don't have anything,

we'll just go like, "Oh, so-and-so

should have done this. So-and-so should

have done this." It becomes useless

emotional arguing.

We're going to go through fan

interaction, take a short break, go back

home, go through the games. We can still

get really ideal situation out of this.

Is C9 No, we're locked in fourth and

then we actually have to play the game

now.

So, just stop We just got to do Fanas is

two, okay? Just get good. Who cares what

seed we're at this point? We lost this

game. Third, fourth, fifth, sixth

doesn't even matter. Let's just get good

so we can beat every team. I don't know.

It's just like like we either get good

at playing the 5v5 game or we draft

towards the jungle 1v9. Sam is

the only like real consistent player

that that we have right now. Like

everyone is really inconsistent and

we're just losing games straight up

because we're drafting towards 5v5 and

we don't have five strong members.

Like when I'm dealing Like when I'm full

tank Rek'Sai dealing more damage

than two AoE carries, like

that's not acceptable whatsoever.

Like this is like It's actually just

sad, dude.

Uh,

it's just like so embarrassing.

All right, let's go do fan and then we

can talk afterwards. I'm not going to

fans. I'm just showing you.

All right. I mean, we got to do fan as a

team. We can't just send four people out

there. You can send four people. We've

done it before.

Nah, I don't think it's a good idea. I

think we should

no. Like I'm being completely serious.

Like I'm not in the fans room.

Can just cancel school and

some teams

Sometimes they have a day. It's

Make your call.

We send four people.

All right, let's go fans.

It's just Shurima. Everyone else is too

tilted, dude.

They played perfect. Dardoch played

perfect. Oh, there's my reserves that

would be here.

Where's our team?

I'm talking.

Where's my family?

She's right there.

She's right there.

We had the freest road to Toronto. All

we did No, I absolutely We had

last week We had a 2-0 last week.

to beat clown Apex and

clown nine. And then we have

EnVyUs and semifinals and then

go to semifinals for free. And we play

against the team that we beat in scrims

all the time, Immortals. What

the

We legit had the freest run to finals

ever. Yeah. And I mean, we can take that

frustration

Even freer than last split. What the

No, absolutely. But we can take that and

we can just look at the next three weeks

and say like, "Do we give up now and do

we just look forward to the next split

or do we try to win this series?"

ignore the fact that uh

we're focused too hard on wanting to win

and maybe we're just not good enough to

win. We never put that one out there.

Are we good enough to be in this league?

Do we deserve to be here? Is our skill

high enough to be in this league?

I don't very often like sit down and

talk directly with the players. A lot of

the coaching staff manage and do that

most of the time. So, it's a It's a

little like

uh different for the player to be like,

"Oh, wow, the owner's coming over to me

and he's going to have to have a talk

with me right before the game starts."

So, I just wanted to get an idea of

where his mindset was. Kind of reassure

myself that he was going into the last

week and he was ready to play. You've

been doing some things that haven't been

great, right? You've been uh on LCS days

in game, you've been kind of saying

things that you shouldn't be saying

during the game. That's not very good

for like team morale. Um it's kind of

hurting the way the people the players

play the game and we're loo- we're not

increasing our odds of winning because

of that match because of the things that

you're saying in game. The coaching

staff doesn't want to work with you. Um

they feel like it's a really

unprofessional, unhealthy work

environment. Obviously, from a business

standpoint, I have I'm paying all of

their salaries plus Loco's salary plus

your salary plus like Piglet's salary

that, you know, didn't want You guys had

your issue as well. I am investing a ton

of money, so it's extremely costly for

me to run a business where I'm investing

into things and then they want to just

like quit because of the environment

that's being created. As a businessman,

like I can't do that. I can't

put all that money and resources into

something that's not working. When it

comes to dealing with Dardoch, I try to

pick the battles

the right way. I know a lot of times

when it gets heated, talking to him is

not going to work. I think after like

counseling and summer and all the things

with Jordan and Loco and my time and

then hiring an assistant coach and all

this stuff, it's just not working.

things they all did They all did the

opposite of help, actually. Like talking

to Loco definitely doesn't help. I think

that the team environment is not just a

I hate that everything is just put right

onto me. Like I'm Well, no, no. Here

Here's the thing. There There There

There There There There are Listen.

Listen. There are other things that are

going on, trust me.

Hey, don't say that to me. Like at the

very least

No, no. Like in the middle of my point.

And you kind of just have to let him

mull over it and let off some steam,

whether that's him like venting a little

bit. If you're going to give me a bottom

lane that's playing at like a diamond

five level, that's absolutely

unacceptable. And then you're coming to

me telling me that my attitude's a

problem when he's not even putting forth

effort. I think the degree of effort,

yes, maybe that's a good guy. How am I

supposed to meet that with It's okay,

guys. We can still win. It's okay, guys.

They all underperformed. Fabbbyy had a a

very small time where he was performing

really well and then he got complacent

and lazy and now look where he's at.

He's getting smashed by Apollo and

Expecial. Yeah. I think I think that

there's definitely valid points to that.

I think that we need to make greater

strides. I don't think that you can say

that I've made all this progress and now

I get to then still have some issues in

game. Like I should hold you accountable

to a higher standard so that at least

the the issues that we have, I don't

have to worry about focusing my energy

with you. Instead, your actions are

making me put energy and resources into

this when I I could go somewhere else.

Yeah, okay. So, why not become the best

athlete, not just a better athlete than

you were

six months ago? When you look at like

the outside picture and you understand

like the weight of that game in

that set yesterday on me, especially, I

want worlds more than any player on this

team. I don't give a who

they are. I don't care about Loco. I

don't care about Phoenix. I want this

more than anyone. I put forth way more

effort. I put all my life into this. I

sacrificed so much. I left my

normal life. I sacrificed school. I

dropped out of high school to

move out here and play this video game

professionally and I expect

professionalism and hard work from my

teammates. And that set

the same thing. I want the same thing.

we win and we go 2-0, we 2-0 today,

we're worlds. bound for worlds.

No chance. I would And when I'm met with

that level of play and all I say is that

the game's over, that is

honestly that that's an A plus,

honestly, from my point of view because

what I wanted to say is

I want to quit the game. I don't want to

play on the stage with these

underperforming players. I love your

passion, Josh. Honestly, I I get it. I

you know, it gets me fired up. I love

it, okay?

The only things are in game stuff and

we got to make a better effort on some

of this stuff. Let me handle the things

with our bot lane, okay? And I'll put my

effort there. I got it, okay, buddy?

All right. I want nothing more than than

to win.

I do, too. It just gets overwhelming

sometimes.

All right, let's go.

Over Team Liquid. Liquid hoping to

forget it ever happened. Cloud9 one kill

short of a perfect game to start their

series against Liquid. The Nexus going

to get smashed if they don't stop the

fountain. They're going to get them all.

So, Cloud9 going to mean anything.

Meteos walks in and says, "Don't you

dare. I'm a fat man." And knocks it down

a 2-0 36-minute game. Like we have the

ability to buff down if we all take it

seriously

Cinderella story.

It's good.

The CLG was a Cinderella story last

split and there's there's been a lot of

teams that go from awful seeding

and awful regular split and then just

win the whole thing. So, I think we can

do it as well.

I think about this we take that effort.

The amount of effort you put in is the

result we get. I feel like for every

single one of you guys, when you guys

didn't put in effort, you guys played

like and when you guys put in a lot

of effort, you guys all you guys played

well. I'm not talking about as a team,

but as an individual performance, your

performance directly correlates with

your effort.

Yeah. And how seriously you take it

affects it a lot.

It's good.

I mean, what's left on stage is how much

effort you guys put in. Like if you're

proud of your performance, if you're

happy with how much effort you put in,

then you're going to get kind of

performance that you deserve. And if

you're disappointed on stage and if you

have regrets, that means it has to do

with something with the effort you put

in that week.

Be honest with yourself and think about

how much effort you put in. If you're

really satisfied and think about what

you can change for playoffs.

So, they know exactly what they want to

do. Okay. And then we'll be fine. Um,

anything you guys want to add?

Let's up.

Yeah. Oh, this is the thing. I don't

care what Reddit says. I don't care what

Twitter says. This is not Solo versus

KFO. It's not Bigol versus Keith. It's

not TLA versus Echo Fox. Froggen versus

Golden Glue, I guess. Yeah. TLA versus

Echo Fox, okay? Got me.

I didn't think we needed it.

The Bigol. Bigol has coffee, so so be

careful. Not

What do you call me?

Bigol and me.

Bigol and me.

TLA and me and you.

One, two, three, TLA!

Ash but Stun follows up. Exhaust looking

for first blood. Knock up teleport,

Golden Glue gets it. Hard, meanwhile,

misses the fat flash. He's going to try

to turn it around, but five members of

Team Liquid Academy participate. Does

not have the mega nar slam. Oh, he drops

the wallop late. KFO under the turret is

stunned. Solo solo kills.

Solo comes up big there.

That player cam. The flash there from

Solo after the play.

TLA, they're very confident in this

match. Drake is secured by Echo Fox.

Moon tries to engage the cask, separates

them back. Bigol goes in trying to drop

the AoE. Bigol will be the first to

fall. Solo misses the first stun, but

finds the second. KFO teleports in

looking for stun in the back line, but

cannot find it as Team Liquid Academy

are cleaning this fight up. KFO will get

one kill in return. Boomerang lands and

the stun follows it up. They have caught

him. That is a dead Soraka. And that's

just Stun playing really well on that

Taric. He didn't even flash on that

first one. He got the flash out of Keith

and then the barrel from Moon to

separate the Soraka is an interesting

choice cuz usually you want to get the

AD carry back into your team, but he had

full confidence that they were going to

catch him after the boomerang landed.

AND PIGLET

POPS UP JUST IN TIME TO GET the kill.

Now, Froggen completes his teleport. So

much regret.

So much regret.

He didn't know. He didn't know.

Piglet is running FOR HIS LIFE. DOES

PIGLET HAVE THE PLAY? NO, HE DOES NOT.

FROGGEN KILLS HIM. MOON IS GOING TO BE

THE LAST PERSON HERE. THERE GOES THE

VOID RUSH AND IT IS NOT ENOUGH. NOTHING

TO DEAL WITH THE DAMAGE. AND ECHO FOX

MIGHT HAVE DONE IT. THEY SCARE AWAY THE

REST. Keith even dropping a bit of BM as

he drops into the nexus.

Really close series.

Really close series. It sucks a lot and

I know all of us signed here with one

goal. It was to win.

And unfortunately, we didn't win enough.

I'm really sorry for that. Know that

every single one of you has improved a

lot. And no matter where your paths go,

where you whether you stay with us or

look to seek other options or whatever

happens,

I know that this was a stepping stone

into reaching higher achievements for

your career. I know a lot of you guys

improved. No, none of you guys' careers

are going to go down from here. It can

only go up from here.

And again, I'm really sorry for today's

loss.

It really sucks.

Passport, your boarding pass.

Keyboard, mouse.

If you told me a year ago that Piglet

would play in Challenger

and enjoy it and want to play in

Challenger,

I would not believe you. He went from

one game away from competing for the

finals to playing in Challenger and

really enjoying playing the game, having

his teammates going for one goal. And I

felt like Piglet's development was so

much further along in him being a leader

and him just being able to trust his

teammates and be a full team player.

David is my friend and David is my

close. If I get stressed, like he I just

talk to him. I need this I need this

this this. So, he just try

big and just want to want him I want to

want David talk to him everything. David

take care.

Then I'll

you buy. Okay.

Bye.

Golden Glue going to go in but he gets

stopped by Smithy. Huey stuns two in the

back line as Darshan still coming in.

Great ult there from Gragas as Huey is

getting low. Phoenix does manage to take

him down, but he is going to get the

counter kill onto Phoenix. CLG still

fighting forward. Low low low. Two man

ult here from Darshan going to steal the

fate of two more members of TLA. Huey, I

think we take the fight to them.

Do not look for a perfect team fight.

You guys aren't going to get the perfect

team fight. You guys are going to get

different engages and everyone's going

to be on the same page. Darshan and

Aphromoo know what kind of fights they

want to look for and we're just going to

follow through on the engages regardless

if you guys think that it's a good or

not, okay? The engagers are going to

engage and we're going to follow

through on the engage and we're going to

flash them cuz they're here

at team fighting. They're garbage, okay?

Golden Glue and Darshan goes all the way

in. Huey manages to tag in Fabbbyy. They

will get him but Darshan taking damage.

Huey almost getting jumped on by LOW BUT

CLG PEEL. THEY MANAGE TO TAKE him down.

Now, has gone down. Phoenix flashes in

looking for more.

Clearing away getting bodied as CLG

going to start to go wild in the base of

Team Liquid. Nexus hopefully though it's

going to go down in a chaotic end to

game two. CLG up 2-0.

I'm just uh whatever. Just pick me

whatever. Let's just lose.

There's no go up but there's no orders

to follow. Darshan going back in again

as Smithy going to get tagged with the

rest of CLG here. Sixxay just crushed

his face on the two of you. Gets an ulti

out for a bit of burst damage. Jensen

caught out. Matt's going to die. Siva

now with a double kill. CLG bursting

forward. Phoenix gets the ulti BUT

SIXXAY WANTS MORE. There's a triple

kill. They're going to chase it down.

Low low no way could survive. SIXXAY,

THERE'S A QUADRA KILL. OH.

LEFT ALIVE WITH NO FLASH.

They can do it. CLG

show that while Team Liquid's talent may

be undeniable, their poise is

unbreakable.

26 minutes in. That's going to wrap it

up for

They move on to game three now.

Looking for that star championship.

First place is the goal

for CLG. They have their eyes on the

prize and it was one game lost but they

come back stronger and assert their

dominance. From the last game of the

season to the start of the gauntlet, we

had about three and a half weeks in

order to prepare for those matches to

give our last kind of shot in order to

get into worlds. In a holistic team

view, you want to make sure that the

health and mentality of the other four

players are up to snuff, too.

And so, we made that decision with the

other players in mind.

We wanted to give them uh kind of room

to excel without feeling like someone is

breathing down their throat on every

single mistake that they make.

We thought, okay, if we continue as is

and we've just had the recent result

last two weeks, we go into the gauntlet,

can we fix those issues over these next

three weeks? Or is it better to just

kind of shake things up and try

something completely new?

I was just like chilling at my computer

just playing to queue like back in the

old days, I guess, so. And then I was

messaging Joshua I'm online like, "Hey,

what's up?" And he's like, "I'm off the

team." He's that's like he just said

that to me. I'm like, "Wait, you're

trolling, right?" Cuz he I'm like,

"You're saying you're just messing

around with me?" Like, of course he has

to be trolling, right? I'm like, he's

I'm like, "Really?" {question mark} and

he's like, "No, I'm really gone." This

time I'm like, "Okay."

Yeah, after I went downstairs, he was

just like playing solo queue like usual.

I'm like, "Are you leaving tonight?"

He's like, "Yeah."

"Okay." So, like I I asked him if he

needed help packing. He said he already

packed and then

I walked him out to the car. He met his

new

Echo Fox manager. That was pretty That

was probably one of the saddest days in

my life, to be honest. After he left, it

was probably like 9:00. I went up to the

roof. I was just like messaging my

girlfriend a little bit. I messaged my

good friend named Ben. I was like

talking about like everything. I also

just messaged Nick. I messaged Loco and

then Loco came up and he just talked to

me about the

good, but also the bad. And

yeah, it was just a long night of

definitely a lot of crying.

Probably one of the most

depressing and sad nights in my life. It

was really really hard.

Any offer I get

is is is fortunate. Like I'm blessed to

get it, so I'm going to take whatever I

can get. And at the moment, all I had

was Echo Fox, so I instantly went on

board and tried to prove that I changed.

Let's try a really healthy environment

where we bring in somebody that maybe

doesn't really know how to play jungle

in his role, but is the number one rank

in North America on the ladder,

obviously has a lot of mechanical skill.

Can we teach him

as much as we possibly can about the top

jungle picks and kind of the rotational

macro game over those 3 weeks and let's

see how he performs. In my head, I

thought probably a pretty good shot. So,

let's talk to Arcsecond and find out

what his mindset is.

It was to just make sure that we had a

really productive 3 and 1/2 weeks

leading into the gauntlet rather than

kind of more of the same issues that

were existing between Josh and the

coaching staff.

All right, and we're back here to

qualify our third and final team to

worlds. Team Liquid has kind of tempered

expectations, while EnVy is maybe

getting a little bit of a boon from the

fact that Team Liquid is in a bit of

disarray.

Before all this stuff happened with like

the roster changes, you would think that

Liquid are the favorites coming into it.

Now, EnVy are definitely the favorites

coming into it against Liquid. We have a

substitute jungler who has never played

jungle before professionally in any

capacity. I mean, the guy Arcsecond is

number one on the ladder, but as a mid

laner. Arcsecond is going to make his

debut. Flash, he could doesn't go for

the outplay. There's the auto attack.

There's first blood. Arcsecond

is going to show up and it's going to be

nice for Liquid. There's the first kill

coming through for the new jungle. Now,

they're going to go back here for this

one. Trying to burn him down.

And wow, Liquid pulling the trigger.

Okay. Okay, you got it.

Nice. Nice. Push push push push push

push push push push push push push.

Nice. Good Good

Holy you're a beast. Yeah, let's

start

I think we can all come out come out.

Right side right side. You can all set

I'm being ulted.

Okay, Silver. Nice. Nice. Good job. Good

job. Good job good job. No no no no just

just push.

All right, I'm pretty sure we just won

the game.

Jungle dragon.

Phoenix we kill Cassiopeia, okay? Keep

going keep going. I'm on you mid. I'm on

you mid. I'm going to be

I'm going to be on all ranges fine. No

flash on Malzahar. I'm coming to Malz.

I'm coming to Malz. I'm going to ult.

Oh, he's dead. He's dead.

Look for look for look for Seraph. Yes,

look Cassiopeia Cassiopeia Cassiopeia

Cassiopeia. He has flash.

I I I I'm ulted I'm ulted.

Cassiopeia Cassiopeia. Uh Seraph Rex has

ulted.

Back up.

Keep running keep running.

I'm on a Silver.

Okay, help.

I see next to you.

Change the seeing and deja vu.

Arcsecond's gone as fast as his name

implies and now Phoenix has to run away

as his teammates are all dying around

him. It's a 5 V 2 as EnVy are going to

look to close out the first game of the

series in a pretty incredible comeback

win. Seraph playing his 20th champion of

the split. The Cassiopeia pretty

instrumental in the win as Phoenix

running out of HP. A quick trade kill

comes in for Liquid.

It's really obvious that after like 9

months of work that your emotions just

build up to the last result.

No, it's not the only the just whole

game. After all the game, they just shut

down their mouths. This is the last one

we have for worlds and it's like the

last tournament we had to play for like

the end of the season. So, even myself

like I had a ton of pent up emotion

built up and I know Phoenix did. They

don't have any plan and they just

I don't know what it

We just playing like normal

game. kind of control him at the end and

just lashed out on the new rookies and

also just the team in general because he

was frustrated that we couldn't even

beat EnVy and like that's pretty

disappointing for not only myself, but

for Liquid org in general.

I think that it's really important that

if you see people are shutting down and

people aren't talking, you talk to them.

You're like, "Yo guys, we can still win

this. We can do this." And then you give

them clear objective and clear plans on

what they can do to execute if you think

people aren't coming up with their own

plans.

I can see his frustration. It's

definitely acceptable, but after mine 9

months of like hard work and just ending

up getting 3 out is definitely like a

heartbreaker.

If you don't want to be on Sivir, then

we can use the last man on Sivir cuz

he's willing to play really into Kennen

and then you can be Jin instead.

Would you rather do that?

I mean, I can take Sivir, too. I mean,

I mean, which one would you prefer,

Phil?

I don't really have a preference. I

prefer Jin over Sivir, actually. All

right, then let's go with that, okay?

Let's go with Jin and Sivir. And

Phoenix, you think?

Phoenix, if you really want to win this

series, instead of blaming picks, let's

talk about what we can fix. And even if

you do think picks are problematic, you

can say it in a much more productive

way. No, I say picks problem.

Mhm. They just I just play

normal game.

With the voice chat with some random

guys. They just after all the game, they

just do nothing. Oh, I do this I do

this. They just doesn't make any plan

and they just

just shut They don't know what to do.

They just shut down. If they don't know

what to do, then we can help them in

game.

Wait, I How I say by man? I

think saying something simple like, "Yo

guys, um I need want to get side lane

priority. Can you help Can you push up

mid?" is something really helpful that

you can tell them.

They just close their mouths. Cuz I know

you're frustrated and I know that

they're closing their mouths. Instead of

us yelling at them, "Why aren't you guys

talking?" like, "You guys can do this

really easily. Like this is so simple."

It doesn't really help the problem, but

if you can talk to them where it's

motivating and tell them what to do and

help them talk, I think that would be a

better solution than being angry at

them.

Not being angry then they

Okay. Yeah, if they don't know they if

they say something, I can that, but they

just say nothing.

They are saying nothing cuz they don't

know what to say and also they feel a

lot less comfortable on stage than you.

You've been playing longer and you're a

better player and you have more

experience than them. So, I just make

them just open their mouths. I think you

did a decent job of making them open

their mouths, but we can even do a

better job. We can put confidence in

them instead of telling them just talk

just talk. Like, "Why aren't you guys

talking?" I think going with that

approach is going to shut them down

more, especially Matt. I think Matt's

the one that's having the hardest time

talk. Matt not talking is from lack of