Report: Liquid to part ways with head coach

In the midst of roster moves with Aleks "Rainwaker" Petrov on the bench and Robert "Patsi" Isyanov seemingly headed that way as well, sources tell Dust2.us that Liquid are now removing head coach Damian "daps" Steele from the equation.

daps joined Team Liquid in June of last year after disappointing results following the addition of Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon, replacing longtime head coach Eric "adreN" Hoag. Under daps, the team successfully integrated Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis, claiming a playoff appearance at IEM Cologne 2022 and falling just short of first place at ESL Pro League Season 16 to Vitality. The team once again played second fiddle at BLAST World Final 2022, this time to G2, however, the consistent string of playoff performances was a welcome sign after the months of tumult with shox.

Starting 2023 with a semifinal finish at IEM Katowice continued the trail of good results for Liquid with the team hovering in the middle of the Top 10 for most of that time. A playoff appearance at the BLAST.tv Paris Major was a decent performance, but worse than expected considering their eventual loss to Apeks and general weakness of playoff teams. Capping the season off with a 9-12th place finish in the home tournament of IEM Dallas eventually pushed Liquid to make roster changes.

Liquid set upon an ambitious European project, parting ways with longtime star Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski and captain Nick "nitr0" Cannella, putting their faith in now-igl YEKINDAR and two new additions, Rainwaker and Patsi. But, as any NA fan would tell you, the European project has done anything but succeed. 7-9th in BLAST Fall Groups, not even making it out of IEM Cologne Play-Ins, losing in the first round at Gamers8, and failing to make ESL Pro League Season 18 playoffs were the string of bad results that soured the taste of this new roster.

daps stood in for the recently benched Rainwaker at the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown Americas, with YEKINDAR still calling for that event. The hope, according to YEKINDAR, was for daps to stay in the lineup and call for the team in Counter-Strike 2, but now it seems that those plans have been dashed.

In addition to a new player, or more if the Patsi benching is accurate, Liquid will now need to find a new coach to helm the next iteration of the team. As of now, Liquid are:

• Keith "NAF" Markovic

• Josh "oSee" Ohm

• Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis

• Robert "Patsi" Isyanov

• Aleks "Rainwaker" Petrov (Bench)