A champion will be returning to the Team Liquid Dota roster for the 2021-22 season; Lasse Aukusti “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen announced his return to Team Liquid Wednesday afternoon.
Matu is coming home 💙 pic.twitter.com/cmbKHuJLf8
— Team Liquid (@TeamLiquid) November 17, 2021
MATUMBAMAN returns to Team Liquid
MATUMBAMAN was playing on Team Secret for the last two years. The carry player originally moved to Team Secret in 2019 after winning an International with Team Liquid. At the time, the Team Liquid roster was led by Kuro “Kuroky” Salehi Takhasomi, the captain of the current Nigma Galaxy roster. During 2019, the Team Liquid roster was extremely dominant, taking the International 9 finals in a 3-0 sweep. MATUMBAMAN then left for Team Secret and continued another dominant run with his new team. In 2019-2020, Team Secret had a stretch where they were the best squad in the world by far, not dropping a single tournament for a period of seven months. Not only did Team Secret win all of those tournaments, but the grand finals for all of those tournaments were also all 3-0 victories.
After two successful years on Team Secret, MATUMBAMAN has chosen to bring his talents back to Team Liquid. However, he returns to a completely new team than the Liquid he knew before. The current team consists of Aydin “iNSaNiA” Sarkohi and his ex-Secret teammate Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg. While Team Liquid’s plans for the offseason are not yet solidified, zai and MATUMBAMAN are a great combo due to their experience together on Team Secret. While MATUMBAMAN got close to hoisting another Aegis of Champions this year with Team Secret, they ended their run at the International 10 at third. They lost to the eventual winnings Team Spirit, in a close best of three.
The addition of MATUMBAMAN also signals a new beginning for Team Liquid. The ex-alliance roster have stayed together for the better part of two years, and have finally split apart. Some members remain, and others are rumored to be moving on to other teams. However, the strength of Team Liquid will remain with these new pickups in MATUMBAMAN and zai.
