EPTToday marks a historic day for the Liquid team as we are ready to unveil our two newest members:
Liquid`Ken and Liquid`KDJ.
A Word on Smash
Last October a documentary was released that followed the players and competitive scene of Super Smash Brothers Melee. It received a lot of praise and I would go as far as to say that I have never seen better esports content. If you haven't seen it I would check it out as it's a nice way to relax, and will make it easy to understand why we're adding players for Smash.
I've been pretty focused on just a couple games and after seeing the documentary it was like a whole new world opened up. I was blown away by the depth of this game and that it was still going strong after so many years without any support. The scene that is behind Smash is amazing. The game is 13 years old and has stood the test of time over and over again. The game is deep and deserving of being an esport.
After many years of absence in 2013 Smash Melee made its return to EVO, the largest fighting game tournament in the world. It snuck in through the backdoor by winning a poll measured in charity donations. It shocked the world by getting 700 entrants, the most ever for a Smash tournament, and 130,000 unique viewers, the second most watched game out of all eight games at EVO. At Anaheim, MLG will be bringing Smash back after a long, long absence. After 13 years, the game might just see their biggest year yet.
Smash is a bit of an outcast in the fighting game community. As an esport there hasn't been support from Nintendo and the balance of the game is largely held in place by many bugs that were never intended to be in there. It reminds me a lot of Brood War in so many ways.
The players we start a team with are KoreanDJ and Ken, two legends that together with our announcement will announce their official comeback to competitive Smash. They're incredible players and personalities. Ken actually is a huge BW/SC2/Dota, and Liquid fan and appeared on the popular TV show Survivor. KoreanDJ used to visit TL over ten years ago for BW replays and plays an amazing violin.
Having worked with both guys for a while now I am confident as ever that they will do a great job representing our team and sponsors. Recently KDJ took it to M2K at the Smashing Grounds tournament and went 2-3 with him, twice. An incredible feat for someone making a comeback. This announcement has been one of the coolest things we've ever done and I hope it is only the start. They will do a great job representing us.
Liquid`Nazgul
Episode One
Connect
From Liquid
I am really excited that we have branched off towards the SSBM competitive scene. I am happy to have Ken “Sephiroth” Hoang and Daniel “KDJ” Jung to be a part of Team Liquid. I have been following the smash scene for quite a while now and these two are definitely some of my favorite players to watch. Being a big Smash enthusiast, I can’t wait to meet these two in person and play some friendly games (hopefully it won’t be too rough). After watching the Smash documentary I know that both of these guys show great dedication and passion for the game and I can see a bright future for both of them by being a part of Liquid. The hype just got more real now and I can’t wait to watch these two play under the Liquid tag.Liquid`wayto
I'm very happy to see melee grow and for Liquid to get a team! I played SSBM a lot myself back in 2002 and several times since. Watching SSBM at the highest level is extremely entertaining and I recommend all SC2 fans and check out future events and enjoy the quality 'micro'.PS: Yoshi is the most awesome character!!! Yoshiiiiiiiiiii !
Liquid`Snute
SSBM is a game built on speed, creativity, and emotion, a beautiful accident with a competitive scene that was never anticipated by its players or publisher. It is a game forged in living room couches and friends' basements, on tiny CRT monitors and $5 money matches. It is a game built on mechanical and mental skill with ten year veteran players who still smash every week and care about which coast of the United States you grew up on. The highs and lows of Melee's life span are well documented. The game went from kids huddled in college dorm rooms to a big stage, golden age of $10,000 MLG tournaments, back to player-organized "lets hold one more grassroots event before Melee dies" back to a 100,000+ viewer EVO 2013.
Melee is a survivor. It fought slow declines, a "death" sequel, and the efforts of its creator to kill its competitive scene. Thirteen years later, here it stands, with the most entrants ever for events and Nintendo finally recognizing its scrappy little scene. Melee will be at MLG for the first time since 2007, and again a few weeks later at EVO 2014.
So when Liquid decided to pick up two legends from an entirely different, console-based fighting game, it felt natural. The game is StarCraft-esque, which is the best compliment we can give it. You don't form communities and friendships and a lifestyle around flash-in-the-pan, dead in six month game titles. Ordinarily, games should not see a revival 13 years after launch. But Melee, like StarCraft, is not just an ordinary game.
See you at Anaheim.
Hot_Bid
