Liquid to compete in EU qualifier for Pro League after global ranking drop

ESL announced the Stage 2, Stage 1 and regional closed qualifier invites to Pro League Season 22 today, revealing a treacherous path forward for Liquid.

Liquid's drop in this month's global Valve Regional Standings from 14th to 17th has cost them a direct invite to Pro League, as they fell outside of the top 15. Additionally, thanks to last month's update that removed multi-region representation, Liquid is currently classified as a European team, meaning they must play through the more daunting EU closed qualifier.

NA's sole representative in Pro League at the moment is in fact NRG, as a result of them winning Challenger League Season 49. NRG will be debuting some fresh roster moves, signing Carson "nosraC" O'Reilly and Zechrie "XotiC" Elshani today after transferring Jadan "HexT" Postma to M80 and moving Joshua "oSee" Ohm to the bench.

With Liquid out of the way, M80 has a slightly easier path forward to Pro League through the NA qualifier's single slot, though the team that just added HexT will still need to compete with the likes of Wildcard, BOSS, BLUEJAYS, and numerous others.

The NA qualifier begins on July 11th, while Liquid's EU qualifier run is scheduled to begin on July 14th.