NAF extends contract: "Liquid is taking the correct steps to build our team back to the top"

21-11-2023 00:05

The 25-year-old has re-signed with Liquid ahead of their rebuild for CS2.

NAF has recommitted to Liquid

Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic has extended his contract with Liquid through to mid-2026. The Canadian announced the extension on X (formerly Twitter), and confirmed the tentative length of the new agreement in a comment to HLTV.

During his five-year tenure with Liquid, NAF has won a deluge of international titles, secured the second season of the Intel Grand Slam, won four MVP medals, and was thrice named as a Top 20 player in the world. Recently, however, the team has struggled to reach the same heights, prompting a shake-up of the roster heading into 2024.

NAF previously signed a contract extension with Liquid "through to 2024" in November 2021. He nearly departed for Evil Geniuses just prior to that extension, but chose to remain on board with Liquid as they overhauled their roster for 2022 with only him and Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski carried over.

Heading into the end of 2023, Liquid are poised to rebuild their roster in a similar fashion, this time with just NAF and Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis carried over while Felipe "⁠skullz⁠" Medeiros, Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller, Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken, and Wilton "⁠zews⁠" Prado are reported to join.

Media: Liquid set to sign Twistzz

"I’m excited to announce my continuation with Liquid through to 2026," NAF told HLTV in a statement. "I believe my organization is taking the correct steps to build our team back to the top. I’m ready for the next adventure!"

Not good

2023-11-21 00:05

28 replies

Why not? He is a good piece, but in the end he is reliable dude. Worst case scenario they can have him as a coach or team manager. They really do love the guy and honestly he is solid. And until then he is a solid steady player as a filler because you'll never have a perfect team, but at least he won't have the lows most others do.

2023-11-21 00:41

8 replies

2023-11-21 01:57

salut!

2023-11-21 02:19

Feels good to be a Naffer

2023-11-21 03:58

2 replies

Flair checks out

2023-11-21 07:12

I love to be a naffer

2023-11-21 23:39

this is a dream for liquid, sad for naffers

2023-11-21 05:45

1 reply

He already stayed the entire time Liquid was dedicated to being shit. He might as well resign for the rebuild. And honestly I think Liquid is going to pay him in the future the full boat to coach or manage in the future. Also don't be sad, TL might actually become competitive again.

2023-11-21 05:50

I'll be honest NAF's peaks are nutty asf to no pun intended. When he's really feeling it & putting in the work top 3 anchors easily.

2023-12-19 08:06

Nah, he is not that bad. I was actually worried that Liquid would make some stupid move like bringing back that egoistic and toxic Stevie2k.

2023-11-21 04:17

17 replies

Stewie would not be the worst pick up in the world if yeki wasn’t on the team, he is just a scary pick up because we haven’t seen him in the server in forever and of course everything that happened at the end of his Liquid time and his time with EG but it’s been years since then and I would have hope that he has matured since then, I think that would be the first thing on Liquids mind to talk to him about if that was even talked about as a possible move

2023-11-21 05:09

Stewie as a person is insufferable. He *could* be decent as a player, but he is so toxic no team wants to pick him up.

2023-11-21 15:40

Accurate 10000%

2023-11-21 23:49

who is egoistic?

2023-11-21 05:47

12 replies

Rock bottom is rock bottom - stewie10am

2023-11-21 07:50

11 replies

Stewie has been kicked from almost every team he has had since C9 including MiBR, Liquid, EG I hope he enjoys streaming because his career is done

2023-11-21 09:23

9 replies

Stewie wasn't kicked from MIBR. That was one of the rare trades in the scene; Stewie was traded to liquid for Zews and Taco.

2023-11-21 18:49

MiBR initially offered Tarik Stewie was being kicked but Liquid caught him

2023-12-07 08:35

7 replies

Pretty sure MiBR was going back to a full Brazilian roster. It's why they traded Stewie for Zews+Taco. Whether they were going to kick Stewie, I don't remember, but the fact is they didn't kick him because Liquid traded for him.

2023-12-08 01:22

6 replies

It has been confirmed, by Taco and Liquid, that MiBR was kicking both and offered Tarik to Liquid as a olive branch. The decision to take Stewie was made after the decision by MiBR to bench him.

2023-12-09 15:01

5 replies

provide a link to the source? all reports I see was that it was just a straight up trade because MiBR decided to return to a full Brazilian lineup. Stewie didn't even make it to the MiBR bench because of the trade.

2023-12-15 19:15

4 replies

Taco explained the whole situation in his Reflections video with Thorin that it was MiBR benching Stewie and Tarik to go back to full Brazilian squad And he said that the swap was a way to get the deal done, I believe he was the one who also mentioned that Tarik was the first offer. And I cannot remember where it was confirmed by MiBR separately, that might have been an interview with Zews instead

2023-12-19 07:47

Here it is: youtube.com/watch?v=FteCWYdA3zE&t=3280s

2023-12-19 07:50

And here is Fallen saying they cut them: dexerto.com/csgo/fallen-explains-regrets..

2023-12-19 07:57

None of those contradict what I've said. MiBR wanted to go back to being full brazilian and Taco and Zews wanted to reunite with them. That's why a trade happened. Technically Stewie never made it to the bench because the trade happened while Stewie was an active player for MiBR. I didn't hear Taco say Tarik was offered first. Would be interesting to hear why and why liquid wanted Stewie instead.

2023-12-20 22:34

my bad I read that as person named Egoistic and Toxic Stewie

2023-11-21 23:11

There is an interview in blast and naf put Stewie on his dream team. Maybe they dont have a problem with each other.

2023-11-21 10:27

If Liquid succeeds in signing Skullz, Cadian and Twistzz alongside NAF and Yekindar, as it is reported, then they'll actually look like a damn solid side. But so did they with Elige, Yekindar, NAF, Osee and Nitro - still I have higher expectations to this lineup, even though it's a lot to implement three players and a new IGL at the same time

2023-11-21 12:28

cool

nuh uh

a good day to be a NAFFER

2023-11-21 00:06

W for both parties

He's basically the face of Liquid CS now kek.

couldn't think of a more charismatic man to do it

2023-11-21 01:16

surely, his face says it all

2023-11-21 01:48

any GRIMMERS???

2023-11-21 00:07

Gimme that grimjob

2023-11-21 00:09

nice man

Feels good to be a naffer

2023-11-21 00:13

thanks u naffer

2023-11-21 00:15

so he isn't leaving NA yet

2023-11-21 00:18

He most likely never will, he has no reason too unless Liquid goes to absolute shit. He was definitely loading up to leave Liquid if they didn’t start making these moves. I don’t see Liquid making that type of colossal mistake again, but you never know I guess

2023-11-21 05:11

If not invites, this team would be like top 50 nowadays like most of the top 20 teams

2023-11-21 09:18

LETSGO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2023-11-21 00:19

lil bro: jail

2023-11-21 00:22

Jail = huge paycheck

2023-11-21 01:28

3 replies

based

2023-11-21 01:52

How huge?

Most likely, large. Source: trust me bro

2023-11-21 15:00

so like oSee is next to go

2023-11-21 00:24

will get bought out by NRG :v

2023-11-21 00:25

Yes, if I had to guess the signings of cadian and twistz will happen at the end of the season

2023-11-21 05:12

are they 10 steps ahead?

2023-11-21 00:30

feels good to be a naffer

2023-11-21 01:03

great day for naffers worldwide

2023-11-21 01:19

Good for Liquid

2023-11-21 01:20

It's so funny this comes out right after the "parting ways with daps" post

damn it feels good to be a naffer

2023-11-21 01:55

huge w

2023-11-21 02:05

Good news :)

2023-11-21 02:12

Naf hates daps confirmed

2023-11-21 02:17

W Let's Gooo

2023-11-21 02:39

Hope he got a bag, and I also hope this means they've solidified the rest of the roster.

2023-11-21 02:47

damn roasted daps so hard

2023-11-21 04:18

+1 lol

2023-11-21 07:07

rotten org smh is not right

2023-11-21 06:13

Bring back EliGE and sign floppy.

2023-11-21 08:51

Good signing for both, best of luck sloth

Hands off Twistzz

2023-11-21 09:25

Naf has always been good for this team.. and now people wanna talk shit on him? When liquid was a good team naf was one of my fav players. Ofc liquid now is trash but he still manages to keep god performances and his stats are still pretty good for a guy playing in a team with some tier 2-3 players and yekindar who failed miserably as an igl. For me personally even though im not a big NA fan i think liquid should try to get their shit together and go back to full na roster and go back to being a top contender. We are witnessing EG all over again

2023-11-21 10:12

"LIQUID PART WAYS WITH DAPS" "NAF EXTENDS CONTRACT: "LIQUID IS TAKING THE CORRECT STEPS TO BUILD OUR TEAM BACK TO THE TOP"" Coincidence? I think not

2023-11-21 13:14

Liquid looks like a team that will win some tournaments. Expecting average top8+ finishes. (If its cadian yeki twistzz naf skulz) This team is definitely up in my radar. -Yeki can finally focus on being the entry god he was. -Cadian is proven IGL with active and fun to watch calls. Awp IGL seems meta. -Twistzz is proven and reliable support player -Naf is consistent and flexible lurk -Skulz im not sure about but he is a rising star, maybe brings a bit of healthy hunger to the team.

2023-11-21 18:36

every change they made they said its correct steps, its best player etc. Now they back to basics, kicking their new 'stars' etc

2023-11-21 18:58

No offense but howtf would NAF know that? Or NAF knew they weren't taking the correct steps for the past 4 years and just didn't care? 🤷 What a non statement

2023-11-21 19:31