Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella is nearing a return to Team Liquid’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster, according to a report from 1pv.fr. Upcomer initially reported that nitr0, who left CS:GO in August 2021 to join 100 Thieves’ VALORANT team, was considering a return to Liquid.
Numerous reports pointed to Liquid making a large post-major roster change, with RushBMedia indicating that Jake “Stewie2K” Yip and Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo were among the first to search for a way out of the North American organization. The report from 1pv.fr also suggested that neither Michael “Grim” Wince nor Keith “NAF” Markovic were part of the team’s plans for the future. That would leave only Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski from the roster that played at the PGL Major 2021.
Earlier today, Globo reported that Liquid were also considering picking up Vinicius “VINI” Figueiredo, which would require the Brazilian to leave his current team, FURIA Esports. An earlier report from 1pv.fr pointed to French Counter-Strike legend Richard “shox” Papillon as another player in advanced talks to join Liquid.
Liquid nitr0
Before leaving for VALORANT, nitr0 was the In-Game Leader for Liquid during arguably their most successful era in the team’s history. They won the IEM Grand Slam in 2019 during a hot streak where they were briefly viewed as the best team in the world. During that period, Liquid fielded an entirely NA roster. If the reported roster changes go through, nitr0 will only be reuniting with EliGE, the rest of the 2019 squad moving on to greener pastures — with Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken already playing for FaZe Clan.
VINI and shox joining Liquid would make the team field a largely international roster, though the team would still need to add a dedicated AWPer with FalleN out.
If all reports are correct so far, Liquid’s roster would be as follows:
- Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski
- Nick “nitr0” Cannella
- Richard “shox” Papillon
- Vinicius “VINI” Figueiredo
