The only North American team in our Top-10 Best Teams of 2021 is ranked 9th. Liquid showed good performance early in the season. Many times during the year they managed to get into the final stages of tournaments both in the home region and on the European stage.

In the beginning of 2021 Liquid acquired Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo from MIBR. The first tournament for the rewamped roster was BLAST Premier: Global Finals, where the NA team has beaten NAVI in their first game, but eventually took 4th place.

At the February IEM XV - World Championship, the team led by FalleN advanced to the playoffs and got some victories over Vitality, OG and Natus Vincere, finishing 3-4th behind Virtus.Pro. After a bad run at EPL S13, Team Liquid's head coach — Jason 'moses' O'Toole left the team. His place was taken by Eric ‘adreN’ Hoag. With a new coach, Liquid won the first qualifier for the PGL Major, beating FURIA 3-1 in the Grand Final.

At the second RMR-tournament for North American region, Liquid qualified for the Legends stage, but at PGL Major Stockholm 2021 the team did not show their best game and finished with a score of 1-3, beating only ENCE. At the BLAST Premier finals, the history of Liquid and Natus Vincere repeated once again. The American team managed to beat the CIS squad as at the beginning of the year, but then lost to them in the lower bracket.

Interesting statistics

• FalleN falls in love with C4: in 2021 Gabriel planted 446 bombs. Grim is the closest teammate by this parameter — he did it 175 times.
• NAFTIME! NAF was saving his weapon 513 times.

In 2021, the North American scene looked weaker compared to the last season. Not only the top teams have lost, but the tier 2-3 scene has also became uncompetitive due to the switch of many players to VALORANT. The lack of competition in the NA region and the successful qualification of Liquid for the Major allowed them to get into the top-10 of best teams in 2021.

Top Teams of 2021:
• # 10, BIG
• # 9, Team Liquid
• # 8, NIP
• # 7, Astralis
• # 6, Virtus.Pro