As 2025 draws to a close, so too does Team Liquid’s first full year competing in Overwatch esports since 2017. And it’s been quite the year, featuring multiple international competitions and culminating in a dramatic first place finish in OWCS NA Stage 3, where the team won 4-3 over Spacestation Gaming.

For this team, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. That’s partially because much of the roster is made up of young, vocal players who all came into the team with a different viewpoint on the game. They’ve undergone plenty of development since January, and all the work they’ve put into it has finally been paying off as of late. You can see that upward trajectory in their stage results — from finishing third, to second, to first.

As they look towards the OWCS World Finals at Dreamhack in Stockholm, they hope to ride the momentum they found in Stage 3 to their best international result so far. To get a better understanding of the team’s development this year and where they hope to go next, we spoke to head coach Casores and flex support Rupal in the lead-up to World Finals.

Congratulations on that Stage 3 win! How did you feel after that final?

Rupal: For the team, it was definitely the best feeling all year, especially because in Stage 1 we got third place, and then in Stage 2 we improved a lot, as a team and as individuals as well. We made a pretty strong push [in Stage 2] but we ended up losing in the finals on Map 7. So running the Map 7 back, but this time winning it… it was one of the best feelings ever.

Casores: I think the team was really ecstatic. I remember we won and then I went in the room and screamed, and we all jumped up and down together, huddled up.

Rupal: Yeah, we literally got in a circle. We were at a rave for, like, five seconds.

That’s awesome. What was the preparation like leading up to that match? How was the team feeling going into it?

Casores: Our biggest difficulty was with D.Va in general. She’s very good into our composition, and it’s something we can't really pull out ourselves, so we needed to make sure we could nullify their D.Va and make our comps work. We actually had a lot of stuff prepped that we got to show, with the Sigma comp and with the Ramattra, which didn't end up working out as well as it did before in practice. So we needed to adapt and play a lot more of the dive maps, and then pull out things they wouldn’t expect. I think we did that pretty well on Esperança and on Suravasa. Those two maps, especially, we played really good.

Rupal: I think we also surprised them a lot. They prepared a lot for us, just as much as we did for them. But in terms of their preparation, I feel like it was pretty obvious that they prepared mostly for our dive comps. So when we pulled out different stuff on Suravasa and Esperança, those two maps — those were their map picks. They had a good plan of how to counter our comps, and then we just played a completely different comp than they were used to, and it really caught them off guard. And those were honestly our two most dominant maps, the whole series, while not playing our best comps.

You mention the D.Va being the hardest thing to deal with. That’s interesting, considering the story of the very last fight of the match, with [Spacestation’s tank] Hawk being 1% away from having ult when he got de-meched. Can you talk about that moment, what was going on in the comms, and what the thinking was heading into it?

Rupal: I feel like at the very end, we proved that we were the more clutch team. We lost a few fights in a row because we were not on the same page, and too loud — we didn't hear each other. And we made multiple mistakes in consecutive fights. But in the last fight, everybody calmed down, and the game slowed down a lot. We called to play slow, push the cart, and then get ready to take top. So what it really came down to was that we took the steps, and had really good fundamentals in the very last fight.

Casores: Going into that map, we knew dive had a pretty big advantage, but it really wasn't easy. I think D.Va-Cass is an easier comp to play; they can play around the cart a lot, and focus on shutting down our Freja. We’re playing the ball comp, which is really hard to pilot in these scenarios, and you really have to go through the steps to force the cart and then slowly take over the high ground. Because if the D.Va-Cass is just sitting on high ground, it's almost impossible. 

So, like Rupal said, we messed that up for a couple of fights. But in the final fight, we did it right. The fact that D.Va had 99% on ult and died — we got pretty lucky with that. But I think even if he had gotten bomb, it still would have been a tossup.

It’s been quite a journey for this roster to get to the point where you can reset your comms and go back to the fundamentals in such a crucial match. What’s it been like to build this roster out throughout the year?

Casores: We definitely had a lot of growing to do this year. And, as you can see, we got third, then second, and then first place. I wouldn't have had it any other way. But, as Rupal mentioned earlier, our comms were very frantic early on, especially in these hectic situations. We've always been doing pretty good in practice, but when it mattered most, or these fights would go long, we started struggling, especially in Stage 2, where we lost a lot of tiebreakers.

I think we as a team really improved on knowing the basics, and everybody knowing their role and doing it, no matter the scenario. That's what made the difference in this last stage. Everybody's grown a lot as people and as players, and I think you could see the results of that.

Rupal: Yeah, I agree. I think another important thing about our team specifically is if you look at everybody's past teams, we were all very vocal, opinionated players. So when this team was formed, we had a lot of fights early on, because we all kind of saw the game differently, and thought of different ways to win. And maybe both of us are right, both of us are wrong, in different situations. But now, after playing for a whole year, through so many different matches and playing against so many different teams, I think we've really come to a middle ground.

How has playing in international competitions impacted the way that you think about the game, and the way you think about competing and being in a team with each other?

Rupal: Playing in international events is honestly so different, especially because every team bootcamps for one to two weeks beforehand. So when the different regions start scrimming each other, the meta shifts every day. Some team will find something new, and then a different team will copy that, and then another team will find something new again. We're feeling that right now, where everybody's kind of feeling each other out, and it's been pretty fun. Our first international event didn't go too well for us, but we gained a lot of experience. After Esports World Cup [EWC] — coming back from that, we were not the same team, and that's pretty obvious from us winning Stage 3.

Casores: What’s especially important in international competition is you find your own style as a team, and you play to your strengths, because every team is good at something different now. I feel like in EWC, we kind of started playing other teams' styles because we were getting beat up in scrims a lot, especially by the EU teams. So we tried to play that style, but in the end, we started playing to our strengths more. That's when we had the most success.

It's very likely that your first match will be against Team Falcons. So how are you feeling going into that match? What do you think you’ll need to do to close the gap between you and these top teams who are favored to win the whole thing?

Rupal: I'm pretty confident. I'm also just really excited to play against them because I've never played against Falcons in the past two years, at any international event. They're a really good team, and they have some of my old friends and ex-teammates. One of the reasons I actually feel pretty confident is that I lowkey know them pretty well. I feel like I have them downloaded. I think when we play against them it's going to be a really close match. 

Obviously, they're really good, they’re a top Korean team, but they also have a lot of close matches in Korea. They're not a super dominant team. Not that we are [dominant] — we have a lot of Map 7s, Map 5s — but I really feel like this upcoming tournament is a tournament that anybody can win. All the teams are very skilled and the meta is so varied. 

Casores: I think last year, we [as Toronto Defiant] played Crazy Raccoons five times. Didn't beat them once. But we didn't get to play Falcons, so I’m excited to finally get to play them.

I totally forgot that Falcons has a bunch of ex-Florida Mayhem players. Are you excited to see them again?

Rupal: Yeah, if we do end up playing against them, it'll be my first time ever playing against SOMEONE. I've never played against him in a match before. So, I’m pretty excited.

Rupal, I also wanted to ask you about your personal growth as a player this year, because you’ve basically been building out a new team. What's it been like to contend with all these differing opinions and figure out how to guide everyone into a shared direction?

Rupal: It's been really hard, honestly, especially at the start of the year. Now it's a bit better, but I haven't really been in this kind of situation, where I'm the oldest on the team by far — not just in terms of age but experience in general. And because of that, I do have to always help out my teammates. They help me out too, of course, and I think we have a good balance. I'm never afraid to speak my mind, and I think that mindset has spread to everybody else on the team because we're all very open and honest. If one person doesn't like something, then they're going to say it. There's no holding it in until after it's too late, which I really appreciate from all my teammates.

So, year in review — how do you think 2025 has gone so far? I mean, first year on Team Liquid, obviously, but also, the structure of Overwatch esports itself has settled into this new normal. What do you guys think of it, and are there any things that you would like to see going forward?

Rupal: For me, I think it's really cool. I loved Overwatch League as much as any other Overwatch League fan, but it's really cool to see the different regions and what they play. Every region's unique. They have their own style, and when they end up meeting at the international events, you can see it. I really appreciate that. I feel like it adds a lot to the competition.

Casores: Everybody's sad that OWL died. I thought there wouldn’t be any franchising or partnerships anymore, but the partnerships program has been really good, which is why Liquid has stepped in. And we've been having a blast on this team. We loved being on Toronto Defiant too, but Liquid's been great for us.

As for the format, it's good. And then next year there's going to be a World Cup too, so there's going to be even more tournaments for players to play. It's not as bad as I thought it would be after OWL died. I liked the weekly games that OWL had, but I also like that now there's multiple LANs and tournaments a year that we can travel to.