Team Liquid Will Make Roster Changes For The 2023 LoL Season

As confirmed by Team Liquid owner Steve Arhancet on Monday, September 12, Team Liquid will make roster changes to its League of Legends roster ahead of the next season.

The news broke following Liquid’s poor performance in the LoL Championship Series (LCS) 2022 Championship, where the North American superteam placed fourth and failed to qualify for the LoL World Championship 2022.

Team Liquid is one of North America’s most storied esports organizations, but the NA brand took another big step to establishing itself as one of the region’s top teams ahead of the 2022 season.

When Liquid won the LCS Lock In, finished second in the LCS Mid-Season Showdown, and emulated success in the Championship, Team Liquid wasn’t satisfied with the roster’s results.

In a bid to become even more competitive in the 2022 season, Liquid opted to invest heavily into its LoL team and signed some of the best Western LoL players, including Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau, Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, and Steven “Hans sama” Liv, completely restructuring its LoL division.

The multi-million dollar investment seemed like a good call at the start of the season, with Liquid defending its LCS Lock-In title and adding the LCS 2022 Spring regular season crown. Unfortunately, Liquid were unable to deliver in the LCS 2022 Spring Playoffs, where they placed third following a 0-3 sweep against Evil Geniuses.

In the second half of the season, Liquid looked strong but not quite strong enough, and they placed third in the LCS 2022 Summer regular season. And while it was enough to earn LIquid a spot in the playoffs, there the NA’s superteam fell flat.

Billed as one of the main favorites to win the LCS 2022 Summer trophy, Team Liquid could not live up to the expectations and fell to the lower bracket in the second round following a 2-3 loss to 100 Thieves. And even though Liquid showed some life in the lower bracket, they were eventually eliminated by Evil Geniuses, ending the year in fourth place.

Following a devastating defeat in the LCS 2022 Championship, Team Liquid’s owner Steve Arhancet released a statement touching on Liquid’s plans for the future. Most notably, Arhancet has stated that the Liquid roster will not stick together for the next season as the organization intends to make changes.

Instead of looking to build another superteam, Liquid intends to use its internal development programs. As stated by Team Liquid owner, Liquid acknowledged that building a superteam might have worked in the past, but that the times are changing, and another strategy must be used to achieve success.

For 2023, Liquid plans to “double own on some of the areas where we’ve seen incredible success so far, and also the opportunity to build players using the Team Liquid infrastructure rather than this concept of building superteams,” said Arhancet.

In 2022, Liquid intended to build the best roster the region has ever seen, and while it did look like it on paper, Liquid’s results hardly reflected it. The plans of becoming the strongest NA LoL team ultimately fell through after the superteam slipped in the playoffs, missing out on qualifying for the LoL World Championship.

Interestingly, this offseason, Liquid will have just CoreJJ entering free agency. The remaining four players have all signed contracts until 2023, including Hans Sama, who is signed with the organization until 2024.

So if Liquid intends to unload its roster, they would have to do it through transfers and trades with other LoL esports teams, which will make it harder for Liquid to follow its new set goals, assuming they don’t sell the players at a discount.

However, while Liquid’s plans are clear, Arhancet has not unveiled which players by name the organization intends to get rid of ahead of the 2023 season.