After a month of stellar online results and offline results, the unfortunate TLAF-Liquid` record of disappointing LAN results seemed destined to break this weekend. But despite some highlights, including HerO's second straight 2-1 over EGJYP and a tremendous win from Ret over MVP in two long macro games, the overall results simply weren't what they could've been. With Assembly and Winter Arena serving as two very high profile warm-ups to IPL4 and MLG Winter Columbus, it's clear that the fire that Liquid` has brought to its teamleague matches is needed in the offline tournaments.

Here are the final Liquid` results from the weekend.



Unfortunately, our fears at Assembly were realized as Jinro was beaten in one series by Acerelfi, who very neatly fits his least favorite starcraft archetype; the cheesy+deathball protoss. Against SlayerS_TaeJa, he played two fun and aggressive games, but the Korean terran's defense was just too good in both scenarios. For TLO, who suffered some wrist pain due to uneven table heights at the event, the tournament started off poorly with losses to TypePhoenix and d.BlinG, not bad players by any stretch, but ones that he had hoped to beat. In his final match against TSL_Polt, however, TLO came away with a win and nearly upset the future tournament champion. If TLO had gotten the win, Polt may not have advanced, and who knows who would've taken the tournament!

The hero for Liquid` in Finland was HerO, who 6-0'd his group, then continued to exact revenge upon JYP, with a 2-1 victory in the first bracket round. But he next played Polt, and it seemed as though nerves got the better of HerO, as he appeared to forget storm in the first game on Antiga, then failed with a gateway attack against Polt's hard counter in the second, to end Liquid's run.

In MLG, things got off to a bad start, as mouz.ThorZaIN beat Sheth and d.SjoW beat HayprO, all in close games. But close doesn't get you anything beyond brownie points, and it fell to Ret to save the day. With a narrow victory against Quantic.SaSe, the King of Drones was able to do just that. But the highlight of the weekend was Ret's next match against IMMVP, who needs no introduction. In the first and third games, Ret out-macroed, out-thought, and out played the GSL legend. In the second game, and MVP's only win, the terran held a roach-baneling bust. The performance was a brilliant one from Ret, and surely ranks among the best games played by a Liquid` player this year.

On day two, things flipped, with a good start marred by a bunch of losses at the end. Sheth and HayprO both overcame their first round opposition in the losers bracket, but then both lost in the next round to Quantic.NaNiwa and EGDeMusliM, respectively. Against EGHuK in the upper bracket, Ret took a 1-0 lead, but couldn't finish the series and lost 1-2. In the losers bracket, he matched up against DongRaeGu and unfortunately lost 0-2, ending Liquid`s weekend a day early.

That's all from ASUS ROG and MLG Winter Arena. It's not the best to end the Winter LAN season on a disappointing note, but there are plenty of other LAN events to come, and some great offline competition as well!

Liquid` Fighting!