Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #26 purp0 Semyon Borchev wayne Wayne Chang MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin kamo Kamil Frąckowiak has announced that Kimmie "Kicks" Laasner will stand in for Wayne "wayne" Chang for their first EMEA Kickoff match on January 23 versus Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #4 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen PROFEK Dawid Święć Derke Nikita Sirmitev Chronicle Timofey Khromov Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu .

The team confirmed that while wayne has arrived in Berlin in time for the event, due to limited practice time together, Kicks will take the stage specifically for their first match.

Kicks most recently played for their upcoming opponents in Team Vitality for all of 2024 and 2025. While he most frequently played the flash Initiator role, he was seen playing Controller for Vitality throughout Stage 2 last season and would presumably be able to stand in for wayne directly on the role.

Tomorrow will be the debut for Liquid's reconstructed roster, which includes new additions Dominykas "MiniBoo" Lukaševičius and Semyon "purp0" Borchev. Should they win, they will go on to face the winner of FNATIC vs. BBL Esports, and if they lose, they will have to face Karmine Corp in the middle bracket.