Team Liquid has returned to a majority North American roster, trading their Israeli star rifler Guy “NertZ” Iluz for Mario “malbsMd” Samayoa from G2. The trade, announced by TL on X, comes after both rosters failed to make playoffs at ESL Pro League Season 23. Alongside reconstituting Liquid’s NA majority, the move also sees NertZ reunite with Álvaro “SunPayus” García and Eetu “sAw” Saha, with whom he played on ENCE.
Liquid returns to North American VRS to sneak into the Major
Despite ostensibly being a Tier 1 CS2 organization, Team Liquid’s struggles in the past few years have been well documented. While each of their rosters, perhaps with the exception of the Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis-IGL experiment, had their own high points, none found championship success. Across 2025, the team was kept afloat thanks to the occasional tier-1 win, but 2026 has shown Liquid’s VRS flatfootedness as a glaring problem.
Related—Liquid eliminated from Budapest Major after 0-3 disaster
Not only did the team fail to make a dent at any of the events that they did attend, consistently being eliminated in stage 1, they also chose to skip PGL Cluj-Napoca, which would emerge as the biggest VRS event of the season. All that has led to a freefall down the European rankings, necessitating a move back to NA.
Of their available options, malbsMd has one of the highest skill ceilings. Not long ago, the Guatemalan was touted as the next Nikola “NiKo” Kovač in G2. While that was obviously an unfair comparison, given the difference in their roles, it does show just how strong malbsMd can look when he’s on form. Liquid will hope to revive that form in their roster, with their sights set on the IEM Cologne 2026 Major.
NertZ reunites with sAw and SunPayus in G2
The other half of this deal, NertZ is returning to EU with G2, joining his former ENCE teammates sAw and SunPayus. Much like malbsMd, NertZ had struggled in adapting to his last roster, and looked ready for a change of scenery, making this a no-brainer move. On the evidence of their past success in Heroic and ENCE, NertZ will hope that G2 coach sAw can help elevate his play again, bringing him back to his HLTV Top 20 level form.
For G2, the move also solves some of their role-overlap problems, especially between malbsMd and Matúš “matys” Šimko. Who knows, perhaps the reunion could also bring SunPayus back to his best self.
Liquid and G2 still need to clear a VRS hurdle
As with any roster move that comes right before the Major, both squads have one further hurdle to clear before the April 6 deadline. As it stands right now, NertZ and malbsMd are both listed on their previous teams’ VRS pages. This means that both will have to win atleast five games before the deadline to register their new signings for the Major. If either team fails to hit that five game target, the other won’t be able to use their player at the Major.
G2 is already registered to play at Stake Ranked #1, and BC.Game Masters, which should put them in good stead to hit their five wins target. Meanwhile for Liquid, Roman Imperium Cup, DracuLAN, and Gamers Assembly have all become significantly more important.
Will both teams make it into the Major? VRS expert MischiefCS believes a Stage 2 slot for Liquid wouldn’t be off the menu at this stage, a market improvement over where the team was just a week ago.
