Russian AWPer could've joined Liquid over oSee
According to a brief interview with Bogdan Medvedev of Russian website Cybersport.Metaratings.ru, Liquid could've went into 2022 with an AWPer other than fan-favorite American sniper Josh "oSee" Ohm. According to recently benched Entropiq player, Aleksei "El1an" Gusevm, Liquid were in talks to sign the 23-year-old player, as a potential replacement for outgoing Brazilian legend Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo.
El1an also mentioned that he elicited interest from the likes of the likes of G2 before they elected to sign Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov, and with ENCE, where he would presumably have replaced Olek "hades" Miskiewicz. Despite this interest from some of the largest and most successful organizations in recent years, El1an told Medvedev that he ultimately elected to stay with the Czech organization and his teammates, with whom he has played with for multiple years.
While El1an's addition to Liquid did not come to pass, the "what if?" factor in the move raises a number of interesting possibilities. For oSee, it would likely see NA's best AWPer remain with his colleagues on Extra Salt and later Complexity, potentially changing their fortunes in 2022. As such, Paytyn "junior" Johnson would've potentially stayed with Bad News Bears, hopefully averting their slow demise after losing one of their best players.
On the other hands signing the Russian player could've been a costly blunder for Liquid in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While rival organization Cloud9 have seemingly been able to navigate signing of maintaining a Russian roster, there are no guarantees in the esports iron curtain. The prospect of making such an unorthodox signing for the Dutch-American organization to only have it go up in flames could've completely changed Liquid's outlook on bringing in CIS stars like Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis.
While that may be too far down the rabbit role to seriously consider, the knock-on consequences of moves like this are always fascinating to consider. Unfortunately for El1an back in our timeline, he is now on the lookout for a new team after being benched by mutual agreement on September 15th. El1an pointed to confidence issues being the main issue in his play, so hopefully reflecting on the interest he elicited from Liquid and other top clubs will give him a boost of confidence.
