IMC presents: The Liquid Open

Are you nasty with a Vandal or an AK? Have you got those fast flicks and slick one taps? Or maybe you’ve got the clean calls and the utility lineups for any situation? Whether you’re a mechanical beast or a genius IGL, it’s your time to shine because IMC Trading and Liquid are hosting another 5v5 tournament - this time for Valorant and CS:GO. Don’t have a team? Don’t worry! Just join the IMC Liquid Open discord, select your region, and jump into the looking-for-team channel.

Make new friends or get the squad back together, because it’s time for the third-annual IMC College Clash - scratch that - Liquid Open, presented by IMC Trading. Though the name has changed, IMC is still committed to the tournament, providing both prizes and a live broadcast.

How do I enter?

Before we get to prizes, we should probably explain how to enter. First, we’re opening the event up to three regions: North America, Northern Europe, and Australia-New Zealand. Each region has a separate bracket, with NA and EU playing Valorant and ANZ playing CS:GO. We’re sticking with CS in ANZ because of the great response and great competitors we’ve received in the last two years, while in NA, we chose to branch out to Valorant because of the incredible health of the scene in that region.

EU is the Xanadu of the FPS, but we chose Valorant because we could work with Riot’s tier 2 scene directly! We’re proud to announce that it is officially part of Beacon - Riot’s own grassroots circuit for Northern Europe. The highest placing EU teams won’t only win prizes but points in the Beacon circuit that go towards qualifying them for bigger regional Riot events down the line. Our EU event will have different rules (and nationality requirements) because of this.

The dates and rules change with the region so here’s a quick breakdown.

• NA [VALORANT]:




• Register through this Challengermode page


• Registration closes on September 19th, 2020 at 22:00/10 PM PST


• The tournament runs from the 20th to the 22nd


• Open to anyone above 13 years of age


• Read our full ruleset here

• EU [VALORANT]:




• Register through this Challengermode page


• Registration closes on September 21st, 2020 22:00/10 PM CEST


• The tournament runs from the 22nd to the 25th


• Open to anyone above 16 years of age


• For teams in the regional open qualifiers, 3 of 5 players must be from the respective region. In the student qualifier, 3 of 5 players must be from the Nordic region. For more details, see the “Rosters” section of the IMC ruleset.


• Read Riot’s full Beacon ruleset here

• ANZ [CS:GO]:




• Register through this Challengermode page


• Registration closes on September 22nd, 2020 22:00/10 PM AEST


• The tournament runs from the 23rd to the 25th


• Open to anyone above 16 years of age


• Read our full ruleset here

What can I win?

Now that you know how to sign up it’s time to learn what you can win. Each region has slightly different prizes and EU also has points in the Beacon circuit on the line!

• NA:




• 1st place: $3,000 USD


• 2nd place: $1,000 USD


• 3rd - 4th place: $500 USD


• 5th- 8th place: $65 USD Skin bundle per person

• ANZ:




• 1st place: $3000 USD


• 2nd place: $1000 USD


• 3rd - 4th place: $500 USD


• 5th - 8th place: $150 USD Skin per person, of their choice

• EU:




• 1st place: $3,000 USD


• 2nd place: $1,000 USD


• 3rd - 4th place: $500 USD

• Qualifier winners receive:


• 1st-3rd place: - $65 USD Skin bundle per person

• Riot Beacon Points:




• 1st place: 1000 points


• 2nd place: 850 points


• 3rd place: 700 points


• 4th place: 550 points


• 5th-8th place: 400 points


• 9th-12th place: 250 points


• 13th-16th place: 150 points

The prizes aren’t just for competitors. You can win some of them just by watching from home or participating in our clip contest. If you complete our Liquid+ Experience or submit a sick highlight from one of your games (in Valorant or CS:GO) you’ll be entered into a raffle with 16 total winning spots and a chance at a Secret Lab chair and a signed jersey.

• 1st Prize:




• Secret Lab Chair


• Signed Jersey by the Valorant team


• 100,000 L+ Points

• Second Prize (5 winners):




• 5x $20 Riot Points


• 2022 Antwerp Stickers


• 40,000 L+ Points

• Runner ups (10 winners):




• 10,000 L+ Points

How do I tune in?

Catch all the action on our twitch channel, starting on the 20th with our NA bracket, which runs through the 23rd. Then we’ll start the ANZ and EU broadcast on the 24th, which will run through the 25th, though EU qualifiers will not be streamed due to volume of matches. (We can’t cover everything!) Each broadcast should start at around 6 PM, local time of the tournament. If you can’t catch every moment, you can still participate in the raffle. You just need to catch the Liquid+ link that we’ll post in the chat (likely after or in between matches).

We’ll of course have live commentary and analysis too! Stay tuned to find out which Team Liquid members might be covering your matches.

Why IMC?

If you’re savvy, you might’ve asked why IMC Trading would work with Liquid to create an annual grassroots tournament. They’re a very specialized trading and finance company after all! That’s not the normal kind of sponsor you see in esports.

But IMC Trading was invested in esports well before they invested in TL! In the IMC offices, esports is one of the biggest pastimes, with many employees following titles like CS:GO, Valorant, StarCraft, League of Legends, and more. That love for esports is baked into the company’s culture, and they often go on company trips to big events and even host internal tournaments and events.

The esports DNA runs so deep that some employees have even competed themselves. That’s a part of why IMC works so closely with our tournaments. (They’ve also helped us expand TSL and Liquid Hacks)! IMC has always had an eye for talent. They devote more to recruitment and development than most trading companies and put a great deal of thought into their recruitment processes and into what makes a good trader.

Increasingly, they’ve found a surprising overlap between gaming and trading. It’s pretty wild, but a lot of the skills you see in esports line up with the skills you need in IMC’s own fast-moving world. The on-the-fly thinking of a clutch, the systems analysis of making a meta read, the resilience to go 0/10 and try again next round - that’s all stuff that IMC values, both in their own employees and the world of esports.

It’s why we’re happy to have IMC as a partner. They understand the skills that make esports special and they support our efforts to grow those skills up from the grassroots. We also see IMC as a healthy and natural end of the competitive pipeline. We know better than anyone that esports won’t be a sustainable career for every competitor or creator. Sometimes you have to bow out as you get older, other times you might not want to make your freeform hobby into such a huge part of your life. Either way, IMC is a place where both skill and passion in esports can transfer over.

So whether you hope to be a pro one day or you just want to play in a tournament or two, we hope you’ll sign up and pop off!