Team Liquid names daps as its CS:GO head coach

Damian “daps” Steele has been named the new Head Coach of Team Liquids’ CS:GO roster. The CS:GO veteran will be in charge of Liquid’s team at the upcoming IEM Cologne.

The decision comes just one day after the team’s coach, Eric “adreN” Hoag, and Richard “shox” Papillon, both departed the organization. However, Liquid quickly filled the position of head coach with experienced CS:GO player daps, leaving a seat for the fifth player available.

Daps was once a member of Liquid, back in 2015, but his stint there wasn’t particularly fruitful. He left Liquid in 2016 to join OpTic Gaming, where he put in some of the best performances of his career. He then departed OpTic and joined NRG Esports’ CS:GO lineup after a nine-month stint there.

His time with NRG was the pinnacle of his career, with the team even winning the Intel Extreme Masters Shanghai in 2018. He played for many big names after leaving NRG in 2019, including Cloud9, GenG, and Evil Geniuses. After a short break, he joined professional VALORANT in 2021, however, after a year of struggles, he returned to Counter-Strike again later in 2021.

Who will be the 5th Liquid player at IEM Cologne?

Though Liquid’s search for a head coach is over, the team is still missing one player to complete its roster. According to some reports, the organization was unable to get Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski or Justin “jks” Savage for the tournament in Cologne.

According to Dust2.us, the squad has approached both Snaz and jks but has yet to secure any of the players. Snax was a stand-in for Lotan “Spinx” Giladi at the 2022 IEM Dallas, and his solid play helped ENCE reach the finals. He is, however, already signed up as a sub for ENCE in the ESL Pro Tour, leaving Liquid with little choice but to grant him a contract. The club apparently made one more step to complete the lineup, approaching Justin “jks” Savage, a 26-year-old Australian pro.

Because of his success with FaZe clan in IEM Katowice 2022, the CS:GO veteran has been in the spotlight this season. However, jks is also unable to join Liquid because the organization refused to pay a loan fee asked by his parent club Complexity, according to the report.

The North American org is also said to be attempting to loan a player from Evil Geniuses and Dignitas, but no deals have yet been made. If the squad is unable to find the fifth player before the IEM Cologne roster lock-in, the new coach may possibly step in.

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