But is this deal actually that good for both teams? Or do they have issues too great for this one change to solve?

Liquid and G2. they’re two huge organisations whose reputations, not just in Counter-Strike, but in esports as a whole, demand high placements.

That said, outside of a rare high point for G2 at BLAST Open London last year, they’re two teams who have been disappointing for the longest time in CS, and a lot has been said about the changes people would make to the two rosters in order to turn things around.

Namely, their AWPers.

However, a change in the AWPing department wasn’t what those two orgs decided to go for. Instead, they traded rifling stars, with malbsMd heading back to the Americas region and Liquid, and NertZ going the other way to link up with his countryman, HeavyGod.

The obvious impact of this, is that it makes both rosters more exciting. NertZ is an obvious firepower upgrade to a struggling malbs, while malbs gets to play without the weight of becoming NiKo 2.0 on his shoulders, and hopefully can return to the almost-demonic level we saw from him prior to the Bosnian’s transfer to Falcons.

But, there is a but. And it’s a rather big but. Multiple of them, in fact.

Which one of these teams got the better end of the deal? Which is closer to solving their problems? How many problems are there left to address?

Let’s talk about it.

The instant positives

When it comes to the short-term impact for both teams, it’s Liquid who are by far better off.

The signing of malbs pushes their core back to the Americas region, making the team now all but guaranteed a Major invite. And not just a Stage 1 invite, either; they should be going straight to Stage 2.

For a team that had basically f-cked it when it came to qualifying via the European VRS rankings, this is huge. The financial impact of playing at a Major, regardless of performance, can never be understated, and being in a favourable position to continue to qualify for them also means that attracting better players is easier, at least in theory, anyway.

Now, there’s something to be said about whether or not this is bullsh-t, and honestly, I think it is. I won’t go into it too deeply, because I already proposed changes to the system to prevent a team from getting knocked out of the Major placings in this way again in the last edition of the newsletter, but look, I can’t knock Liquid for using a loophole before it’s closed.

I certainly would.

There’s also the fact that by signing malbs, Liquid get a profile they’ve been sorely lacking: a selfless bombsite entry. Someone who, instead of potentially stepping on EliGE’s toes as NertZ was, can allow the bald eagle the freedom to playmake, then cause the devastation on the entry that allows someone like NAF to mop up the round.

In that sense, Liquid have claimed a huge win.

G2 have also gained a much-needed profile, an actual playmaker, the role that malbs failed to step into when NiKo departed. They don’t even lose the required bombsite entry with malbs’ departure, as MATYS is readily able to fill the gap there, and has been doing so already.

With NertZ’ signing, G2 can now stack their firepower in a much healthier way. Where previously, HeavyGod, the most supportive element, was seen as the real star of G2, that role will now be shifted to NertZ.

And if he can get back to his absolute best level, G2 should skyrocket because of it.

Well, at least to some degree, because there are still some problems to address, but we’ll get to that.

The positives, at least on face value, do outweigh the negatives. HeavyGod, MATYS, NertZ might not be the most attractive rifle core in terms of reputation, but it’s hard to argue their level of firepower, even compared to the world’s elite.

Sure, they won’t be Vitality, but with NertZ at 1.09 for 2026, and HeavyGod and MATYS being at 1.12, and 1.11, respectively, that’s a consistent level of output I can get behind.

That’s without mentioning NertZ’ peak levels either, as the Israeli has struggled for form ever since joining Liquid. ENCE NertZ would outstrip both HeavyGod and MATYS in terms of raw impact, leaving G2 in a very favourable position, where their rifle firepower is perhaps only bested by Falcons (as long as they pick up a better player than TeSeS), and Vitality.

Lacking support

I’ll admit, when huNter- became an IGL, I expected something a little different.

There were positive signs when they won BLAST London, and more recently at IEM Krakow when G2 made the playoffs, but the same issues have been prevalent throughout: SunPayus isn’t consistent enough, and huNter- isn’t supportive enough.

Now, I will caveat the huNter- point by saying that putting malbs in rotator spots is like putting a Bundesliga attacker in the Premier League, and maybe that has prevented a full transition, but this has been an issue on the T side, too.

huNter-, although he was ready to become a captain, wasn’t ready to completely sacrifice himself to do so, even if his team needed it. That needs to change with NertZ.

In NertZ and MATYS, G2 now have a duo of aggressively-minded riflers who not only should both be getting set up on the T side, but should also be operating out of rotator positions on the CT side, too. huNter- should no longer be in those rotator spots, and it’s hard to see a world where both of the rilfers can perform to their highest capacity if they aren’t.

SunPayus is a different issue entirely.

When SunPayus has his bright games, he looks like the player we previously saw on Movistar Riders and ENCE. He takes command, rarely misses, and becomes one of the most impactful AWPers in the world.

More often than not, though, SunPayus is seen whiffing the easiest shots, and often shots that G2 can’t afford for him to miss. So, whilst his 1.22-rated ESL Pro League Stage 2 looks great, you do have to hold that against his 1.02-rated Stage 1, or his 0.99 at PGL Cluj-Napoca, or his 0.88 in IEM Krakow Stage 1.

I could go on, but you get the point.

Fortunately for G2, however, they do have a potential upgrade waiting in the wings. While SunPayus has struggled to a 1.04 rating thus far in 2026, their loaned out AWPer, kl1m, has excelled with a 1.28 rating on MIBR.

Yes, kl1m has done so against weaker opposition, but at this point he has to be worth a crack, and if his ratings against better opposition can stay around a 1.10 mark, that could be enough to see G2 climb even if huNter- wasn’t to fix his issues right away.

Lacking everything

The problems for Liquid run much deeper.

As STYKO outlined in his video on them, they just don’t look like a team that wants to be on a server together. Their trading is terrible, and this suggests a real structural issue within the team.

Now, of course, this is something that will be aided by the addition of a bombsite entry in malbs, but that’s only great if Liquid just rush a bombsite every round, or play incredibly passive defaults and just fall back into executes.

Outside of ultimate being, well, terrible, and almost certainly needing to be replaced, it’s hard to pinpoint the actual issues on Liquid, because they could just keep continuing.

NAF hasn’t been NAF for a very long time now, and EliGE is also struggling to get into gear since his return. Both of these factors could be aided with the arrival of malbs, but what if they aren’t?

siuhy has also failed to live up to his own MOUZ hype on the team, and although there was evidence of some growth towards the end of 2025, that growth has now hit a sharp decline in 2026. So, is a coach or IGL change also required? Does siuhy take the blame if things don’t improve with the structure, or is flashie just not the right puppet master for this team?

Do we really think malbs is going to fix these issues? Or will the issues keep cropping up regardless of changes that are made?

If you ask me, I think it’s still pretty much over for Liquid. The problems are just too great and too deep for them to come back from, and I only see them getting worse with time.

Let’s say they change out ultimate, and even if the AWPer they bring in does well, they don’t improve drastically because the structural flaws remain, so then they change siuhy, or flashie. In that timeline, NAF and EliGE have only continued to get older, and perhaps neither of them have found their form again.

In that timeline, you then need to change those two, too, and Liquid just becomes a revolving door of players, never actually solving the issues at hand.

For Liquid, as is the same with FaZe, it feels like these problems are just too big for one change to solve, and until they actually decide to change two, or even three, players at once, we’re never going to see them near the top of CS again.