Team Liquid dominate at 1win Essence II

It is only a week until The International 2026 kicks off, but many of the teams involved were taking one last chance to get in some practice at the 1win Essence II tournament. Almost every one of the ten participating teams would be in their last minute preparations for TI, but a few warm-up series on the latest patch could never hurt.

After the Group Stage, which saw MOUZ and Nigma Galaxy eliminated, the remaining teams went into a double elimination bracket playoff.

The unstoppable Team Liquid

Having dominate Group A early in the tournament, dropping only a single game in an unlikely draw with MOUZ, Team Liquid was definitely looking like the team to beat. On the other side, it was their grand finals opponents, Team Falcons, who topped Group B. However, in the upper bracket finals on August 4th, Falcons destroyed Liquid, sending them to the lower bracket finals.

Liquid would manage a clean sweep victory over 1w Team in the lower bracket finals, surviving some late game scares as they set up for a grand finals match against Falcons – and a chance for revenge.

Revenge is exactly what they got, sweeping Falcons 3-0 to become the champions of 1win Essence II. Their victories saw them go over the hour mark twice, and even turning around what seemed to be an assured victory for Falcons in Game 3.

The win for Liquid nets them a $100,000, the lion’s share of the $200,000 prize pool on offer. Although 1win Essence II may not seem like a huge deal, it gave us all a look at what we can expect to see from these teams when TI 2026 kicks off on August 13th.