The International 2017 winners, Team Liquid, haven’t made a change to their incredibly strong roster since GH joined them in January 2017. Now, in what many Dota 2 esports fans will see as a shocking roster change, Lasse “Matumbaman” Urpalainen is out of the team’s starting roster and has become a free agent.
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This change with Matumbaman out of Liquid comes less than 10 days before the last big tournament, the Epicenter Major, of the DPC season kicks off. Technically, Matumbaman is still part of the team but has been moved to the bench. However, Liquid is already practising with his replacement which, at the time of writing, has not been named. The announcement by Liquid also reveals that Matumbaman is open to new opportunities as Liquid explores the “ideal next step” for his career.
You can read the full announcement as per Team Liquid’s tweet below:
Thankfully for Liquid fans, they don’t have to worry too much about a The International 2019 invite. In this DPC season, the team only gets a 20% penalty to their points. Before Matumbaman got benched, the team had 3525 points and now they have a total of 2820. This means that they are still above the direct-invite threshold.
It will be interesting to see who replaces the awsome core, Matumbaman, as well as where he ends up and if he could possibly join another team that makes their way to The International 2019. Judging by the announcement, we probably won’t see BM and a shoulder bump if Matumbaman was to face Liquid with a new team during The International 2019.
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What do you think about this move by Team Liquid so late in the DPC season? Let us know in the comment section below.
