Awash with Fury: Team Liquid announces new Valorant roster for VCT 2023 season

Fear the Depths

Today, Team Liquid released the announcement on their Valorant roster for 2023. Mainstays Dom “soulcas” Sulcas and Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen have now joined forces with former Gambit/M3C standouts Igor “Redgar” Vlasov and Ayaz “nAts” Akhmetshin. Joining them also, is former Guild star Saif “Sayf” Jibraeel.

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The total of three signings in conjunction with the official release of brother icons Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom and Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom brings the roster to six players now. With the announcement of this lineup, there are now few teams in Europe with a more stacked roster.

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Wave of Talent

“nAts” and “Redgar” were two power pieces of the former Gambit Esports/M3C roster. “nAts” especially, was one of the most sought after EMEA player in the off-season, and his secure by Liquid, bodes ill for their competition. Having steadily built a reputation as the lurking playmaker, he adds much needed urgency and swing potential to the roster.

“Redgar” meanwhile, excels in shotcalling. Having spent his time on Gambit/M3C as the In-Game Leader, he successfully led the team to a Masters win in 2021, along with a finals finish at Champions that year. In 2022, the Gambit roster was greatly hindered by their association with Russia and chose to part ways with the organization, rebranding as Masters 3 Champions.



“Sayf” exploded onto the international scene in late 2021 as force of nature on the OP. Having previously played on Ninjas in Pyjamas, it would be on Guild Esports where he truly came into his own as a prodigal player. Whilst he has yet to earn the case of international accolades his teammates have, his performance during Masters Copenhagen in 2022, promised a potential for a top player.



 

Sunken Hopes

Team Liquid has had a rough year of Valorant by their standards. Despite the consistent appearances at international tournaments this year, they failed to capture imaginations or top placings at any of them. Their domestic fates weren’t much different, with Fnatic and FPX ahead of them at every turn.

In fact, their appearance at Masters 1 Reykjavik could be attributed to FPX’s inability to secure visas to the event. A flat performance at the event saw a repeat at Champions later that year, with a 7th-8th place finish in both cases. They even failed to secure a spot at Masters 2, falling to M3C in the quarterfinals.

 

Rising Tide

This new roster, however, instills great hope in fans of the organization. With the departure of IGL “ScreaM,” the roster appeared to be in even direr straits. However, “Redgar” is assumed to be taking up the mantle of IGL with the secondary calling of “nAts.”



The additional firepower of “sayf” and “Jamppi” threaten a dual pronged sniper setup. Much like times past, Team Liquid has always assembled superteams. This time seems no different.

The new roster will debut at the Red Bull Home Ground tournament starting from the 9th of Dec.

As it currently stands, Team Liquid’s Valorant roster now looks as such:

• Dom “soulcas” Sulcas


• Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen


• Igor “Redgar” Vlasov


• Ayaz “nAts” Akhmetshin


• Saif “Sayf” Jibraeel


• Dmitriy “dimasick” Matvienko (sub?)

Image credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games