Liquid withdraw from Fragadelphia Blocktober*

29-9-2025 19:32

The team cited health issues affecting one of their players, the impact on their ranking, and limited practice among the reasons for their withdrawal.

Update 22:55 : HLTV has adjusted coverage of Fragadelphia Blocktober to the top-16 to mitigate competitive integrity concerns.

Liquid have pulled out of Fragadelphia Blocktober and will forfeit their opening matches of the event, which is set to run from October 2-5 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

"We always have to weigh the risks, such as impact on our ranking, limited practice time, added travel, and jet lag," Liquid's General Manager, Steve "⁠jokasteve⁠" Perino, explained when contacted by HLTV.

"We also are dealing with some health issues within the team and that made the decision clear. For the well-being of our players, we had to withdraw from Frag Blocktober."

Liquid announce EliGE's return

It is past the 17-day window for withdrawal from the event, which means the team will still be seeded in the bracket and will forfeit their matches. However, as only the top-16 portion of the 48-team event is covered by HLTV, Liquid will not have their VRS points impacted.

Liquid sit on the cusp of a direct invite to Stage 2 of the StarLadder Budapest Major with 1647 VRS points, holding a meager 18-point lead over 3DMAX on our predicted list. FaZe also sit on the cusp with 1643 points and have no opportunity to gain more, whereas 3DMAX is competing in Stage 1 of ESL Pro League and could pip FaZe for the last Stage 2 spot.

Liquid played five matches at Birch Cup, finishing in third, meaning they have played the requisite number of games to get Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski on their roster in time for the October 6 ranking cut-off for the Major.

EliGE: "FaZe wanted to try something new and then kinda didn't after a short while; that's completely fine"

Fragadelphia Blocktober will be the final event to play out before the cut-off, with several teams from Europe making the flight overseas in a final push for a Major invite. Ninjas in Pyjamas' attendance is also uncertain, although General Manager Björn "⁠THREAT⁠" Pers said the team still plans to attend.

"We have been running into some visa issues which we are trying to solve while we are also looking for a sub," he said when contacted by HLTV.

ok (they hate the NA scene)

2025-09-29 19:33

104

4 replies

They had Frag just as back up in case they would have bombed out of the Bitch Cup without getting 5 LAN matches with their new young gun, Elige.

2025-09-29 19:36

3 replies

doesn't matter, they should go either way, just to support frag

2025-09-29 19:37

1 reply

I agree but I guess for the players maybe the travel is super inconvenient, idk if they're in Europe in the meantime or anything, can't super blame the players if it was them but if org and mostly for VRS then this is bad and should've gone to support the scene

2025-09-29 22:05

lol not the "Bitch Cup" xD

2025-09-30 20:23

someone tell them lying is bad

2025-09-29 19:35

yep at least this time NIP learned from Liquid how to proper bomb out from and event , and its giving an excuse unlike the ghosting in birch cup

2025-10-01 00:56

"health issues" = depression from learning rain is gone </3

117

ok (changes literally nothing)

boooooring

”However, as only the top-24 portion of the 48-team event is covered by HLTV, Liquid will not have their VRS points impacted.” VRS is truly goated

6 replies

Hltv has so much power

2025-09-29 19:53

VRS is based on what matches HLTV cover and which they don't? i don't get that

2025-09-29 20:44

Yes HLTV has all the power

2025-09-29 20:55

valve uses the hltv database for their ranking, so yes

2025-09-29 21:38

yes because valve are extremely lazy

2025-09-29 21:42

I think this is a huge shame, there are already few LANs in NA and the ones that have the initial matches don't count for the VRS. Change your policy HLTV

2025-09-30 03:06

they're not even an NA team. only entered for prefarming vrs for major. No longer needed. They aint wasting time traveling to other side of the world. They spend 5 times more to get here then the entire cash pool.

2025-09-29 19:38

VRS is a joke

2025-09-29 19:40

TBH they need as much gametime as possible after adding elige, weird. They'll have just this T2 Shanghai lan before major, if they fumble there they'll play just 2 games... Also, this godtier VRS abuse needs to be acklowledged, it feels like retaliation after switching their points from NA to EU lol

2025-09-29 19:42

Bucharest?

2025-09-29 19:52

hidden behind expand button on event calendar, doesn't count

they need reps, yes, but elige also needs time to learn the system. the more time they spend competing, the more they have to rely on simpler, shallower versions of their playbook

2025-09-29 20:18

Yeah dont think people realize they have had like no prac time. Practice means more this early than getting reps in vs tier 2 and 3 teams.

2025-09-29 20:23

BALD EAGLE

2025-09-29 19:43

Translation: They do not need the VRS points anymore

translation: they are not confident enough to beat some tier 2 teams

2025-09-29 19:46

tldr: liquid will forfeit their blocktober matches because hltv decided not to reduce their vrs points

feels a little.... Astalis-y. Never been the type of org to be like that, but feels icky

2025-09-29 19:47

2 replies

The org that partners up with the saudis despite preaching gay pride and fielding close to a dozen teams at saudi arabia during pride month,Isnt "the type of org to be like that"? Lmao.

2025-09-29 20:16

Liquid doesnt have a history of publicly lying. Most orgs are connected to saudi oil money. Most of the world is if you connect enough dots.

2025-09-30 15:52

translation: After EliGE joined the team one of the players started going bald. He is now in a clinic in Switzerland, where he is undergoing a hair transplant.

Booooooooooo

2025-09-29 20:04

so liquid is confirmed stage 2 then???? i mean ik they dont want to risk going down to stage 1 if they lost block opening match, but like this is "practice", going to a btier tourney is practice. its not like they will be at a tier 1 tourney until the major... Liquid events: A tier: 10/14-10/19 CS Asia Tier 1.5: 10/24-11/01 PGL Masters Bucharest (only because so many teams dropped out) S tier: 11/24-12/14 Budapest Major They gunna need to be attending a lot more tier 1.5/a tier tournies to keep up the vrs points

2025-09-29 20:05

The cutoff is 10/6 so no they don't have to attend more to keep the points up for the next major. They probably want more practice/server time till after cut off. Then get back into tournies before the major

2025-09-29 22:20

2025-09-29 20:13

I hate this team

2025-09-29 20:20

they said we got ours peace

"However, as only the top-24 portion of the 48-team event is covered by HLTV, (...)" Why is that a thing, if the event is ranked, every game should count. Unless Frag themselves asked/applied to only cover that part

7 replies

HLTV always decides what match to feature on their website. They are controlling the VRS now. I wonder if HLTV got paid by Liquid to not feature their match.

2025-09-29 20:36

I'm surprised it's talked about so little, literally handicapping the whole ranking especially for unranked/low ranked teams

2025-09-29 20:38

especially the asian scene

2025-09-29 21:43

translation: HLTV hates NA

2025-09-29 21:23

True

2025-09-30 03:01

It's not just NA though, they are doing it to Asian events and EU LANs as well.

2025-09-30 15:59

Shame

scared of losing VRS points

2025-09-29 20:32

HLTV giving liquid the stage 2 spot by not featuring their match in their site. What a scam !!!

2025-09-29 20:34

unrelated but good job overthrowing ur government, shit was inspiring

2025-09-30 03:43

I suspect it's not his real flag.

2025-09-30 04:47

Just because you hide your flag does not mean others are fake flaggers.

2025-09-30 06:40

embarrassment avoided 🙏

2025-09-29 21:00

They got the 5 matched they needed for Elige to be eligible to play at the major - Now they dont care about the rest lmao

2025-09-29 21:28

Whyyyyy

2025-09-29 22:23

yeaaaaa we're gonna need to see the doctor's note excusing the absence. otherwise feels kinda scummy

2025-09-29 23:15

they forfeit

2025-09-30 03:08

Good

2025-09-30 03:00

2025-09-30 04:48

ironically reducing the coverage i think makes things a lot harder for teams right above the major cutoff rn, as they now need to make it ever further in such a stacked bracket to have a shot at keeping those spots. like sharks rn are only 10 points away from the highest ranked non-invited slot and 5 of the 8 closest teams are playing blocktober with them, so if they fail to make top 16 and any of those teams win even a single covered match it's almost guaranteed they'll lose the spot

2025-09-30 06:46