Team Liquid’s future in CS:GO is uncertain

Team Liquid have lost their IGL again. Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella first retired from CS:GO in 2020 and started playing Valorant. Then, after a year of doing that, he came back to Liquid and proved that he can still play CS:GO at the highest competitive level.

Among the team’s results following his return was the 2^nd place obtained at BLAST Premier: World Final 2022 and the 3^rd-4^th place obtained at IEM Katowice 2023. At the recent Paris Major, Liquid finished 5^th-8^th, which wasn’t a terrible result but it was not what they wanted either.

What’s even more painful is that they lost against an underdog. Apeks hadn’t done anything spectacular prior to this Major but they still managed to finish 3^rd-4^th.

Now that nitr0 is about to leave the team again, Liquid’s future is in question. Who will they bring to replace him? Who has the capacity to be a great IGL and also provide some firepower on top of the strategic guidance? It’s hard to say at this point. But Liquid is probably already in talks with some strong players.

Potential candidates

One name that comes to mind, although nobody knows whether he’d be interested or not in joining Liquid, is Jacky “Stewie2K” Yip. This man has an enormous amount of talent and he’s been streaming for Evil Geniuses for the past year.

He used to play for Liquid and actually spent three years there, but a series of misunderstandings and poor results resulted in a split.

It’s clear that Liquid needs someone like him and it’s also likely that he might want to start playing professional CS:GO again. After all, he’s only 25 years old and still has a lot to prove. He could potentially play for 5-7 more years. So why not do it?

Liquid may have failed to win big trophies lately, but they haven’t failed to qualify for S-tier tournaments and finish near the top. With a little bit of help from Stewie2K, the team might find a way to be exceptional again.

Another thing that makes Stewie2K the perfect man for the role is that he has IGL experience. So he wouldn’t even have to learn the role from scratch. All he needs to do is to go there, tell the guys what his plans are, and start working on a system that produces results.

Header: Team Liquid