Liquid to skip tier-one tournament after IEM Katowice 2025

PGL announced all the 16 teams invited for PGL Cluj-Napoca, the first tournament after IEM Katowice 2025. To the surprise of many, Liquid have chosen to skip the event alongside Spirit, G2, Vitality, Natus Vincere, and GamerLegion.

The decision to skip PGL Cluj-Napoca is likely tied to the fact that the Romanian LAN starts a mere five days after the conclusion of IEM Katowice. So, in case these teams make a deep run in Poland, they wouldn't have enough time to rest and practice for PGL Cluj-Napoca.

While it seems like Spirit, G2, Vitality, and NAVI are taking a calculated risk because of how high they're in the Valve Ranking System (VRS), the same can't be said about Liquid. Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken and his men are currently in the 10th position, meaning that a bad placing at IEM Katowice will seriously affect their points.

The invites for the BLAST.tv Austin Major will be sent out on April 7th, and there are only two tier-one tournaments left after PGL Cluj-Napoca: ESL Pro League Season 21 and BLAST Open Lisbon in March.

Only time will tell if Liquid have made the correct decision to skip PGL Cluj-Napoca, but one thing is for sure, they'll have extra pressure to perform well in IEM Katowice, which starts this week.

Here are all the teams invited for PGL Cluj-Napoca based on the VRS: