Team Liquid Shakes Up Their Team

Jake “Stewie2k” Yip is now the unofficial In Game Leader (IGL) for the Team Liquid CS team. This was revealed by his teammate Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken who said that Stewie was now making the calls for the squad.

Stewie will be making the call instead of the current IGL, Nick “nitr0” Cannela. According to Stewie, nitr0 hasn’t been performing as well as he should be and is going to focus more on the game and self-improvement rather than holding a leadership position.

According to Twistzz, Stewie taking lead has been working out for the team. It is unconfirmed when he started making the calls, but Twistzz stated that his calls during the recent loss against Chaos, on May 19th, were still helpful for the team. “We lost on Overpass but […] it’s good the change of callers. Because him and Nick have different call styles. Where one is more free and one is more micromanaging” Twistzz said in his stream.

This was also confirmed by Stewie soon after, where he expressed his frustrations about the current match schedule. For him, competing every other day is stopping the team from making solid improvements.

The Smoke Criminal Caller

It is hard to compare the effectiveness of each IGL since we can’t hear the team’s communication at all times. It is possible that with Stewie taking the role of shotcaller, Team Liquid could return to their top five team status. But looking at the team as a whole, it isn’t too impressive. This is actually focusing on both nitr0 and Stewie. These two are currently the poorest performers on Team Liquid as of now.

It is entirely possible that this new switch is exactly what Team Liquid needs to bounce back. It might take some time for the Smoke Criminal, Stewie2k, to really come out in his own as an IGL. If he can grow the role, it might be an official change in title. If Stewie can fill this role, nitr0 will need to do his part as well. There needs to be a major shift in play by nitr0 in order to keep the roster of TL consistent. Losing the callout role and still not bringing in an S-tier performance may lead to nitr0 losing his spot.

Team Liquid will continue their fight in Dreamhack Masters Spring 2020 Group Stage against Furia and MIBR. This will further test Stew’s ability to lead the squad to victory.