Liquid confirm EU move with the signing of Patsi and Rainwaker

Liquid, one of the most renowned North American organizations, has announced the switch to a European core for its CS:GO roster with the addition of two new European players.

Liquid has transitioned to a European core with the completion of the signing of Bulgarian rifler Aleks “⁠Rainwaker⁠” Petrov and Russian rifler Robert “Patsi” Isyanov. With this move, Liquid has a 3-player core of European players for the first time in their eight-year history, clearly identifying them as a European team, contradicting the prior reports of their signing of Shahar “flameZ” Shushan, which would have allowed them to remain North American core.

Liquid acquire Rainwaker and Patsi to complete its CS:GO roster

Rainwaker will take Nick “nitr0” Cannella’s position, who left the active roster on May 31 following IEM Dallas. Rainwaker most participated in the CCT circuit as well as a number of other smaller competitions and qualifiers while he was a member of the Bulgarian team 500. In recent times, the Bulgarian team’s most notable accomplishment was its participation in the BLAST Paris Major Europe RMR, where they finished 1-3.

Welcome Patsi!

An explosive rifler & personality, we’re excited to welcome @PatsiCSGO to our roster. A young talent who has taken down plenty of top teams with his aim, we’re looking forward to working him into our team’s structure to elevate our skill ceiling.
Time to get to… pic.twitter.com/grg6KZ9vRV

— Team Liquid CSGO (@TeamLiquidCS) June 22, 2023

Former Team Spirt player, Patsi, on the other hand, joins the North American team to take Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski’s place, the CS:GO legend who recently departed Liquid for Complexity Gaming. The 25-year-old, EliGE, who is renowned in North American CS:GO community, had been a member of the team since March 2015 and was a key contributor to the team’s 2019 Intel Grand Slam run. According to reports, Patsi’s transfer cost the North American organization $100,000 but might go up or down depending on how well he performs individually and how Liquid fares with him in the starting lineup.

Patsi joined Team Spirit in January 2021 on a loan from Espada and had been there for more than two years. He was added to the Spirit Academy lineup two months later, but in February of last year, he was promoted to the main squad. During the past few years, Patsi has attracted the attention of many fans with his spectacular rifling abilities and game sense. Patsi, who had a 1.13 HLTV Rating, 84.2 ADR, and 1.29 Impact Rating in the 2022 calendar year, contributed heavily to the success of the Russian team.

Team Spirit’s performance did not significantly improve, though, with their best finish coming at the Professional Gamers League Major Antwerp 2022, when they finished third-fourth. Despite this, Patsi’s transfer to Liquid will mark his first time playing for an international team after spending his whole professional career in Russian organizations.