Team Liquid to field subs for Red Bull Home Ground debut due to Visa issues for Russian duo

Superteam off to early hiccup

Team Liquid’s EMEA super team is facing an early hiccup ahead of their first debut at the Red Bull Home Ground #3 tournament. Russian duo Ayaz “nAts” Akhmetshin and Igor “Redgar” Vlasov will be unable to join the team due to visa delays that force the EMEA organization to field stand-ins.

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Team Liquid will instead field former Fnatic player Enzo “Enzo” Mestari and former G2 player Johan “Meddo” Renbjörk Lundborg. Both players find themselves now org-less in the face of partnership.

Considering “nAts” was one of the biggest names to transfer in the off-season and “Redgar” is set to debut as the new In-Game Leader for the organization, their delayed play-time is a tough blow for the EMEA squad.

Red Bull Home Ground

Moreover, the news come on the heels of Team Liquid’s supposed new team debut at the largest Valorant tournament to date since the roster shuffles of the off-season. As time draws nearer for the Kickoff Tournament in São Paulo, Brazil in February, excitement for the next chapter of Valorant grows ever greater.

The Red Bull Home Ground #3 tournament is set to begin on the 9th of Dec and run through to the 11th (read here for preview). It features some of the best, new, partnered teams in the world, including Cloud9, Team Liquid, KRU Esports and 100 Thieves. With a 100,000 USD cash prize on the line, the tournament is set to serve as an early benchmark for some of the partner teams for who will emerge as frontrunners in 2023.

Visa Issues Strike Liquid

Due to issues with requested visas for their new Russian players, Team Liquid will be unable to unveil their full roster as anticipated. Earlier last month, it was reported that Team Liquid had finalized their 2023 VCT roster for the EMEA international leagues. The roster includes Dom “soulcas” Sulcas, Elias “Jamppi” Olkkonen, Saif “Sayf” Jibraeel, “nAts”, “Redgar”, and Dmitriy “dimasick” Matvienko as the sixth man (read more on them here).

While disappointing due to inability to test “nAts” and “Redgar” ahead of the Kickoff tournament, they will still be able to test newcomer talent “Sayf” as well as explore more options with sixth man “dimasick”. Furthermore, in lieu of not attending the event, "nAts" will be running the Team Liquid official watch party.

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Moreover, for “Meddo” and “Enzo”, both players were given the cold shoulder in the roster shuffle and this situation presents a unique opportunity for them to showcase their talents against new partnered teams.

The Red Bull Home Ground tournament will run on Valorant patch 5.10, meaning current Agent changes will not affect. This may be the last time we see prolific use of the French Sentinel at the highest level.

Image credit: Michal Konkol/Riot Games