Serbian Rifler VLDN Will Stand In for Team Liquid at a One Hundred Thousand Dollar Counter Strike Event in Warsaw
Liquid face INFINITE on Friday in their first LAN since the Esports World Cup open qualifier, with malbsMd absent for personal reasons.
Team Liquid will use Serbian rifler Vladan "VLDN" Radevic as a stand-in at Logitech G Play Connect 2026 in Warsaw after Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa withdrew for personal reasons, HLTV reported on 16 September 2026.
VLDN has spent recent months with the former Zero Tenacity roster and has a 1.10 rating in 2026, according to HLTV. He will play alongside EliGE, NAF, JT and Jorko, with flashie as coach, according to HLTV. His first match is a best-of-one against INFINITE on Friday, followed by four more group matches.
The event runs from 17 to 23 September at the EXPO XXI convention centre with a US$100,000 prize pool, including US$40,000 for the winners. The 12 teams include Liquid, B8, GamerLegion, 3DMAX, Ninjas in Pyjamas, M80, Luminosity, EYEBALLERS, Inner Circle, BBL, INFINITE and Metizport. Six places were decided through qualifiers and six were invitations.
Two groups of six will play round-robin best-of-one matches, and the top three in each group advance. Group winners go straight to the semi-finals, while the second and third-placed teams play in the quarter-finals. The grand final is a best-of-five.
It is Liquid's first LAN event since they reached the round of 32 of the Esports World Cup open qualifier, and HLTV noted that the team had a difficult run through the closed qualifiers for PGL Masters Bucharest. "We're committed to making the next breakthrough possible for every hardworking team," said Sebastiaan de Lange, head of gaming Europe at Logitech G.