Homecoming: Liquid` to Korea!

Liquid` to Play GSL Offlines | Liquid-oGs Team House Announced

[image loading]

We're going home, Team Liquid.

We're going home.

After years of watching from a distance, after nearly a decade of following from afar, TLAF-Liquid` is taking the big step. You love this game. We love this game. We've been playing it since the beginning, and now, with its biggest event ever on the horizon, we're going to embrace the inevitable. With a generous, supportive sponsor and the world's most fanatical community gaming community behind us, we're ready to go the distance.

This August, TLAF-Liquid` will put their best foot forward and board a plane to E-Sports central. Hailing from The Netherlands, Sweden and Germany, these three will, for the first time ever, fly our flag in Korea.

For one of them, it's a chance to revisit the glories of the past. For the others, it's a brand new future. For all of them though, it's a homecoming, because when a Starcraft player goes to Korea, he's only going home.

Global to Local

Excited by the prospect of going to Korea, TLAF-Liquid`Jinro seen here blowing up an outlying planet.

For the first time there is a Global Starcraft League, and we're going to give it our very best. The GSL announcement was a wake up call to some. To us, it was just good news at the right time. We didn't begin theorising. We started packing our bags.

Starting August 22nd, TLAF-Liquid` players will begin arriving in Korea. Veteran Broodwar player and TLAF-Liquid` Playing Manager Victor "Nazgul" Goossens will first set foot in the capital, quickly followed by Jonathan "Jinro" Walsh and Dario "TheLittleOne" Wunsch.

Jinro and TLO will live on a long term basis in Korea with Hayder "Haypro" Hussein joining them in the months to come. American Liquid` player Tyler "Tyler" Wasieleski on the other hand will stay in the United States and focus on his progaming career there. Victor will return home after the GSL to oversee the development of both TL and Liquid.

It all starts here - Nazgul, Jinro and TLO will play the GSL Offline Preliminaries from the 28th of August. But this is only the beginning.

At Home with oGs

When I said we were going home, it wasn't just rhetoric. For the next few months, Seoul is going to be home. Our home. Your home. TLAF-Liquid` management is proud to announce that after discussion with the Korean SC2 Team oGs, we have agreed that both our outfits will benefit from spending time together in an in-house training environment.

Starting this month, our players TLAF-Liquid`Jinro, TLAF-Liquid`TLO and oGs will share the same team house, practicing, playing and living together in an unprecedented act of friendship between a Korean and foreign team. We'd like to take this opportunity to extend a warm thank you to oGs and especially to their manager, Hwang "Spunky" Kyu Hoon for being open to this possibility and recognising the major potential there is in working together.

We have a lot of respect for all of you, and look forward to an era in which we will push each other to achieve our goals!

The Best is Yet to Come

This is our chance, TL. We've waited years for this. Through online tourneys and thousands of ladder games, we have played together, we have watched together, and we have waited together. To many of us, this was just a dream. Today, for all of us, it's a reality. Here's what the guys have to say about it.

Hi Victor, Jonathan, Dario and Hayder! We're gathered here today on the eve of one of Team Liquid's most exciting announcements. How does it feel to be at the center of all of this?

TLAF-Liquid`Jinro: At times terrifying, but mostly exhilarating! It's something I've wanted to do for a long time.

TLAF-Liquid`TLO: It feels almost unreal, as this has been a long imagined dream. And now it seems to come true for me.

TLAF-Liquid`Nazgul: Feels good. A lot of responsibility but I'm confident it's going to turn out great. And this is only the beginning I want the Liquid-oGs place to become a hub for foreign players who want to give progaming their best shot in the best possible setting.

TLAF-Liquid`Haypro: It feels really great! I've always wanted to go to Korea and and I wish I could go now with Dario, Jonathan and Victor but I can't because of personal reasons. However, I will be with them in the coming months.

Naz, you left Korea many years ago after a successful stint with a Broodwar proteam? Did you ever plan on going back? Did you ever think it'd be with your own team?

TLAF-Liquid`Nazgul: It had never occurred to me until not too long ago. We only recently got this thing rolling but so much is happening in such a short period. First the Beta hit and we managed to expand the team with amazing players, then we found a sponsor, and so fast after we're already going to Korea to establish a Liquid-oGs place. It's been a storm of big developments.

Dario and Jonathan, as Broodwar players, you guys have watched Korean progaming from a distant for years. Apart from playing the GSL and training in a professional environment, what are you most looking forward to about Korea?

TLAF-Liquid`Jinro: Honestly, I haven't really given much thought to anything about Korea beyond the gaming part. Hopefully I'll be able to meet up with some of the people I played with during my brood war days, and of course I want to catch some live SC1.

TLAF-Liquid`TLO: I am looking forward to get in touch with Korean culture, because E-Sports aside I am also a big fan of Korea. So I hope I will have some time to explore the country besides gaming. I frequently eat Korean food and very much enjoy Kpop, YEAH! Also I will have an easier time finding clothes in my size!

A fan of bunk beds, Nazgul ordered this model for the Liquid-oGs house in Korea before he pre-ordered SC2.

This will be the first time the both of you will be living in a team house. What are your thoughts on this new way of living you'll experience soon?

TLAF-Liquid`TLO: It will be hard to adapt at first I am sure. But there is so much to gain from it, the fact that Jinro will be there too helps a lot I think. Its good to have someone you can speak with. However, I will try to learn Korean. Not sure how hard it will be though.

TLAF-Liquid`Jinro: My biggest worry is being thrown out after I throw a pillow at someone in my sleep really... Other than that, as TLO said, having someone else there I think is gonna make it easier. Also, I've heard that Spunky's English is excellent, which should help things out a lot, as my Korean is fairly basic at the moment.

So Jinro, Dario and Haypro - you guys are going to be living and playing together with oGs in the months to come. That means playing with the likes of Cool, ensnare and Tester. How much are you looking forward to this?

TLAF-Liquid`Jinro: A lot, definitely. I'm looking forward to learning from them, as many of those guys have tonnes of progaming experience. Also, once my Korean improves I'll finally be able to accept TheStc's challenge to a rap battle. He probably doesn't remember but he challenged me and Midian to a rap battle on Bnet, like four years ago when he had had one too many!

TLAF-Liquid`TLO: I think there we are getting the best opportunity possible to improve our playstyle. I have faced Tester once in the KoTBH and now I will get the chance to play with him many more times - that's AWESOME. We will probably be the underdogs over there, but that's a good base to start from.

TLAF-Liquid`Haypro: Ah, this is gonna be great. Some of those guys have been progamers for a long time and will help us adapt to the new playing conditions. Also, it will be great to be in the same house as so many good players. I'm really look forward to it!

Nazgul, you've been down this road before. If there was one piece of advice you could give these guys, what would it be?

TLAF-Liquid`Nazgul: To really give it their all and not have second thoughts. Down the road you want to be sure you did everything you could no matter whether it turned out successful or not. Adjusting to Korean culture isn't very hard if you're just open to it, so open yourself up and have the time of your life!

Alright! Well, this goes without saying, but TL is gonna be behind you guys all the way. Is there anything you'd like to say to the community as they wait for you guys to board your planes?

TLAF-Liquid`TLO: In the end it is you that made this possible. I will never forget that and try to represent TL as best as I can. We'll stay in touch I am sure, TL HWAITING!

TLAF-Liquid`Jinro: Even at this early stage of the games history, Korea remains the Mecca of competitive game; going over there to play is like going to the states for the NBA or NHL. As such, I'll do my best to represent TL and the non-Korean community as well as possible, and hopefully at one point we'll have some TL-made cheerfuls on TV!

Finally, a big thank you to The Little App Factory for making all this possible! We couldn't have done this without a sponsor who understood the game, and more importantly, understood us and our vision for this team and community.

We don't know the future, but we do know this - these next few months are going to be some of the most exciting for us as a community. You know it, I know it - we're all going to get behind these guys as they take our dreams into another country, another world, another era of this game we have come to know and love. If anything, this announcement should remind us that we should never stop dreaming. Some dreams do come true.

We're going to Seoul, Team Liquid.

We're taking you with us.

Liquid` is proudly sponsored by The Little App Factory, makers of fine applications for Windows and Mac OS X and fans of great Starcraft! Their flagship program, iRip allows you to recover your music from iPods - a life saver if you, like many of us, do tech support for friends and family. In fact, for a limited time, you can use the coupon code TEAMLIQUID to get 25% off when you get TLAF products!