What to expect from Liquid v. Virtus.pro

After much speculation and waiting, Liquid's new roster will finally make their debut today in the BLAST Premier Fall Groups against Virtus.pro. With Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken taking the helm of a retooled Liquid roster all eyes will be on Canada's newest IGL as he looks to score a win while bedding in Roland "ultimate" Tomkowiak and Justin "jks" Savage into the lineup. Against a team like Virtus.pro, who always seems to make it close, scoring a win against them would be great for Liquid although it won't be entirely surprising if it takes them a while to get this roster activated.

Unknown Liquids

There's a lot of question marks for this new Liquid roster, with a new IGL, new coach, new AWPer unfamiliar to tier-one competition, and jks returning to active duty after nine months away from the game. With the team only recently forming and coming out of the player break, it will be interesting to see what they've been cooking in the off season.

• ultimate will have a baptism by fire against a tricky squad

• It will be key to note jks' match fitness after nine months on the bench

• Keep an eye on Twistzz to see how he manages emotions, interactions with mithR, and the overall game plan

Same Old Virtus.pro

Compared to Liquid, the VP roster is a well-established squad with a tenured core of players. From their perspective, while they did not have much data to prepare against Liquid with, they likely feel pretty good coming into this opening matchup as they dodged having to playing recent Esports World Cup 2024 champions NAVI whom they have had some trouble with in the past.

• fame had a quiet EWC, it will be interesting to see how he bounces back

• Jame will potentially be the X-factor for his team while facing a new IGL and a new AWPer on Liquid

• Virtus.pro's 50% win rate over the past three months may suggest a team struggling to assert themselves in the new map pool

Previous Matchups

Liquid are playing their first match with their new roster.

Likely Vetoes

Predicting vetoes is a bit difficult as Liquid's new roster features a new IGL, new coach, and two new pieces; their map pool is somewhat up in the air. However, with three of their pieces being carried over from the previous map we can safely assume their permaban will remain the same. However, everything else is up in the air until we know more about this new Liquid's map pool.

As such, we will be forgoing a traditional veto outside of saying you probably won't be seeing Nuke or Vertigo come out today.

Liquid will be taking on Virtus.pro in short order at 01:30PM today.