Team Liquid is considering offloading its franchise CS:GO player EliGE and moving to Europe with the additions of prodigy Team Spirit rifler Robert “Patsi” Isyanov and Bulgarian rifler Aleks “Rainwaker” Petrov for the second half of 2023 and the release of CS2 this summer.
The information that Liquid is in talks with Patsi was first shared by Russian insider Aleksey “OverDrive” Biryukov on Twitter on June 19, and it was confirmed by HLTV’s North American vertical Dust2.us later on. Additionally, Dust2.us also reported that Liquid is aiming to sell EliGE to the detriment of Rainwaker, effectively becoming a majority-European team.
Liquid have been down to just four players since nitr0’s departure on May 31, but until this point, nobody even thought EliGE could also leave the team. The 25-year-old, a legend in North American FPS circles, has been a part of the squad since March 2015, and has played an integral role in the organization’s Intel Grand Slam trophy in 2019. Nothing is set in stone, however, and the decisions will be taken over the next 36 hours, according to Dust2.us, meaning there’s a chance that EliGE stays and Liquid doesn’t sign Patsi and Rainwaker.
The arrival of Patsi would upgrade the team’s firepower as he’s individually sharper than nitr0 nowadays. Patsi has averaged a 1.09 rating in the past 12 months, according to HLTV, while mostly playing as a hard entry-fragger for Spirit. Nitr0, on the other hand, only averaged a 0.91 rating in the past 12 months by the same metric.
Theoretically, Patsi’s signing would also take some pressure off YEKINDAR’s shoulders to be the most aggressive player in Liquid’s roster and concentrate more on his calling and the micromanaging aspects. The organization feels YEKINDAR is good enough to be a captain after he led them to the playoffs of the BLAST Paris Major in May.
Related: Team Liquid reportedly not looking at IGLs in hunt for nitr0’s replacement
Patsi played for both the main and the academy squad of Spirit during his stint and most notably helped them to a top-four finish at the PGL Antwerp Major in May 2022 and the quarterfinals of thethe IEM Rio Major in November 2022. He was also part of the Spirit squad that won the $100,000 FiReLEAGUE Global Finals in October 2022.
As for Rainwaker, he averaged a 1.14 rating in the past 12 months, according to HLTV, and is one of the best players in the full-Bulgarian squad 500 alongside Hristiyan “REDSTAR” Pironkov. Even though EliGE is the main face of Liquid in CS esports, he’s been inconsistent this year. The NA star averaged a 1.07 rating thus far in 2023 per HLTV, a considerable dip from his 1.13 rating last year.
Liquid is not the only notable organization considering big roster changes. Vitality, Natus Vincere, and Cloud9 are also reportedly assessing their options for the second half of the year, and most importantly, for CS2‘s release this summer.
