Sanford: We Remembered The Pain
In the corridor behind the Riyadh stage—just minutes after confetti had fallen and KarlTzy raised the trophy he had chased for half a decade—Sanford stood in the middle of it all—the lights blinding, the roar deafening, the stage vibrating beneath his feet. He basked in the lights and the thunder of the crowd, but in his mind was the memory they never wanted to relive.
That memory was from two years ago, in Cambodia, when the Orcas faced defeat.
Now, it was something else. Not relief. Not quite joy. Something in between—a long exhale after holding one’s breath through a thousand scrims, a dozen sleepless flights, a history of missed timings and miscommunication.
In the MSC 2023 semifinals held in Phnom Penh, Indonesia’s ONIC Esports swept ECHO in a stunning 3‑0 victory, eliminating the M4 World Champions and denying a Philippines-only grand final matchup
“We reminded ourselves,” he said quietly, “that we should not repeat those mistakes in MSC two years ago. We should remember the feeling of getting eliminated.”
He did not mention ONIC Indonesia by name—not out of avoidance, but out of discipline. There was no revenge arc in Sanford’s language. No chest-thumping. No redemption speech. Just memory. And a body trained not to forget.
“I think we made a lot of mistakes back then. And now, we used that lesson from MSC 2023 to be stronger here at MSC 2025, and we reminded ourselves that we should not repeat those mistakes and we should remember the feeling of getting eliminated.
Although that was two years ago, it does not mean Team Liquid breezed through the rest of history unscathed. Many times, their most difficult obstacles are themselves.
What is not seen in the kill feed is how much had to be buried to lift this team into its current form. Coach Arsy remembered it well—the slow crawl of the MPL season, the near-quits, the inner wars they chose to win instead of escape.
“Hindi naging madali ang naging run namin,” he admitted. “Sobrang dami naming naging ups and downs… pero pinili naming harapin iyon na magkakasama kami.”
The past remained unsolved. “Sobrang bumabalik pa rin naman yung mga bagay na nagiging problema namin,” he said, but there was no resentment in his voice—only pride. “Mas pinili namin manalo at lumaban kaysa sa magpatalo sa mga negativity namin.”
Even in Saudi, where scrims were scarce, they found help from an unlikely ally: Coach Duckey, from their storied rival AP Bren. Duckey didn’t give them strategy. What he gave was space—helping them find sparring partners across the MENA region so the machine could keep running.
And behind Arsy’s presence on the stage, too, stood another name: Coach Joshua Alfaro, who had once recommended Arsy for his very first pro team. Arsy did not forget. None of them did.
It wasn’t just strategy or synergy or scrims that brought Team Liquid PH to glory. It was Sanford and those like him who remembered the pain—and made sure the team would never feel it again.
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