Since the end of The International 2019, there have been a lot of interesting roster updates for Dota 2 teams. Indeed, the Post TI9 shuffle has had a few surprises. There was Lasse Aukusti "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen deciding to take a break from Dota 2. Then there was Pan "Fade" Yi who left Vici.Gaming and joined Team Aster. However, it looks as if the biggest surprise yet is here.
It appears that the entire roster of Team Liquid made the decision to leave the organization. That's right, Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi, Aliwi "w33" Omar, Ivan "MinD_ContRoL" Ivanov, Maroun "GH" Merhej, and Kuro Salehi "KuroKy" Takhasomi, are no longer part of the team.
In a video, KuroKy gave thanks to the organization citing the unconditional support and fulfilling all his wishes over the past four years to be part of a successful Dota 2 team. He went on to say that the squad has a project in place, but did not reveal anything further. Kuroky revealed that he had wanted to bring the organization one more Aegis and apologized to Team Liquid Director Victor "Nazgul" Goossens for failing to do so.
With Kuroky at the helm, Team Liquid won the championship back at TI7 as they moved slowly from the Lower Bracket to eventually sweep Newbee 3-0 to win the championship. While they failed to capture the Aegis in TI8, they had a strong run culminating in a fourth place finish. In TI9, it looked as if they might repeat their success from TI7 as they again eliminated opponents to get to the Grand Finals. However, defending champions OG proved to be too much and Liquid had to be satisfied with a second-place finish.
In a statement released by Nazgul, he calls this the "End of an Era," and he is right. He thanked each member for their contribution to the team and even included MATUMBAMAN. He assured fans that Team Liquid is here to stay and will continue to be a part of Dota 2. He admitted though that it was "hard to predict the future and it is by no means a given that we find the right fit immediately when we look for a roster, but I can definitely say that we love this game and want to be a part of it."
However, his statement did reveal what the project KuroKy may be referring to. He specifically says that it's not "every day that world class players take the leap to become team owners" and hoped that their time in the organization "helped prepare them for the path they are embarking on."
What this means is that Kuroky and the gang may have decided to create their own organization. This isn't that surprising though, considering they are among the highest paid esports players in the world.
Let's see what happens to both Kuroky and Team Liquid in the coming days.
