How daps in Liquid's lineup changes the Americas RMR

As announced earlier this week, Liquid have elected to bench Aleks "Rainwaker" Petrov from the main lineup, placing coach Damian "daps" Steele on the active roster in his stead, at least for the BLAST Rest of World Showdown (which now contains only Americas teams, but that's neither here nor there).

As Dust2.us reported earlier this year, Liquid moving to a European lineup would in lieu move one of the Americas' five Major slots to Europe, leaving the Americas with just four. The relevant portion of Valve's Major rulebook is as follows:

Teams that earn an invitation for their region (i.e., top 16 teams from the Major) are given a chance to defend their regional invitation at the following RMR. If a team is able to--and opts to--play in a different region, their previous region loses an invitation and their new region gains an invitation. In other words, teams that change regions take their invites with them.

Liquid's move to a European core centered around Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis, Robert "Patsi" Isyanov, and Rainwaker made the team European from the point-of-view of Valve's Major Rulebook. However, with Rainwaker coming and going, Liquid's regional assignment is now up to their new fifth with the team currently split two to two with the aforementioned European duo on the opposite side of the court from Keith "NAF" Markovic and Josh "oSee" Ohm.

To break it down to brass tacks, following Rainwaker's dismissal, Liquid has two North Americans and two Europeans. Their fifth will decide which region they play in for the Copenhagen Major qualifiers. With daps filling in that role for the Showdown, if Liquid looks to keep this lineup for Copenhagen, that would bring Liquid's Legends slot back to the Americas. It would also reinstate the Swiss RMR format as opposed to a double-elimination format in the event of the region only harboring four or fewer Major slots.

Of course, that is only in the event of daps, or any other North American taking the fifth and final Liquid position. As Dust2.us originally reported on Rainwaker's benching, "This benching does not mean that Rainwaker has been cut, nor does it mean that Liquid is looking for new players as of right now. There is a chance he could return to the starting lineup."