“It’s about the people around and the work environment”: Team Liquid nAts at VCT EMEA Kickoff

During the ongoing VCT 2026 season, Ayaz ‘nAts’ Akhmetshin and Kamil ‘kamo’ Frąckowiak are the only remaining members from Team Liquid’s 2025 lineup.

In an exclusive interview with Esports Insider, the in-game leader (IGL) explained why he remains confident despite Team Liquid’s massive roster changes.

“I don’t think it’s about which roster is better. I think it’s about in terms of the people around and the work environment, I think it’s very good right now,” nAts told  Esports Insider.

Throughout several roster rebuilds and role changes, the Russian VALORANT icon has established himself as the face of one of EMEA’s top-performing teams, proving his consistency and leadership capabilities year after year.

Hailing from the Counter-Strike competitive scene, nAts lifted VALORANT Masters Berlin 2021 trophy and later became the inaugural VALORANT Champions runner-up.

Moreover, since joining Team Liquid in late 2022, he has secured two regional titles and led his team to five global events and recently kicked off his fourth competitive season under its banner.

Despite mid-season roster changes, Team Liquid remained within the top-three EMEA teams last year, qualifying for all three global competitions.

One of the roster’s strongest components was Georgio ‘keiko’ Sanassy, who joined Team Liquid in 2024 as a primary duelist player. Last year, the British player transitioned into the smoker/secondary duelist role, where he made waves with his intelligent utility usage and high fragging potential.

During the recent off-season; however, keiko left Team Liquid to step into the shoes of retired Champions 2025 winner Sam ‘s0m’ Oh on NRG. Team Liquid chose Wayne ‘wayne’ Chang as keiko’s replacement, who has now become the first Pacific player for Team Liquid to compete in VCT EMEA.

“I mean it wasn’t me, coaching staff sniped him,” shared nAts with Esports Insider. “I mean we did watch some of his VODs and I think, overall, he’s doing very good in his role and he’s a very talented player from a different region. That’s why when we got the opportunity, we decided to go for that opportunity.”

Team Liquid’s roster rebuild for VCT 2026 goes way beyond replacing keiko. EMEA veteran Semyon ‘purp0’ Borchev and former Team Heretics duelist Dominykas ‘MiniBoo’ Lukaševičius were brought in to replace Patryk ‘paTiTek’ Fabrowski and Nikita ‘trexx’ Cherednichenko.

These new variables seemingly led to role changes for kamo, who had previously filled the main duelist role within the line-up. For the 2026 season, though, kamo has shifted to the recon initiator position, leaving the duelist duties to purp0 and MiniBoo.

“I think it’s a little bit, I wouldn’t say similar, something the same as we did with keiko before last year,” commented nAts on the role changes.

“Because he was the main duelist also in 2024. And last year, we did completely change the way he played the game and his role. Even though he was still playing the double duelist but the stuff was different. So I would say the same here with some of the players. We’re trying different stuff based on the strength of the player.”

As an EMEA representative at Champions 2025, Team Liquid entered VCT EMEA Kickoff 2026 in round two of the upper bracket. However, the team’s opening series on January 23rd was far from easy.

With wayne facing Visa issues and arriving in Berlin later than expected, Team Liquid chose to play with Kimmie ‘Kicks’ Laasner as a stand-in. According to nAts, the roster only had a few weeks of practice with its temporary fifth member.

“It wasn’t something that we would have liked to happen. We were hoping that we would have been able to play with the full roster,” added the Russian player. 

Going up against EMEA’s new superteam, Team Vitality, Team Liquid lost the best-of-three series by 1-2. Still, not all was gloom and doom as Team Liquid won its first-ever game on Pearl, utilising an unconventional Brimstone pick.

When asked what theory was behind choosing Brimstone over Astra, the most common smoker on Pearl, nAts replied:

“We’re just trying something new. We’re just trying to find what fits our playstyle the best. And the Brimstone for now is the most comfortable, even though maybe Astra is the best controller on this map.”

The IGL also confirmed that wayne will most likely take the stage with his new team for Team Liquid’s second match of the season. 

Team Liquid will meet Karmine Corp on January 27th at 4 PM BST in the VCT EMEA Kickoff middle bracket. The match will be broadcast on the league’s official Twitch and YouTube channels.