After a flurry of rumors on social media last night, Team Liquid tells the Daily Dot that it’s running tryouts for player and staff positions on its Counter-Strike team—but it’s made no official decisions yet.
Last night, multiple North America pros were playing in a 10-man exhibition match streaming on Twitch. In a conversation between eLevate’s Will “RUSH” Wierzba, Counter Logic Gaming’s Tarik “tarik” Celik and James “hazed” Cobb, and former iBUYPOWER Sam “DaZeD” Marine, Wierzba discussed a match he had played against the Team Liquid squad. According to Wierzba, former Nihilum player Spencer “Hiko” Martin played in the match in place of Team Liquid’s Kyle “flowsicK” Mendez.
“I played a nice Liquid in their honeymoon phase with Hiko,” Wierzba said on the stream, “He dropped 37 frags [kills].”
The news quickly hit Reddit and HLTV’s forums, with many commenters assuming that Martin had already joined the team.
Co-owner Steve “Liquid112” Arhancet tells the Daily Dot that the team is actively holding tryouts for players, coaches, and managers, with Martin being one of the candidates—but nothing is official and the team still counts Mendez as part of its roster.
“Our CS:GO team has not met the performance expectations we set-out to accomplish earlier this year,” Arhancet said. “It’s up to us to determine what changes, if any, are necessary. While we evaluate individual player performance, we’ll also be revamping our coaching, analyst and practice methodology. Once any of our initiatives are finalized, we will inform our fans, but for now we appreciate your patience and support while we work on what will hopefully become noticeable results from our efforts in due time.”
The team recently failed to qualify for the ESL Cologne 2015 tournament after a 0-2 loss to Counter Logic Gaming, and in general has shown mediocre results over the past six months. It placed seventh/eighth at the FACEIT 2015 Stage 2 Finals after a loss to the Ninjas in Pyjamas—a team of which is slumping in its own right—and also finished a disappointing fifth-eighth at the Electronic Sports World Cup on July 11.
Image via Tom Smith/Behance
