Liquid`Stanislaw

Thank you very much for the welcome. I am honored and excited to be a part of Team Liquid.

For those who don't know, my name is Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz and I was previously the in-game leader for Team OpTic Gaming. I was on that team for about one year and it was one of the best years of my life. We started out like any new team starts out, with many difficulties and struggles, but over the course of the year we became a world contender and even ended up winning the biggest tournament any of us had ever dreamed of, ELEAGUE S2. I will do everything in my power to make sure we achieve a lot of success under Team Liquid, a team that belongs on the top of NA and can compete on international soil as well. The recipe for such success is simple, hard work, and I will work harder than I have ever worked to build a foundation of success here with Liquid.

I have a unique vision for the way the game should be played. When I became in-game leader of OpTic we changed our playstyle completely and began playing a different style of CS than to when daps was IGL, which is much more freedom based. I believe when people are more comfortable and have the opportunity to take initiative on their own, it brings the best out of them. I definitely plan on bringing this style to Liquid, as it has its proven success, but I also have always appreciated the way Liquid has played CS in the past and will also try my best to learn from what they have used to succeed as well.

In our discussions, Zews summed it up perfectly, as he said, "take the best of both worlds." I am excited to work with Zews and I hope to gain a lot of knowledge about a different playstyle that he possesses. It will definitely help to improve me as an in-game leader and a player to have an intelligent coach like him supporting us.

This will be very difficult to put into words, but I will try my best, because I owe the OpTic family (they were more than fans to me) an explanation. I was on OpTic for roughly 1 year, like I said. We had to endure so much to get to where we were as a team and nobody will truly ever understand the behind the scenes things that caused a lot of hardship. OpTic had never ventured into CS before, as it was predominantly a COD/entertainment organization, so they had a lot of difficulty adapting to the needs of a CS team which is ten-fold different than a COD team. That is not to say it's negative or plain wrong, because I one hundred percent respect the way Hector runs his organization, after all, it's one of the biggest esports organizations in the world.

However, comparing with Liquid, it's night and day. I have a lot of personal things going on in my life right now and things are very difficult, so when contacted by Liquid I felt truly humbled by their desire for me and the structure of the organization really appealed to me. Liquid has the resources and tools to allow the CS team to focus solely on the game itself, and I believe that is what it will take to become a consistent world contender. Aside from difficulties with the OpTic organization itself, I also had some concerns with the underlying problems we've had for the entire duration of the team, such as practice regime and attitudes. I know that all teams have their issues but it's very difficult to accept that some issues cannot be improved on, no matter how hard you try. I know that some people will say that I gave up or I had no loyalty, but I hope that isn't their true opinion. I gave everything I had to that team, even after they cut me without telling me. I came back without any hesitation and worked harder than I ever did to achieve the success that we had.

When Liquid contacted me, it really caught me off guard and I told Will (RUSH) that I was thinking about moving over, and he told me he didn't want me to leave. It was a hard couple of days, but in the end I feel that I did what is best for my situation. It was a bit of everything, that pushed me to leave and it was the hardest decision I ever had to make.

I'd like to say a huge thank you to the OpTic family, your support during the entire year, even when we weren't performing was truly appreciated and kept us going. I'd like to thank my teammates Will (RUSH) and NAF (Keith) as well for bringing me back onto the team, especially Tarik who thought I could do a good job as in-game leader. Also, a special thanks to Oscar (Mixwell) for everything he gave up to move over to the US to play with us; he was the main reason for our success, he had such an amazing mentality and was a true friend. I'm sorry it came to an end like this but I will never forget the Greenwall's support or our amazing memories and success. Thank you.

At the major group stages, Liquid played some of the most intense matches I think I've ever seen. All of their matches were insanely close, and there were a lot of overtimes. I think that Liquid's main problem at the major was a lack of leadership, and perhaps some composure. It's unfortunate that someone who hasn't in-game led before had to take the reigns, and I know how difficult it can be, but regardless I still think that they performed very well and have an insane amount of firepower.

I am excited to work with everyone, especially Elige who has been performing out of this world recently. But truly, I am excited to work with everyone because they all have an insane amount of skill and I hope we can achieve a lot together.

It's not an ideal world, the success will come. It may not come overnight, but we will work as hard as humanly possible to build a foundation of success. It takes a lot of practice and also it's important to be able to lose as a team before we can win, so I expect some tough times ahead but as long as we learn from them, we will get to where we want to be.