Worlds 2023 Previews: Team Liquid

With the Worlds 2023 Main Event set to start tomorrow let’s get to know the LCS representatives a little closer.

After the elimination of Golden Guardians in the Worlds Qualifying Series, LCS will only have three teams playing in the Swiss Stage—and Team Liquid is the 3rd seed for the region due to their loss to NRG in the LCS Summer Lower Bracket Finals.

Team Liquid Roster

• Top lane: Park “Summit” Woo-tae
• Jungle: Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon
• Mid lane: Eain “APA” Stearns
• AD Carry: Sean “Yeon” Sung
• Support: Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in

Team Liquid’s journey to Worlds 2023

The offseason before the 2023 Spring was an ambitious one for Team Liquid, especially considering the disappointing year preceding it. Many fans expected them to cut costs and play with a less experienced roster, but TL surprised fans and analysts by signing former LCS MVP Summit and reigning World Champion Pyosik. However, they still promoted two new players from their Challenger roster to the LCS, which meant the Spring Split was a slower start than anticipated.

Team Liquid then decided to give this 5-man roster another shot for the Summer Split, but the turning point after another mediocre start was substituting APA for the underperforming Haeri. One of the most hyped prospects in the tier two and collegiate scene, APA did not disappoint the fans and had an impressive debut in the LCS.

But the most important factor in TL’s rise to the top of the league in Summer has to be the two new aforementioned signings, Summit and Pyosik. These two players really came to their own during the second half of the year and found a lot of consistency in their gameplay—which was very lackluster during Spring and was a big reason why TL struggled to close out games despite their great early games.

PENTAAAAAAAAAAAAAA FOR PYOSIK pic.twitter.com/fgRtuxNc8L

— Team Liquid Honda LoL (@TeamLiquidLoL) August 13, 2023

First opponent: T1 vs TL

There aren’t any easy matchups in a tournament such as Worlds. Still, a hungry T1 coming out of a very disappointing end to their LCK Season and looking to prove themselves again on the international stage is one of the worst ways to start the event. One advantage for TL might be that two T1 players, Faker and Keria, were part of the Korean squad that won gold in the Asian Games 2023, but it is a very minuscule one.

When looking at the matchups, it doesn’t look more promising either. The strongest part of the TL squad is probably Summit and how he gets individual leads in most games, but Zeus is not a player who will give too many opportunities to his opponents. TL will almost surely also struggle in the other side lane as well, since while CoreJJ and Yeon are a decent duo, they have very little hope when it comes to going head to head with the T1 bot lane.

Maybe one advantage for TL to exploit can come from the jungle since Oner wasn’t playing that well in LCK, but Pyosik hasn’t been a player that can carry teams to wins on the international stage.

How to watch Worlds 2023

Fans can watch every game of Worlds 2023 on the official LoL Esports website, Riot Games Twitch channel or the LoL Esports Youtube channel. Also for the first time in Worlds history, a number of content creators selected by Riot around the world will be able to costream the event.

For more of our coverage of the Worlds 2023 Play-in Stage and the Main Event, you can follow us on ESTNN.