Liquid reportedly accept Asian invite to BLAST Rivals Season 1 drawing community ire

While invites for BLAST Rivals Season 1 have to be revealed, Complexity GM Graham "messioso" Pitt has alleged that Liquid have accepted an invite to the Mexican LAN via the spot intended for Asian teams — drawing the ire of many in the community. The eight-team tournament in Monterrey, Mexico is set to feature eight teams, four squads from the Global VRS and four Wildcard teams from Europe, South America, North America, and Asia.

The suggestion by messioso that Liquid are set to head to Mexico as an Asian team was initially posted on the public Liquipedia Counter-Strike channel, where messioso and many names in the esports space congregate to talk about the game and the esports encyclopedia before being disseminated by British caster Neo "Ne0kai" Caine on X.

While Liquid host two Asian players on their team, Justin "jks" Savage and Guy "NertZ" Iluz, and have no clear national majority thus being allowed to accepts invites as both an NA and Asian team, the alleged decision by BLAST to offer the Asian spot to Liquid and for Liquid to accept it has not been well-received by the community.

Many feel that Liquid accepting the invite hurts the Asian scene, a traditionally underdeveloped region, by taking the spot away from a squad that actively competes in that region.

One example of the negative reaction comes from Pakistani caster Mamoon "TeaTime" Sabri on X, saying that the decision "fuck[s] with the most disenfranchised region in the world."

On the other hand, others on social media and in the original Liquipedia discussion argue that Liquid are not obliged to turn down lucrative opportunities for their organization, with it instead falling on Valve to clarify their intent and to close loopholes.

For Liquid's part, the organization has yet to comment although VP of Esports John "Tephus" Lewis said in the original thread that if Liquid had accepted an Asian invite people should "Blame Valve," before clarifying that he was unsure the selection method that BLAST used to invite Liquid to the Mexican LAN.

Blast Rivals S1 will run from April 30th-May 4th.