ot with Curse Academy. Closer the last two splits as Team Liquid, but both times losing in the semifinals. With only one regular season title under the clubs belt, th

rom the game. Davis, running for Cabrera, stole second with slugger JosHonestly, I trash talk because its fun, Team Liquids star jungler Joshua Dardoch Hartnett told ESPN.com following his teams 2-0 weekend over Cloud9 and Team Envy. Suspended at the start of the split, Dardoch has returned to the lineup. Coupled with the emergence of promoted TL Academy AD carry Jovani Fabbbyyy Guillen, it has lifted the team to a 6-4 record after five weeks, following a tough 0-3 stretch to begin the split.Im confident in my play, Dardoch continued. I just trash talk because whos going to follow a team leader that isnt confident? If I go into every set saying, Oh yeah, its 50-50, either team can win, then nobody on my team is going to go in there ready to play and win.From its beginnings as Team Curse to the present day Team Liquid, the club has failed to live up to expectations throughout its history. Anytime there was a feeling of glory on the horizon, something would go wrong and the team would swing back to the starting line. In the five years of the organizations existence, it has never made it to the World Championships.An organization that has prided itself on strong veteran leadership has withdrawn to welcome a new generation. With talented and brash youngsters like Dardoch, Team Liquid hopes this revolution of adolescents can become the golden generation. Out of the current starters on the team, four of them started out on the Academy squad under the main roster in the League Championship Series. Over the course of the last year, the hardened faces of battle have transitioned into the likes of the Matt Matt Elento in the support role and Samson Lourlo Jackson playing the top lane role.The community backlash -- just as many people are supporting me as hating me, he said, divulging his thoughts on how some parts of the community see his trash talk as unprofessional and bad for the sport. Im cool taking all the heat. If I trash talk and I get all the blame -- as long as [my teammates] arent getting the hate -- I can take it all. I have thick skin. I dont care at all about [what] any of these people say about me.That quote summarizes what Ive learned of Dardochs personality from previous interviews. Hes straight to the point most of the time, and he stands behind it. Hell give out compliments where he sees fit with opponents, yet doesnt shy away from believing in his own abilities as well. When it comes to his teammates, hed rather be the one getting all the criticism and negative comments. As the leader of this possible golden generation, Dardoch believes he can deflect any unfavorable press that comes his way, as long as his team sticks beside him.We ran into a bunch of internal problems in Korea, he said. Theyre getting resolved, and were pretty well off now. Were progressively getting better.Team Liquid has never made it to a North American League Championship Series Final. Not as Team Curse. Not with Curse Academy. Closer the last two splits as Team Liquid, but both times losing in the semifinals. With only one regular season title under the clubs belt, there has been a drought of success for Liquid as an organization in League. The addition of former world champion Chae Piglet Gwang-jin at the start of the 2015 year was supposed to be the next -- and more successful -- chapter in the history book of Team Liquid. And although Piglet has been individually one of the better players in the NA LCS the past two years, the team itself has no NA LCS finals appearance to show for it.[Fabbbyyy] is probably going to be our starter for the rest of the split, he said. Piglet brings the experience, game knowledge, and has the macro understanding, but me and Matt have picked up the macro understanding so we dont need that from Piglet. Fabbbyyy has more motivation. Hes hungrier to improve and win, so he has that over Piglet. And hes not picky with his champion pool. Like, Fabbbyyy will pick a perceivably bad lane matchup 2v2, but hell pick it if its better for the team. Where Piglet will, most of the time, just want to dominate the lane.When discussing the differences between the two players more, Dardoch wanted to make sure it was a joint decision between the team and Piglet. Piglet wanted to reset his mind and is feeling better playing with the Academy squad at the moment, and Fabbbyyy is proving his mettle by performing in the major leagues. And while Dardoch and Piglet get along and there is nothing personal about the decision, the current meta fits the style Fabbbyyy brings to the team more than Piglets. In a landscape where selflessness rules the bottom lane and the game is played towards the middle and topsides of the map, the rookie American is currently a better fit in the starting five.It wasnt Piglets fault that we were losing when we had him on the team, he said. We had -- the other four -- little to no knowledge. We didnt know how to play the game as a team. So even when Piglet got these 40, 50 CS advantages in-lane, multiple kills, we still couldnt close out the game because we were just a worse team. It had no problems with Piglet.Liquid last season was a one-dimensional team. Piglet and Matt, if left alone in a two-on-two matchup, would win lane, pick up kills, and start snowballing on the rest of the map. As long as Piglet was able to get off to a good start and the team was able to keep up the pace into the mid-game with at least a bit of finesse in closing, Liquid looked to be a championship contender. When teams neutralized the bottom lane, however, TLs mid-to-late-game management was shown to be subpar, and the rest of the team wouldnt be able to get anything else going unless Dardoch found momentum early in the laning phase.This group from TL wants to change that trend. A one-dimensional team, as shown last split, can get only as far as fourth place. For Liquid, anything but the World Championships this year as a top three seed from North America would be a massive failure. Fourth isnt an option.I honestly thought it would be bad when Piglet left because hes the only Korean, said Dardoch, talking about the fifth (and only non-Academy) starter on the squad, Kim FeniX Jae-hun. But FeniX is so Americanized now that hes not living in Korea anymore. All he does is spam North American memes in our comms and really jokes around. Me and him got a lot closer, so I feel like hes just as comfortable.Graduation time has come for the four Academy members that presently sit in the Team Liquid house as starters. Many doubted at least at one point their maturity level, talent, ability to perform on the main stage. But theyve come together to bring Liquid into the forefront of teams in a competitive NA LCS campaign.To everyone who has supported me for so long, just thanks a lot, Dardoch said. The suspension stuff is over. The fall of TL is hopefully over, and were definitely on an upward trend. I think this is the split well definitely break the fourth place curse. New Balance UK Outlet . Instead of dwelling on the negative, Oates focused on what was good about the clubs recent play. It worked. Cheap Authentic Shoes UK . Mats Zuccarello and Derek Stepan scored shootout goals, and backup goalie Cam Talbot earned his second win in two nights as the Rangers shook off a late tying tally and beat the Maple Leafs 2-1 Monday night. http://www.newbalancesaleuk.com/ . Clarke was injured while practicing on the Doha Golf Club range after the pro-am on Tuesday. The Northern Irishman arrived at the course on Wednesday hoping to start, but after hitting a few balls on the practice putting green Clarke advised officials he was not fit to play. New Balance UK From China . -- Canadian Andrew Wiggins got the ball on the wing, made a nifty spin move and then let go with a soft floater from about 10 feet that swished through the net in Allen Fieldhouse. Wholesale NBA Shoes UK . The 19-year-old Olsen played 34 games with the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL this season. In that time, hes recorded 17 goals and 17 assists with 36 penalty minutes. CHICAGO -- The Chicago Cubs, who face the Miami Marlins Tuesday, not only bolstered their relief corps with a Monday trade with the Los Angeles Angels, they added a completely different look.The Cubs added right-hander Joe Smith, who has a sidearm delivery that contrasts sharply with the Cubs mostly hard-throwing relievers.Hes a sidearm, ground ball guy. We dont have that look or that ability right now in our bullpen,said Jed Hoyer, the Cubs general manager. Its great to have hard-throwing guys with great breaking balls, but its nice to add a different look. Hes also a guy that Joe (manager Joe Maddon) can use to get a big double play in the right spot.The deal for the 32-year-old reliever came as the Cubs wrapped up a busy pre-deadline stretch that also saw arrivals of left-handed relievers Aroldis Chapman and Mike Montgomery.You definitely assess your bullpen over the first half of the season and if there are areas you want to improve, you look to do that, Hoyer said. When we looked at this team that was an area that we thought we could make some changes -- adding two left-handers and adding a guy like Smith, who can be a right-handed specialist. We felt that would improve the mix of our bullpen.The Smith deal reportedly closed just before Mondays 3 p.m. Central time trading deadline. The Cubs gave up Class-A Eugene right-handed pitcher Jesus Castillo, 2/3 with a 3.27 ERA in seven minor league starts.Smith is a veteran of three teams and 10 big league seasons. He is 1-4 with a 3.82 ERA , 25 strikeouts and four saves in 38 appearances this season. Smith has a career 40-27 record with 2.94 ERA and 461 strikeouts in 623 games.He has reached 70 relief outings in each of the last five seasons, showing versatility by both closing and working set-up over the last three years.On July 25, Chicago acquired Chapman -- the left-handed closer recently clocked with a 105-miles per hour fastball -- from the New York Yankees.Five days earlier they landed Montgomery, 277, in a four-player trade with the Seattle Mariners for first base prospect Dan Vogelbach and pitcher Paul Blackburn while receiving minor-league pitcher Jordan Pries.ddddddddddddoyer said it wasnt just the Cubs looking at bullpen help this time of year.I dont want to say that almost all contenders improve their bullpen, Hoyer said, but Ill bet if you look around the league the majority of teams in contention did something to address their bullpen.The Miami Marlins made one trade prior to the deadline as they shed injured right-hander Colin Rea.But the NL East contenders -- currently 4 1/2 games in back of first-place Washington -- otherwise stood pat as the trading deadline passed and a final eight-week chase commenced.They sent Rea back to the San Diego Padres in exchange for minor league pitcher Luis Castillo. Miami had acquired Rea and pitcher Andrew Cashner in a seven-player deal but reportedly determined Rea was already hurting when he arrived.Most attention this week around the Marlins is on outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, who is just two hits away from becoming the 30th major-league hitter to reach 3,000 career hits.He would be the third to reach 3,000 against Chicago, following Stan Musial (May 13, 1958 at Wrigley Field) and Lou Brock (Aug. 13, 1979 at St. Louis).The Mariners send one of the leagues top strikeout artists against the Cubs in Tuesdays middle game. Right-hander Jose Fernandez (12-5, 2.79 ERA) has 184 strikeouts for the season, good for second in the league.Tuesdays start will be the second of his career against Chicago.The Cubs will counter with right-hander Jason Hammel (10-5, 3.23 ERA) in his 21st start of the season. He is 2-5 with a 3.97 ERA in 11 games (nine starts) against Miami. He has allowed three or fewer runs in 17 starts this year and is 3-0 with a 2.00 ERA in three starts since the All-Star break. ' ' ' e Bautista at bat, but Darren ODay struck out the all-star right-fielder to end Torontos inning.