Despite the various players that have left the team recently, it seems as though Team Liquid is still operating in full force, as the team just announced that they’d signed multiple new Valorant players who will complete the team’s roster for Valorant Franchise League 2023.
The org announced earlier today that they have added Ayaz “nAts” Akhmetshin and in-game leader Igor “Redgar” Vlaslov, who were former M3C superstars. Besides these two, Saif “Sayf” Jibraeel, a former player for Guild Esports, also joined the team.
Dom “soulcas” Sulcas and Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen are the last two original players on the organization’s roster. Both of these players have been on the team for a while, and Soulcas is the only player left from the original Fish123 roster in Liquid, which the group acquired in August 2020.
While the announcement of new players is exciting, it comes after a long list of departures by multiple players, which have left gaping holes in the team, which are expected to be filled by these signings. The first of these departures are from the brothers, Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom and Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom. Their departure has been rumored to be related to the French Esports team, Karmine Corp. Dmitry “dimasick” Matvienko, who joined the org in August of this year, was also benched.
While the team is called one of the best in the EMEA region, after the team finished in the top 8 of Valorant Champions 2022 in September, there was a major roster shakeup. Team Liquid will compete in the EMEA International League starting next year. The 2023 VCT circuit begins with the start of the race in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In this tournament, all 30 partner teams will participate in this three-week event. The event’s winner will earn another seat in their respective region at the Masters later in the year.