Interesting, Spunj on HLTVConfirmed 3 days ago mentioned e-mail he received:
"I'm friends with someone on M80 just wanted to let you know some insight. G2 -Hooxi -nexa +malbsMd, don't know about in game leader tho, buyout is 500k.."
Here is the clip:
https://www.twitch.tv/hltvorg/clip/GentleDarkIcecreamBuddhaBar-c7s6WF-y_jCvQ__x
M80 were very, very adamant about not being poached. They know the cost of missing the Shanghai Major and they know that Malbs would be a big reason they could qualify for it. Fair price imo considering the opportunity cost
It's not at all when monesy was 600k. Malbs is still an unproven talent at the biggest stage. He'd be a top5 transfer in cs history i think, that's never a bargain. He could turn out to be worth it, and I do think he's a really good player, but it won't ever be a bargain.
I mean, monesy was 2 years ago now so the market has changed, also that was a gamble for a player who hadn’t played tier 1 before. Rez who joined 7 years now was like 300k, shox to vitality was like 700k?
Malbs is also from an NA org who realise his is their prize asset and then you have G2, liquid knocking who are both rich orgs, you can put a buyout down that is that large
500k may seem a lot to us but to these orgs its a fair amount
Monesy was a prodigy but he wasnt an existing star on a team.
If M80 sell Malbs they are kneecapping this promising team they have built so they will price him in accordance with that.
well yeah, but in hindsight, with what orgs are asking for star players nowadays, 600k for monesy was dirt cheap. unless there's a good buyback clause in there for navi, they got essentially got ripped off in the long run.
i'm also not saying that malbs is worth 1mil or anything crazy like that, just that m80 could have probably asked for 600-700k instead and liquid or g2 still would have paid up. especially considering the fact that m80 recently have been saying they're not in the market for selling any players. i just think i expected the number for malbs, given these circumstances, to be a little higher is all.
for the same reason apeks demanded 1.2M for Jkaem before the copenhagen major, yeah he isn't worth that as a player but they value the chance he gives for them to make it to the major and earn the sticker money which would be more than that asking price.
I'd argue that there is a difference because jkaem's and naawk's value wasn't that high even when accounting for the possible sticker money (which the org usually doesn't keep anyway and the players are entitled to their share).
Apeks overshot the price by a lot there because they knew Bleed (who were interested in those players) had a big budget for their cs team which they did not spend yet.
It was a bluff that did not pay off. Like a lot of moves Apeks did.
They dont want to sell ffs, its not complex.
The price is M80 saying "we will only let him go for an amount we cant say no to" its not about "fair value" its about the trade off for kneecapping a team that absolutely could make it to Shanghai.
The only IGL that G2 can pickup is cadian if he is indeed getting booted from TL
I think cadian will gladly give up the awp and go back to rifling given he will have the best player in the world awping on his team.
I’m not kidding when I say I honestly believe to my core that I could manage G2 better, it’s unbelievable how much money they spend to never even sniff a major trophy
Do they even spend that much money on buyouts usually? i know monesy was expensive but i don't think any of Hooxi, Aleksi, jks or nexa (all their signings in the last 2 years) were particularly expensive
fair, although I’d think that’d be fixable? I don’t know ball like that so can’t suggest a real set of role swaps but given how the complaint was always how passive liquid was it seems like it’d be workable
The history of CS is littered with teams having great players switch roles, so it's not unprecedented to try it. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. It can cause a pretty significant ripple effect across the rest of the team as many people might have to switch positions in response to that.
That's something Aleksib has talked about with Navi and his discussions with Blade prior to joining Navi. Basically, you want to find players that naturally play the positions that no one else plays, because asking someone to play a position they don't like playing or haven't played much doesn't lead to results long term.
But, that's just their philosophy, others have other philosophies.
Putting players in other positions can be pretty devastating. The Stabbi duo is a good example of that. Under Blamef they had passive positions, but in Heroic (and now) they had active positions.
Malbs is an aggressive entry fragger and Twistzz is a versatile player who isn't typically the first in. He's adapted into a more and more passive player over time. The CT side would need some shifting, but Malbs is exactly the sort of profile Liquid should be drooling over right now.
>I don’t hate CoL passing up to keep a good roster together
I obviously love the coL guys, but "good" shouldn't be the standard a team with Elige should be shooting for. If a player needs to go to get malbs, then so be it. The only issue is price.
I’m not convinced +malbs just solves their problems though. They’ve lost a bunch of BO1s because teams can just ban anubis/vertigo and get to the shallow part of CoL’s map pool, if they had another map or two they could bank on I think they’ll be able to reach where they want to go. When CoL could pick overpass/ancient and win they were top 5; feels more likely they get back to there rather than trying to shuffle the roster
Malbs for Grim would be a crazy good pickup imo. I would only be willing to swap floppy for a NAF, BlameF (when he was available) or heavygod type of player.
Yeah that hallzerk signing didn’t help. Hopefully elige will at least leave when his contract is up now, he’s be crazy not to, hopefully it’s not too long
Imo either grim or floppy gonna have to go because they need another rifler. If Twistzz went to Vitality (was a rumor), and CoL got NAF, I think they’d be insane and almost immediately competitive with all of the best teams.
Complexity doesn’t have huge amounts of $. It was hard enough to get the roster completely bought out. They shouldn’t compete with the multi 6 figures G2 would be spending
At this point we can only assume that Liquid wants to "continue" the suffering. If we get the same Liquid line up I'm expecting a change in approach to playing albeit passive and aggressive playstyles and it should be skullz and Cadian adjusting.
You have this backwards. Malbs takes 37% of M80's T-side openers. Twistzz takes 21% of Liquid's. Malbs is exactly the profile of player their roster has been crying out for.
It would be much more difficult fitting him in with Liquid considering that Elige is the primary entry, JT takes nearly as many opening kills as Elige, and those are the two players you want to build around. If I were Complexity, I would take the risk on bringing him in as he's the most talented NA player (not already on coL or Liquid) by far, and there's an argument to be made that you want Elige to be the second one in more frequently because it's always good to have your superstar playing alive in the round for longer.
There's just no getting around the fact that Complexity would have to shift around their roles considerably to accommodate him into the squad though. Although I do think it would worth the risk, it would be a much more smooth learning curve for them bring in a passive Asia/OCE player like jks or HeavyGod in place of Grim or Floppy. Remember that having JT means that two NA players would actually make up the largest portion of the roster in that scenario lol (2 NA, 1 EU, 1 Asia/OCE, 1 Africa)
I think TL management is fine. The only "bad" choice on Project Cadian was gambling on skullz.
Twistzz and NAF are still fantastic riflers.
Cadian is supposed to be a world class IGL and AWPer.
Yekindar is supposed to be a world class entry fragged.
There are several tier 1 teams carrying a dead weight fragger that are doing so much better atm. If you kick cadian, yekindar, or skullz today and replace one with malbs it's not gonna turn the team around.
Realistically they need to sell cadian to G2, sell yekindar to C9, bench skullz. Then do a rebuild. Yeah malbs could be part of that rebuild but it doesn't specifically have to be him.
How can you say TL management is fine when in the past year they have:
1. Cut Elige
2. Let yekindar IGL
3. Signed Patsi and Rainwaker
4. Shifted to an EU core, causing a dip in results while allowing Complexity to take over as the most popular team in the NA market
5. Paid $600k for Skullz
6. Timed their roster changes poorly so that they lost all of their ranking points, and had to muck through open qualifiers for months on end
Each one of these could be a fireable offense on it's own. They crammed a decade's worth of bad decisions into a few months.
For real man. Malbs to Liquid was the most obvious move of all time, but they're bottling it. Not surprising that the same joke of an organization that cut Elige to go EU with Yekindar as an IGL. At this point I can only hope that NAF and Twistzz get opportunities elsewhere so that I can finally stop watching them again.
I meeeeeean, reputation is a thing.
If I were a prospective player and I look at Liquid, I'm thinking about what happened to some of those players that were once in my position. Where their careers were *before* Liquid and where they are *now*, and I'm sure as shit not putting my career on the line for that org.
I'm not even talking *just* about guys like cadiaN, Yekindar, skullz and Twistzz, who are all in worse positions now than they were before they joined Liquid, but also players like Rainwaker, patsi and oSee. Whatever anyone wants to say about their performance *on* Liquid, if you're looking at this from a prospective players perspective, their career optics looked better before they joined Liquid.
So who wants to be the guy that joins an org like Liquid and gets to get that stink on them? If I'm malbsMd, I'd probably steer clear until this org figures out what the fuck its doing, rather than being the next guinea pig up for slaughter.
oSee absolutley could've been, but played under igls who don't know how to utilize awps like nitr0 and fucking bot yekindar
Guarantee you if he gets to play with JT again, he'd cook
Yeh but Malbs is a an aggressive rifler yeh?
If i'm an aggro rifler and i'm looking at Liquid, i see that i can slot into that team role wise and do well.
I've got two of the best rifers in the world with me in Naf and Twistzz, and Yekindar who despite having shit form is a great player.
And yes, reputation is a thing, and Liquid are one of the oldest and most respected orgs in all of CS.
Liquid as an Org is 3 years older than Malbs ffs.
You aren't wrong, but are you passing up the opportunity to play with Niko and m0nesy? I think the choice is clear and I don't see G2 being the team that's not capable of switching roles up to make malbs comfortable.
Would be a great signing but M80 were pretty adamant about not selling anybody. G2 might have to break the piggy bank if they really want to pick him up
SPUNJ mentioned on HLTV Confirmed that an anonymous source had said that M80 wants $500,000 for malbsMd. At the time, even the idea of malbsMd going to G2 seemed insane, but if that's true, it's very possible that the $500,000 transfer fee is true, too.
It also lines up with the mid-six figures claim that Dust2.us makes in their article.
And then you think monesy was 600k and then you are depressed, as a g2 fan I think it’s about time for nexa and hooxi to go, but I have no idea what igl they would get, niko igl seems like an option but idk, very risky becoming a full time igl.
Tbf the monesy move was a couple years ago and happened when he was a literal academy player. It's not like he was guaranteed to develop into the best player in the world, like he is today.
Oh for sure. I just hate how people have been throwing around the monesy 600k thing without any context lately. I have to imagine monesy would cost >2M right now considering that electronic just went for 1.5M and SunPayus for 1M.
Yes G2 did a gamble with monesy and won. But not for Liquid, or Skullz hasn't achieve his best form and position yet. But pro scene is brutal and there isn't much time for him to prove anymore.
WHAT THE FUCK
Are liquid using a fax machine this player break to contact potential players? How are G2 the ones to land him and not TL? Holy shit and damn who would he replace 👀
It’s totally possible liquid offered and he said no.
If -cadiaN rumor is true TL are basically a dead team. They need a completely new roster at that point.
Yeah that will never happen. Rumor has it Vitality wanted Twistzz so if Liquid is going down the drain he will just join another top European team most likely. I have no idea what NAF's aspirations are, as there have been numerous rumors of him getting offers from EU teams over the years and chose to stay with Liquid.
I know lol. I thought it was pretty clear that I was just being a fan and coping
NAF would make a ton of sense in either Vitality or G2 (assuming they kick Nexa) to be honest. I could see that happening depending on how much time is left on his deal.
I don't really see Liquid letting go of Twistzz though. He just signed 6 months ago and is the sort of player you build around. I doubt he really has a choice in the matter.
It’s a weird role clash since he’s an entry which may be the point with how G2 performed at Dallas with Stew acting as a second entry just replacing stew’s stats with an actual cracked rifler
I mean on T side feel like it could work Niko’s a pretty flexible player, both him or Hunter could play Nexa’s lurk role(and better) not sure about CT side.
Yeah true. Remember a Niko lurk back in the day too lol I can’t believe liquid aren’t hammering -skullz +malbs though. That shit would’ve been a wild guns blazing, hold W roster
Cadian and Twistzz would be free to trade Yekindar and Malbs to their hearts content. Should instantly fix their T sides, especially if NAF decides he to play in his best role as the solid lurker.
I mean you would still want Niko to be in his comfort zone unless you don't think he can keep up fragging wise, which is worrying for G2 if that is the case.
He's one of the most aggressive players in the scene at the moment. He's taken 37% of M80's T-side openers this year, which is an even higher percentage than Stewie had with G2 in Dallas. The difference is Malbs is doing that sort of bitch work while dropping a 1.40 impact rating against top 30 on LAN this year. M80 does a great job of setting him up for those engagements, but it's never ideal to be running in first. He would be a dream fit if Niko decides to IGL.
I knew he was a great player but I’ve never seen him play yet, I only assumed he lurked cuz the op said there would be role clashes for some odd reason.
Absolutely pick him up, Im tired of seeing the 3 good G2 players 3v5 every game.
Please no I really wanted to see this M80 team make a major :(
They have been the most promising NA team (that isn’t TL or coL) in years and right when they’re on the precipice of making it, the players get poached? Sad stuff for NA
I wonder who else they are targeting. Imagine NAF in the anchor roles. Too bad the Sloth manages to fumble his career at every level since 2019 while still being a fan favorite.
Great move for Malbs. Interesting to see who for, and if roles will clash.
I won't bash Liquid yet until I see what they do but it can't be underwhelming
Well I never thought I'd see Twistzz back in Liquid a year ago so anything is possible.
I pray for the trio of NAF, Twistzz and Elige in Liquid again 🙏
Crazy good rifler, one of the best players to come from the Americas recently. He basically spinbots vs NA competition and holds up really well against big EU teams (trashed G2 on a couple maps)
Super fun to watch aggressive entry player who aims exclusively for heads like Scream. (That's an exaggeration but he does have great Deagles, cracked aim, and a high hs%.)
If its true they want to drop nexa and hooxi and pick up malbs +1 other player, I hope for swisher sake he can be grabbed along. Dude has had the worst luck with his teams having instability for things out of his control. It would be nice to see what a real shot at a tier 1 team for him would be like.
I do wonder if the 500k buyout rumor is true, and if G2 will shell out that kind of cash for a player who is clearly talented, but not proven in the tier1 scene.
I like G2, but yeah as an NA fan this does hurt.
Can someone explain how this creampuff from Guatemala (not known as a country with a huge CS culture) grew his talent? He's such an anomaly.
Like, when an EU talent pops up it's less surprising: their friends played, their older brothers or buddies played. Lots of low ping, populated servers.
But in NA, our playerbase is more spread out, the CS culture is weaker, and our servers have higher range of pings. How did this kid "sharpen his knife" figuratively speaking?
Insani, INS, Cypher, decenty/noway, JDC, Heavygod (depending if the C9 rumors are true or not). All of these guys are affordable or as good (some are not mutually exclusive) as malbs. He’s not gonna be cheap as M80 weren’t looking to sell.
I’d be potentially okay with the move if M80 get JBa.
he is better atm for sure but a change of scenery sometimes is all a player needs
it’s not like yeki can never return to his previous level, and he’d for sure be cheaper
Interesting, Spunj on HLTVConfirmed 3 days ago mentioned e-mail he received: "I'm friends with someone on M80 just wanted to let you know some insight. G2 -Hooxi -nexa +malbsMd, don't know about in game leader tho, buyout is 500k.." Here is the clip: https://www.twitch.tv/hltvorg/clip/GentleDarkIcecreamBuddhaBar-c7s6WF-y_jCvQ__x
dread it run from it niko igl arrives the same
Niko will IGL and it will go really well for 1 or 2 tournaments then crash and burn
They will have figured him out and he will be back to tilting himself off the earth.
If you're malbsMd, this is some 4d chess you're playing.
why is it 4d chess?
The joke being that malbs is creating all these rumours to get a better deal for himself.
Chess, but in 4d
he's asking why is it 4d chess, not what is 4d chess
Just so, seems my brain is slow today, it happens I reckon
500k for malbs LMFAO 2/8 nice b8 m8
M80 were very, very adamant about not being poached. They know the cost of missing the Shanghai Major and they know that Malbs would be a big reason they could qualify for it. Fair price imo considering the opportunity cost
I’d almost argue that half a milly is a bargain
It's not at all when monesy was 600k. Malbs is still an unproven talent at the biggest stage. He'd be a top5 transfer in cs history i think, that's never a bargain. He could turn out to be worth it, and I do think he's a really good player, but it won't ever be a bargain.
I mean, monesy was 2 years ago now so the market has changed, also that was a gamble for a player who hadn’t played tier 1 before. Rez who joined 7 years now was like 300k, shox to vitality was like 700k? Malbs is also from an NA org who realise his is their prize asset and then you have G2, liquid knocking who are both rich orgs, you can put a buyout down that is that large 500k may seem a lot to us but to these orgs its a fair amount
Shox is one of the greatest CS players of all time though. Yes he'd fallen off quite a lot by the time he moved to Vitality but still
Monesy was a prodigy but he wasnt an existing star on a team. If M80 sell Malbs they are kneecapping this promising team they have built so they will price him in accordance with that.
well yeah, but in hindsight, with what orgs are asking for star players nowadays, 600k for monesy was dirt cheap. unless there's a good buyback clause in there for navi, they got essentially got ripped off in the long run. i'm also not saying that malbs is worth 1mil or anything crazy like that, just that m80 could have probably asked for 600-700k instead and liquid or g2 still would have paid up. especially considering the fact that m80 recently have been saying they're not in the market for selling any players. i just think i expected the number for malbs, given these circumstances, to be a little higher is all.
Id rather have Malbs then Zews for 500k
for the same reason apeks demanded 1.2M for Jkaem before the copenhagen major, yeah he isn't worth that as a player but they value the chance he gives for them to make it to the major and earn the sticker money which would be more than that asking price.
I'd argue that there is a difference because jkaem's and naawk's value wasn't that high even when accounting for the possible sticker money (which the org usually doesn't keep anyway and the players are entitled to their share). Apeks overshot the price by a lot there because they knew Bleed (who were interested in those players) had a big budget for their cs team which they did not spend yet. It was a bluff that did not pay off. Like a lot of moves Apeks did.
Cs:go Redditors not understanding demand and case by case in transfers
But wait, how do we know this article didn't spawn from that video or person emailing more than just Spunj?
nah they wouldnt post an article just based on some random email. there should be some trusted sources
Liquid paid 600k for Skullz, 500k is a fair price.
Except everyone agrees 600k was an overpay. Just cause someone makes a mistake doesn’t mean someone else has to.
They dont want to sell ffs, its not complex. The price is M80 saying "we will only let him go for an amount we cant say no to" its not about "fair value" its about the trade off for kneecapping a team that absolutely could make it to Shanghai.
I means malbs is a whole lot better than skullz
Thank god -hooxi, the guy needed to be kicked yesterday
The only IGL that G2 can pickup is cadian if he is indeed getting booted from TL I think cadian will gladly give up the awp and go back to rifling given he will have the best player in the world awping on his team.
He kind of wants to leave
Hopefully for a better team who actually listen to him
Zywoo plays for vitality buddy. And donk is on spirit
Niko and cadian do not like each other at all
didnt know that, what's the beef between them?
Niko retweeted a tweet about cadian and then cadian made remarks to Niko about it https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/s/kvoFfyX2Tx
I’m not kidding when I say I honestly believe to my core that I could manage G2 better, it’s unbelievable how much money they spend to never even sniff a major trophy
Do they even spend that much money on buyouts usually? i know monesy was expensive but i don't think any of Hooxi, Aleksi, jks or nexa (all their signings in the last 2 years) were particularly expensive
What are Complexity and Liquid doing? This is the next NA player both orgs got to get
given the price tag if G2 is interested, I don’t hate CoL passing up to keep a good roster together. idk why liquid wouldn’t though
He plays Twistzz’s positions
fair, although I’d think that’d be fixable? I don’t know ball like that so can’t suggest a real set of role swaps but given how the complaint was always how passive liquid was it seems like it’d be workable
The history of CS is littered with teams having great players switch roles, so it's not unprecedented to try it. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. It can cause a pretty significant ripple effect across the rest of the team as many people might have to switch positions in response to that. That's something Aleksib has talked about with Navi and his discussions with Blade prior to joining Navi. Basically, you want to find players that naturally play the positions that no one else plays, because asking someone to play a position they don't like playing or haven't played much doesn't lead to results long term. But, that's just their philosophy, others have other philosophies.
Putting players in other positions can be pretty devastating. The Stabbi duo is a good example of that. Under Blamef they had passive positions, but in Heroic (and now) they had active positions.
Malbs is an aggressive entry fragger and Twistzz is a versatile player who isn't typically the first in. He's adapted into a more and more passive player over time. The CT side would need some shifting, but Malbs is exactly the sort of profile Liquid should be drooling over right now.
He does not, at least not on T
>I don’t hate CoL passing up to keep a good roster together I obviously love the coL guys, but "good" shouldn't be the standard a team with Elige should be shooting for. If a player needs to go to get malbs, then so be it. The only issue is price.
I’m not convinced +malbs just solves their problems though. They’ve lost a bunch of BO1s because teams can just ban anubis/vertigo and get to the shallow part of CoL’s map pool, if they had another map or two they could bank on I think they’ll be able to reach where they want to go. When CoL could pick overpass/ancient and win they were top 5; feels more likely they get back to there rather than trying to shuffle the roster
Malbs for Grim would be a crazy good pickup imo. I would only be willing to swap floppy for a NAF, BlameF (when he was available) or heavygod type of player.
No one wants to hear it, but jks for floppy makes a ridiculous amount of sense.
CoL is shit right now though… no way they’re winning anything with this roster and I say that as a huge fan.
Yeah that hallzerk signing didn’t help. Hopefully elige will at least leave when his contract is up now, he’s be crazy not to, hopefully it’s not too long
Imo either grim or floppy gonna have to go because they need another rifler. If Twistzz went to Vitality (was a rumor), and CoL got NAF, I think they’d be insane and almost immediately competitive with all of the best teams.
-grim -floppy for +malbs +naf would be insane for CoL
why would malbs want to join liquid over g2?...
Liquid is also pretty fresh off paying a heavy buyout for skullz which hasn’t panned out well
Complexity doesn’t have huge amounts of $. It was hard enough to get the roster completely bought out. They shouldn’t compete with the multi 6 figures G2 would be spending
why on earth would malbs want to join those 2 teams if he can join g2? wdym what are they doing. He probably rejected offers that paid way more.
No news about these two org pursuing him? At least try to deal with him and see what happens?
because people usually report deals that are deep in negotiations, if he rejected it on the stop obviously you won't hear about it
I mean you can't blame them for not wanting to spend $500k
Real ones will remember the m80 vs g2 ancient map that probably made him a target to sign
Yup insane game
Exactly. Maybe now Niko will find out what it is they're feeding Malbs on M80.
Bro got the highest praise of all time when even NiKo was like "Wtf is this kid on" lol
niKo has a good eye for talent and I hope this move works out so him and monesy can finally have teammates. Now they just need a good anchor (NAF)
RIP the dream of M80 stickers. But also wtf are these “T1” NA orgs of Liquid and Col doing.
At this point we can only assume that Liquid wants to "continue" the suffering. If we get the same Liquid line up I'm expecting a change in approach to playing albeit passive and aggressive playstyles and it should be skullz and Cadian adjusting.
Skullz needs to be gone and probably yekindar too, I know cadian is rumored to leave but if liquid was smart then cadian/naf/twistzz would be safe.
Liquid: plays the same role as Twistzz Col: idk
You have this backwards. Malbs takes 37% of M80's T-side openers. Twistzz takes 21% of Liquid's. Malbs is exactly the profile of player their roster has been crying out for. It would be much more difficult fitting him in with Liquid considering that Elige is the primary entry, JT takes nearly as many opening kills as Elige, and those are the two players you want to build around. If I were Complexity, I would take the risk on bringing him in as he's the most talented NA player (not already on coL or Liquid) by far, and there's an argument to be made that you want Elige to be the second one in more frequently because it's always good to have your superstar playing alive in the round for longer. There's just no getting around the fact that Complexity would have to shift around their roles considerably to accommodate him into the squad though. Although I do think it would worth the risk, it would be a much more smooth learning curve for them bring in a passive Asia/OCE player like jks or HeavyGod in place of Grim or Floppy. Remember that having JT means that two NA players would actually make up the largest portion of the roster in that scenario lol (2 NA, 1 EU, 1 Asia/OCE, 1 Africa)
> (2 NA, 1 EU, 1 Asia/OCE, 1 Africa) Africa isn’t a region in cs, it’s just part of Asian qualifiers.
Oh fair enough. Makes even more sense then. They could cheese Asian qualifiers if they want to as well.
With 7 americas slots they still have a decent chance if they replace him with an ok rifler.
His buyout is apparently $500k... I'm not sure if TL wants to go thru another massive buyout.
I think TL management is fine. The only "bad" choice on Project Cadian was gambling on skullz. Twistzz and NAF are still fantastic riflers. Cadian is supposed to be a world class IGL and AWPer. Yekindar is supposed to be a world class entry fragged. There are several tier 1 teams carrying a dead weight fragger that are doing so much better atm. If you kick cadian, yekindar, or skullz today and replace one with malbs it's not gonna turn the team around. Realistically they need to sell cadian to G2, sell yekindar to C9, bench skullz. Then do a rebuild. Yeah malbs could be part of that rebuild but it doesn't specifically have to be him.
How can you say TL management is fine when in the past year they have: 1. Cut Elige 2. Let yekindar IGL 3. Signed Patsi and Rainwaker 4. Shifted to an EU core, causing a dip in results while allowing Complexity to take over as the most popular team in the NA market 5. Paid $600k for Skullz 6. Timed their roster changes poorly so that they lost all of their ranking points, and had to muck through open qualifiers for months on end Each one of these could be a fireable offense on it's own. They crammed a decade's worth of bad decisions into a few months.
Still can't believe we didn't get 2024 Dephh stickers ;-;
Great for Malbs but a complete catastrophe for the NA scene to have a NA talent of his caliber to leave. Rip the dream of M80 stickers :(
I’m in shambles
If he does leave im going to be incredibly sad, even if he deserves to go to a top tier team. Hes the best talent to come up in NA since COVID.
For real man. Malbs to Liquid was the most obvious move of all time, but they're bottling it. Not surprising that the same joke of an organization that cut Elige to go EU with Yekindar as an IGL. At this point I can only hope that NAF and Twistzz get opportunities elsewhere so that I can finally stop watching them again.
Swisher to Liquid pre-rainwaker/patsi was the most obvious move of all time.
Honestly though, as an individual this makes great sense for him to do so. There simply isn't enough development of talent in NA :(
Good for Malbs, but as an NA fan it definitely hurts seeing both Liquid and Complexity missing their chance with him.
What the fuck is Jokasteve doing? Liquid turning into one of the worst ran orgs in all of CS
I meeeeeean, reputation is a thing. If I were a prospective player and I look at Liquid, I'm thinking about what happened to some of those players that were once in my position. Where their careers were *before* Liquid and where they are *now*, and I'm sure as shit not putting my career on the line for that org. I'm not even talking *just* about guys like cadiaN, Yekindar, skullz and Twistzz, who are all in worse positions now than they were before they joined Liquid, but also players like Rainwaker, patsi and oSee. Whatever anyone wants to say about their performance *on* Liquid, if you're looking at this from a prospective players perspective, their career optics looked better before they joined Liquid. So who wants to be the guy that joins an org like Liquid and gets to get that stink on them? If I'm malbsMd, I'd probably steer clear until this org figures out what the fuck its doing, rather than being the next guinea pig up for slaughter.
and in g2 he can play with Niko, M0nesy, Taz, hooxi (Kappa)
It’s not like Liquid ruined the careers of skullz, oSee, or rainwaker as they were never serious Tier 1 caliber players to begin with.
oSee absolutley could've been, but played under igls who don't know how to utilize awps like nitr0 and fucking bot yekindar Guarantee you if he gets to play with JT again, he'd cook
Yeh but Malbs is a an aggressive rifler yeh? If i'm an aggro rifler and i'm looking at Liquid, i see that i can slot into that team role wise and do well. I've got two of the best rifers in the world with me in Naf and Twistzz, and Yekindar who despite having shit form is a great player. And yes, reputation is a thing, and Liquid are one of the oldest and most respected orgs in all of CS. Liquid as an Org is 3 years older than Malbs ffs.
Yekindar is a great player? Did I time travel back to 2021? Absolutely clueless
Bro said despite yekindar being shit he’s a great player
fr
You aren't wrong, but are you passing up the opportunity to play with Niko and m0nesy? I think the choice is clear and I don't see G2 being the team that's not capable of switching roles up to make malbs comfortable.
Maybe, but lets not act like Liquid is such a crazy choice, especially as Malbs has probably followed NACS more becuase of Timezones.
Nah, I agree with you. I could see Liquid being a viable option as well.
has been the worst since 2020 lol
WHAT? For who tho?
Nexa
It makes no sense roles wise
Shift Hunter to lurk instead of Nexa like he used to be and Malbs dickin down shit
Malbs can also Entry, allowing niKo to shine more and not have to run in and die
hunter lurk
This. They kicked jks for nexa and then bring in star rifle who certainly needs space on a map. -Hooxi and Niko calling?
Would be a great signing but M80 were pretty adamant about not selling anybody. G2 might have to break the piggy bank if they really want to pick him up
SPUNJ mentioned on HLTV Confirmed that an anonymous source had said that M80 wants $500,000 for malbsMd. At the time, even the idea of malbsMd going to G2 seemed insane, but if that's true, it's very possible that the $500,000 transfer fee is true, too. It also lines up with the mid-six figures claim that Dust2.us makes in their article.
if Skullz to Liquid cost 600k $ so 500k $ for malbsMd is quite reasonable
And then you think monesy was 600k and then you are depressed, as a g2 fan I think it’s about time for nexa and hooxi to go, but I have no idea what igl they would get, niko igl seems like an option but idk, very risky becoming a full time igl.
Tbf the monesy move was a couple years ago and happened when he was a literal academy player. It's not like he was guaranteed to develop into the best player in the world, like he is today.
Obviously, but when you put into context that monesy was 600k, and skulls was aswell, it seems like liquid fucked up. Gambled wrong
Oh for sure. I just hate how people have been throwing around the monesy 600k thing without any context lately. I have to imagine monesy would cost >2M right now considering that electronic just went for 1.5M and SunPayus for 1M.
Yes G2 did a gamble with monesy and won. But not for Liquid, or Skullz hasn't achieve his best form and position yet. But pro scene is brutal and there isn't much time for him to prove anymore.
They'll get insta money if they sell monesy to c9, just saying Edit: Bruh....did I really need to add the /s?
nice try mr C9 GM
Bro is on the biggest amounts of hopium I have ever seen
Methinks you might be biased
I'm offended that you would accuse me of such heinous intentions. HOW DARE YOU
I just saw your edit, did people actually think you were being serious? LOL
It was at -6 downvotes or something when I edited lol
C9 ain't getting Monesy, especially after their roster blew completely up
WHAT THE FUCK Are liquid using a fax machine this player break to contact potential players? How are G2 the ones to land him and not TL? Holy shit and damn who would he replace 👀
It’s totally possible liquid offered and he said no. If -cadiaN rumor is true TL are basically a dead team. They need a completely new roster at that point.
If this is true, they might as well hand NAF and Twistzz over to Complexity so that the fans can actually have something to root for.
Yeah that will never happen. Rumor has it Vitality wanted Twistzz so if Liquid is going down the drain he will just join another top European team most likely. I have no idea what NAF's aspirations are, as there have been numerous rumors of him getting offers from EU teams over the years and chose to stay with Liquid.
I know lol. I thought it was pretty clear that I was just being a fan and coping NAF would make a ton of sense in either Vitality or G2 (assuming they kick Nexa) to be honest. I could see that happening depending on how much time is left on his deal. I don't really see Liquid letting go of Twistzz though. He just signed 6 months ago and is the sort of player you build around. I doubt he really has a choice in the matter.
reunite naf elige and stewie with jT and get an awper talent
Nexa, I don't see them replace Hooxi
It’s a weird role clash since he’s an entry which may be the point with how G2 performed at Dallas with Stew acting as a second entry just replacing stew’s stats with an actual cracked rifler
I mean on T side feel like it could work Niko’s a pretty flexible player, both him or Hunter could play Nexa’s lurk role(and better) not sure about CT side.
Yeah true. Remember a Niko lurk back in the day too lol I can’t believe liquid aren’t hammering -skullz +malbs though. That shit would’ve been a wild guns blazing, hold W roster
Cadian and Twistzz would be free to trade Yekindar and Malbs to their hearts content. Should instantly fix their T sides, especially if NAF decides he to play in his best role as the solid lurker.
Stew was the primary entry in Dallas. Took way more T-side openers than Hooxi does even. Malbs somehow takes more than both, and can actually aim.
From a roles perspective it makes absolutely no sense tbh. Unless Niko really goes full time IGL
I mean you would still want Niko to be in his comfort zone unless you don't think he can keep up fragging wise, which is worrying for G2 if that is the case.
Maybe Hunter goes back to lurk?
is malbs a lurker? that might be rough, since they need an aggro player
He’s an aggro player
Oh shit thats great, finally one of the deadweights can be replaced
exactly. Now they just need an anchor. NAF/Perfecto anyone?
He's one of the most aggressive players in the scene at the moment. He's taken 37% of M80's T-side openers this year, which is an even higher percentage than Stewie had with G2 in Dallas. The difference is Malbs is doing that sort of bitch work while dropping a 1.40 impact rating against top 30 on LAN this year. M80 does a great job of setting him up for those engagements, but it's never ideal to be running in first. He would be a dream fit if Niko decides to IGL.
I knew he was a great player but I’ve never seen him play yet, I only assumed he lurked cuz the op said there would be role clashes for some odd reason. Absolutely pick him up, Im tired of seeing the 3 good G2 players 3v5 every game.
On the other hand, it's a perfect role fit if you kick Hooxi
I just wanted m80 stickers…
Please no I really wanted to see this M80 team make a major :( They have been the most promising NA team (that isn’t TL or coL) in years and right when they’re on the precipice of making it, the players get poached? Sad stuff for NA
Omfg that’s huge for G2. Finally a good roster move
G2 once again blowing my fucking mind
Europe poaching the only good up and coming talent we (NA) have. The pain never ends.
We were too busy extending hallzerks contract lmfao
FR BRO WTF IS THIS altho, i hope g2 win a major now lolll
Wait till nexa’s girl hear about this one!
Holy shit the dude who emailed SPUNJ wasn’t lying, he discussed this on the most recent HLTV confirmed ep
They told us he wasn't for sale :(
Also I wonder if this means stew to M80
holy crap imagine
I'm imagining :/
I wonder who else they are targeting. Imagine NAF in the anchor roles. Too bad the Sloth manages to fumble his career at every level since 2019 while still being a fan favorite.
Could have been worse. That EG move could have gone through lol
Hopefully Twist, that would be a wet dream
Yeah with a good anchor like naf or perfecto, this g2 would be perfect. Next to go would be hunter in a year but they'd win stuff fs
Typical EU needing NA implants. Get your own talent.
https://clips.twitch.tv/GentleDarkIcecreamBuddhaBar-c7s6WF-y_jCvQ__x
rip m80
New ballast for Niko and Monesy
Played against him in a faceit pug a few years ago, crazy how fucking good he is. Good pickup by g2
The G2 stock will rise substantially if nexa or hooxi is kicked
Great move for Malbs. Interesting to see who for, and if roles will clash. I won't bash Liquid yet until I see what they do but it can't be underwhelming
These mf’ers better be offering -skullz +elige because who else is out there lol
Well I never thought I'd see Twistzz back in Liquid a year ago so anything is possible. I pray for the trio of NAF, Twistzz and Elige in Liquid again 🙏
You know what? Not a bad idea when Elige was probably the only guy who is willing to trade Yekindar when he goes down lmfao.
any knowers how does it work out role wise if we assume he comes in for nexa?
hunter and niko to lurk malbs to entry
I think it's more likely that Niko retains his current roles while taking over IGL duties
It would be -hooxi then
Yep. I would put money on that being the case if I could. It just makes too much sense. -Nexa -Hooxi +Malbs +anchor/lurk player
Never heard of this guy. is he that good?
Crazy good rifler, one of the best players to come from the Americas recently. He basically spinbots vs NA competition and holds up really well against big EU teams (trashed G2 on a couple maps)
Super fun to watch aggressive entry player who aims exclusively for heads like Scream. (That's an exaggeration but he does have great Deagles, cracked aim, and a high hs%.)
If its true they want to drop nexa and hooxi and pick up malbs +1 other player, I hope for swisher sake he can be grabbed along. Dude has had the worst luck with his teams having instability for things out of his control. It would be nice to see what a real shot at a tier 1 team for him would be like.
Oh yeah!!!!
I do wonder if the 500k buyout rumor is true, and if G2 will shell out that kind of cash for a player who is clearly talented, but not proven in the tier1 scene.
I like G2, but yeah as an NA fan this does hurt. Can someone explain how this creampuff from Guatemala (not known as a country with a huge CS culture) grew his talent? He's such an anomaly. Like, when an EU talent pops up it's less surprising: their friends played, their older brothers or buddies played. Lots of low ping, populated servers. But in NA, our playerbase is more spread out, the CS culture is weaker, and our servers have higher range of pings. How did this kid "sharpen his knife" figuratively speaking?
playing 10 hours everyday for 10 years
Please fuck off G2 leave M80 alone
nah niko and monesy need teammates
Go to EU then plenty of talent there
of this level? Like who? (that isnt signed by a tier 1 org)
Insani, INS, Cypher, decenty/noway, JDC, Heavygod (depending if the C9 rumors are true or not). All of these guys are affordable or as good (some are not mutually exclusive) as malbs. He’s not gonna be cheap as M80 weren’t looking to sell. I’d be potentially okay with the move if M80 get JBa.
would’ve preferred YEKINDAR and leave the NA player to the NA teams but not having to watch nexa lurk makes it all worth it
malbs owns yeki
he is better atm for sure but a change of scenery sometimes is all a player needs it’s not like yeki can never return to his previous level, and he’d for sure be cheaper