The team that has received the most amount of attention from fans coming into 2018 was none other than TeamLiquid. At the end of the 2017 Season, TL successfully acquired the majority of Immortal's players, the team that failed to acquire a franchising spot in the 2018 NA LCS. As if they're trying to make up for their poor performance during the last split, TL had gone through a complete makeover. 

TeamLiquid's boot camp that took place in Seoul, Korea, gave us the perfect opportunity to see how

TL will change before the new season begins - having been able to see the starting members of TL's roster was a bonus. And from the revealed starting roster, we took notice of how out of the 5 players, 3 of them were former Immortals players: Xmithie, Pobelter, and Olleh.

After the official interview with the entire team, we were granted the opportunity to privately speak with the 3 players that have joined TL from IMT.

TeamLiquid's starting roster consists of 3 former members of Immortals. Have you guys seen it coming that you will all be gathering together on the same team? 

Pobelter: I thought it was pretty likely because we were a team that performed really well last season in NA, so I imagined that we were going to be wanted by a lot of teams.


Your coach, Ssong, have gone to TSM. Now you'll have a different leader. How will your playstyle change?

Xmithie: I don't think our playstyle will be different if we want to stick to the Immortals' style. The role of Ssong was more about how to draft/pick, but the macro was mainly decided by the players. Even if we do end up changing up our style, I don't think it would be because of Ssong.

(To Pobelter) You've come back to the team in which you started your career in. What does that mean to you?

Pobelter: It does feel cool to return to my original team. They introduced me to the scene, and I helped them grow. They are my first team and we helped each other out.


All five players from your starting roster have attended the Worlds 2017. Realistically, where do you think TeamLiquid will place during the Spring Split?

Xmithie: Realistically speaking, we’re hoping to get 1st or 2nd place. We’re just going to try the best that we can be to beat everyone that we face. That’s not my personal goal, however, as my ultimate goal is to do really well at Worlds when we get there.

Pobelter: I think we can at least make it to the Finals.

Olleh: I personally think TeamLiquid is an upgrade from Immortals. We've only been scrimming for about 3 days, and we're already talking a lot. In my opinion, In regards to the team atmosphere, it was an upgrade. I think we can at least place 2nd.

How is the TeamLiquid teamhouse?

Pobelter: In IMT, we lived in one, really big house. But in TL we live in separate apartments.

Xmithie: IMT teamhouse was more like a “home” where we see each other often. But in TL, we commute to our workplace from our own apartments. We don't see each other often after our work hours. I like how the business and personal times have been separated. But living together has it merits too.


The jungler that received the most amount of attention during the last Split was MikeYeung. Is there a certain quality that you have that Mike doesn't?

Xmithie: I am a veteran as opposed to Mike, as he just started. So I have leadership and the ability to easily adapt to new metas. We’ll know if Mike has that quality or not by seeing him next Split.


A lot of teams from overseas come to Korea to boot camp before their regional league begins. How does boot camp benefit you guys as a player? Or furthermore, as a team?

Pobelter: Solo Queue is a lot nicer and competitive, and the ping is really nice too. In NA we play with 60 ping, but here, we play with 8. Also, D5 and D4 here are comparable to Challenger in NA. Also, Korean teams are really strong. If you play here, not only can you scrim with Korean teams, but you can scrim against Chinese teams as well.

What is TeamLiquid's playstyle? Are you guys aggressive, passive, thoughtful?

Olleh: We're still at the stage where we're trying to better know each other. For me, I'm trying to develop synergy with Doublelift. Our general playstyle is similar to that of Immortal's, but there are some differences such as Impact's playstyle being different to that of Flame's. 


Who will be making the shotcalls for TeamLiquid?

Olleh: I personally think it'll be better if every single one of us shotcalls. If we develop a habit of having only one person make all the calls, the rest of the team could end up talking less and less. I heard that strong teams such as SKT have every member of the team make the calls when necessary.


What are your plans for Christmas?

Pobelter: I'll be going back home a couple days before Christmas, so I will do my best to recover from the jetlag and spend some time with my family.

Olleh: I'm going to finish watching Breaking Bad.

Xmithie: I will probably just spend Christmas with my family and friends.