Official: Liquid part with daps

Liquid have today confirmed the departure of Canadian coach Damian "daps" Steele, ending the storied former player's 17-month tenure with the team. The departure of daps comes following reporting that he is set to be replaced by Wilton "zews" Prado, who is set to make his return to the organization as Liquid pivots back to an Americas core.

daps' tenure with Liquid saw the Canadian return to the coach role after a largely uneventful final hurrah as a player with Orgless. With daps at the helm, Liquid initially found a measure of success in the reunion of daps and Nick "nitr0'" Cannella notably finishing second at ESL Pro League Season 16 and the BLAST Premier World Final 2022, with the team peaking at third in the world on HLTV's ranking at the start of 2023.

However, daps' tenure will likely be more remembered for Liquid's ill-fated decision to transition to a European core post-IEM Dallas 2023. While the decision to go European was backed by multiple members of the team, his final five months on the team were defined by its failure to make a splash internationally competitively or domestically with fans. In fact, in a testament to the loss of confidence Liquid had in the new direction of their CS division, their final event as a European squad would see daps stand-in for Aleks "Rainwaker" Petrov in the BLAST Premier Fall Finals Americas Showdown, where the squad were subdued in the finals by a one-sided beatdown from Complexity.

Liquid are for the moment:

• Keith "NAF" Markovic

• Josh "oSee" Ohm

• Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis

• Nick "nitr0" Cannella (Inactive)

• Aleks "Rainwaker" Petrov (Inactive)

While the end of his tenure on Liquid will be a small blemish on his résumé, daps will likely have no difficulty finding a new home as one of NA's top minds and veteran voices.