Report: Liquid look to re-energize with adreN as coach
Liquid are looking to reunite with Eric "adreN" Hoag, bringing him on board as their head coach, according to a report by Jarek "DeKay" Lewis of VPEsports. The move would see adreN fill the spot currently occupied by Wilton "zews" Prado, who was linked with a move to MIBR alongside Epitacio "TACO" de Melo early last week.
The move would see adreN link up with Nick "nitr0" Cannella and Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski once again, the only two Liquid players who remain from adreN's time on the team over two and a half years ago. As Liquid's in-game leader, adreN played for a year and a half, with Liquid's most notable placement coming at the end of adreN's tenure.
Shortly before adreN's final event, he played alongside Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev at the MLG Columbus Major, helping the team to a 3rd-4th place finish by stepping up his own game. The team fell to Luminosity in heartbreak fashion, giving birth to the infamous AWP highlight by Marcelo "coldzera" David. His final event on Liquid saw the team finish in 5-6th place at ESL Pro League Season 3 Finals, falling to fnatic in the group stage decider.
Since then, adreN has played as a streamer on Mythic in MDL, achieving middling placings in both online qualifiers and the league.
DeKay's report also revealed that the decision to make the change was completely the choice of TACO and zews, going on to say that the team originally did not plan to make any changes before the end of the IEM Katowice Major. With bringing on adreN, Liquid will likely look to their coach for help in developing strategies and tactics in-game, a job for which only nitr0 has been responsible for as of late.
If the reported moves come to fruition, Liquid's roster should look as follows:
- Nick "nitr0" Cannella
- Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski
- Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken
- Keith "NAF" Markovic
- Jake "Stewie2K" Yip
- Eric "adreN" Hoag (Coach)
Liquid currently have no matches lined up with the December break now upon us. Their next scheduled event is the IEM Katowice Major, although they may look to make their way to iBUYPOWER Masters in January as a warmup headed into the Major.