flashie clarifies Liquid's potential schedule conflict with BLAST Bounty playoffs

With impressive wins over both Vitality and G2, Liquid reached their first MVP event playoff in over six months. As they prepare for their quarterfinal on LAN, some in the community pointed out a potential schedule issue that could hurt their VRS rank.

Due to their poor performances in the first half of 2026, Liquid registered for Stake Pulse Beat I, a small LAN in Stockholm, to try and get some easier VRS points. That event begins on July 31st. The problem is that it directly overlaps with the playoffs of BLAST Bounty Season 2, potentially requiring some costly forfeits.

Liquid's coach Viktor "flashie" Tamás Bea took to social media to explain their rationale and provide insight on how they would be approaching the issue.

"We were aware there could be a clash with the 2 tournaments, but participating in BLAST was our only chance to try and secure some invites on the 3rd of August." Even though the potential forfeited matches at the Stake event would be before August 3rd, the event doesn't end until August 5th, so the matches won't count toward the August ranking. BLAST Bounty ends on August 2nd.

The August VRS update is particularly important because it will provide invites to several important events with lots of slots like EPL S24, IEM Beijing, and FISSURE Playground 5. As a team looking to build back into tier one, these invites are crucial. As flashie said, no significant invites are given based on the September ranking.

As Liquid are the lowest seed remaining, they will likely play one of the higher seeds, putting their BLAST quarterfinal on July 30th. flashie added, "If we win our QR, we will drop out of the stake tournament... If we don't succeed in the QR, we will fly the next day to Stockholm to be ready for our game."

If they do end up needing to forfeit matches, they will do so in the least costly way possible. The points won't affect invites for another month, and it's not an important month for invites anyway. Furthermore, they will only forfeit if they reach the semifinals of BLAST, a result that will likely secure enough points to outweigh the forfeits anyway, given the wins and prize money.

Though it's not ideal, flashie's explanation shows that there was clearly thought put into this and they are prepared for whatever happens next.