The Danish IGL is on the bench, months after joining Liquid.
The roster mania has begun, and NA's best have pulled the trigger on their roster moves. Team Liquid has moved Casper "cadiaN" Møller to the bench. The move comes after a long and arduous season filled with mostly disappointments.
Lack of Star buy-in
cadiaN joined the roster after four years on Heroic. He went through countless roster moves on the Danish squad and eventually built a title contender. That fell apart when his star players, Martin "stavn" Lund and Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard, lost confidence in his calls. Moving over to Liquid, with all the talk about team-building and retreats, it was expected that this would be a different project.
Unfortunately for the Danish IGL, it looks like star players once more did not buy in. Despite playoff runs at ESL Pro League and IEM Chengdu, reports surfaced around IEM Dallas that he was on the outs. And thus, cadiaN finds himself on the Liquid bench. So what's the future for Liquid now? And what lies in the future for cadiaN?
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cadiaN to the bench, more changes coming to Liquid
Alongside this announcement, further reports have emerged stating that Furia is in negotiations for Felipe "skullz" Medeiros. That would mean two simultaneous moves for Liquid. As it stands right now, the team is lacking both and AWPer and an IGL. In isolation, both those roles are hard enough to currently secure. Together, an AWPing IGL is almost impossible to find outside of Liquid classic Nick "nitr0" Cannella, who recently took a break from m80's Valorant roster.
While many fans on Twitter, and even some pundits, joked about a potential Liquid superteam return, it seems far-fetched. Still, Liquid finds itself in the search for potentially two replacements, both currently up in the air.
"If you don’t buy into cadiaNs system then whose would you?" - NER0
Community reactions were questioning Liquid's decision not to stick it out with the roster. For both the players and the org, NER0 brought up a key point. If you don't buy into cadiaN's system, then whose would you. The Dane was considered a top 3 IGL of 2023, and there's hardly anyone better easily available. That puts Liquid in a tough situation, with an unexpected solution being rumored.
Veteran Journalist Richard Lewis shared some unvetted but reliable information that Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken may step up as the unlikely IGL. With Wilton "Zews" Prada also potentially out, this reeks of a situation similar to Yekindar/Stewie2k's takeovers in the past. Only time will tell if this can fare better.
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