Team Liquid’s Recent Struggles

Team Liquid has been experiencing a series of challenging events after the retirement of their in-game captain, Aydin “Insania” Sarkohi. Their issues culminated with failing to qualify for the ESL Birmingham 2026. This situation broke their 8-year consecutive participation streak at the ESL One events. Their defeat came after a 1-2 loss to MOUZ in the lower bracket semifinal of the ESL One Birmingham 2026 Western Europe Closed Qualifier. This failure subsequently placed Team Liquid in the fifth position.

Details of the Matches

The unfortunate ending for Team Liquid followed a previous 1-2 defeat in an upper bracket against Virtus.pro. These matches were part of a double-elimination bracket and were online events held from January 18-20, 2026. The game with MOUZ showed Team Liquid initially winning the first map (30-19) but then losing the next two maps (27-8 and 31-16). ‘Crystallis’ of MOUZ earned the series MVP title due to the player’s standout performances. However, Team Liquid’s top performer was MiCKe, especially during the first map.

Changes and Inconsistencies in Team Liquid

Since the retirement of Insania, there have been significant changes to Team Liquid’s roster, which include the departure of assistant coach ‘kpii’ after the pinnacle of The International 2024. New members, ‘Ace’ and ‘tOfu’, have joined the team, with ‘tOfu’ moving to the demanding role of hard support and captaincy. These changes may be contributing to the inconsistent results of the team. For instance, they finished in third place at FISSURE Universe: Episode 7, 9-12th place at BLAST Slam IV, fourth at FISSURE Playground 2, third at PGL Wallachia Season 6, and 9-16th place at DreamLeague Season 27.

Upcoming Events and Main Event Overview

Despite their struggles, Team Liquid is scheduled to participate in future events, such as FISSURE Universe: Episode 8 and BLAST Slam VI. Meanwhile, Western Europe will be represented by four teams, which are Team Falcons, Virtus.pro, Nigma Galaxy, and MOUZ, in the main ESL One Birmingham 2026 event. This tournament will take place March 22-29 in Birmingham, UK, featuring 16 teams and a $1M prize pool that will be split amongst the organizations and players. Direct invites have been sent to Tundra Esports, Xtreme Gaming, PARIVISION, OG, Team Spirit, and Team Yandex, and other qualifiers are still to be decided or are ongoing.

Those interested in seeing the game series between Liquid and MOUZ can find video coverage on YouTube, with Game 1 starting from the 1:44:40 timestamp.