Breaking: Liquid trade NertZ for malbsdMD, shake up Americas Major invites

Liquid and G2 have completed a deal which sees former M80 prodigy Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa return to North America, while Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz reunites with former ENCE teammate Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García and coach Eetu "⁠sAw⁠" Saha.

malbsMd joins Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski and Keith "NAF" Markovic to give Liquid a North American core, and therefore North American VRS status for the first time since Valve's VRS update in June of last year. Rather than sitting at #36 in Europe's invite list for IEM Cologne, Liquid will now have a better chance to qualify through the Americas. For on-the-line NA teams like Voca and Marsborne, this means potentially one less Major spot to fight for.

Marsborne's founder Matthew "Cashmere" Sedowicz expressed his frustrations via social media saying, "Why spend time/money/resources building in a region you believe in when you can just grab a spot right before cutoff." Marsborne player Danny "Cxzi" Strzelczyk simply said, "What a BS move actually pretty pathetic."

Liquid are currently playing in Roman Imperium Cup VI with stand-in Justinas "jL" Lekavičius, so far going 2-2 in their best-of-ones.

Their roster is now:

• Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic

• Roland "⁠ultimate⁠" Tomkowiak

• Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek

• Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski

• Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa

• Viktor "flashie" Tamás Be (coach)