Team Liquid, a common household name in the eSports community, has formed and signed on a team for competitive Civilization VI. Yeah, you read that right. According to Team Liquid’s CEO, Steve ‘LiQuiD112’ Arhancet released a statement on the organization’s site to announce the creation of their official Civilization eSport team.
The post goes into details about Arhancet’s love for the Civilziation series, and how, prior to entering the competitive gaming scene with League of Legends, he had honed his competitive prowess with Civilization IV many years ago. Wishing to see his team return to a beloved franchise, Arhancet believed that “Firaxis is on the cusp of bringing the franchise to a competitive eSports level.” For this reason, the team has enlisted the help of MrGameTheory, who is well known for his accolades and records for heading the various Civilization competitive ladders and former World Champion title for Civilization IV and V.
The organization hopes that, with such a strong presence leading the team, he will help enforce and propagate the competitive growth of Civilization VI, especially in a more mainstream way. Upon receiving this position, MrGameTheory had this to say:
“Civilization holds a very special place in my heart, and I still feel nostalgic about those times I used to enter “C:\games\civ\civ.exe”. I spent countless hours spamming settlers and phalanxes back in 1991. It was in Civilization IV where I hit my peak, and that’s when I decided to create my own team, dominating the multiplayer scene in weekend CCC events—decathlon-like Civilization events with 10+ person teams playing in various formats (ironman, anc ss, medi, occ, etc)
When Civ V came out I was too focused on building the foundation of what would become Team Liquid to participate as actively in the multiplayer community. However, with the release of Civ VI and after spending hours watching twitch streams, looking at the various game modes, mod features, and the hints to the resources, and noticing the new focus on FFA multiplayer, I’m once again excited. What really thrills me is the real evidence that Civilization VI is going to be competitive and will be here to stay, even with any dramatic changes to the teaming structure that MPers have grown used to playing with.”
Team Liquid has stated that they hope to launch a tournament soon, in order to revitalize the Civilization community. While initially a surprise, it’s a welcome fresh of breath air to find out that there are more than just RTS and FPS games in the competitive scene. I’ll be looking forward to a major growth in the competitive Civilization VI community.