Boxi set to return to Team Liquid ahead of Dota 2 TI10 Regional Qualifiers, SumaiL to become free agent

A heartbreaking defeat at the hands of Team Spirit in the tiebreaker marks Team Liquid’s departure from the Dota 2 WePlay AniMajor.

Team Liquid did not make it to the playoffs stage, and they have about a month to get in better shape till the Western Europe Qualifiers for the most coveted annual Dota 2 tournament, The International 10. The return of a familiar roster might just be the recourse they need.

Following the Dota 2 AniMajor group stage tiebreaker, Team Liquid coach William ‘Blitz’ Lee dispelled all the rumours about Syed ‘SumaiL’ Hassan’s extended stay. As Blitz confirmed earlier in a tweet, Samuel ‘Boxi’ Svahn will be returning as their offlaner.

Update: Boxi will be returning for the TI qualifiers. As stated beforehand, it was his choice to take the break and his choice to come back. There has been some speculation that we were trying to see who we would do better with but that could not be further from the truth

— William Lee (@Blitz_DotA) June 8, 2021

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Boxi to be back in Team Liquid Dota 2 roster

In a sense, Boxi has been an integral part of the current Team Liquid ensemble, with Aydin ‘iNSaNiA’ Sarkohi’, Michael ‘miCKe’ Vu et al., since 2018. It was the exact same team that flourished in the Dota 2 pro circuit under the banner of Alliance.

Since April 23rd this year, Boxi had to temporarily retire from the pro scene “to be with his family,” as the official Team Liquid press release cites. SumaiL was to be the stand-in for the oncoming DreamLeague Season 15 DPC, a prestigious EU and NA-centric Dota 2 league.

Unlike Boxi, SumaiL is not an offlaner. His legendary aggressive style is more suited for a 1v1 mid match-up, whic is where he traditionally plays. Liquid had to do some reshuffling with the roles to get their team chemistry going. It seemed to work, as they dominated in DreamLeague with SumaiL as their midlaner and Max 'qojqva' Broecker repurposed as the offlaner.

But as the Dota 2 WePlay AniMajor rolled up, speculation surfaced as to whether SumaiL’s sojourn as a stand-in could turn into a permanent seat on the roster. As confirmed by the Liquid coach’s tweet yesterday, those speculations were wrong. Boxi will be returning as the staple Liquid position 3.

Thank you to @SumaaaaiL for helping us during our time of need, I wish we could have gone further but it was an absolute pleasure. Our results here were absolutely not his fault and he performed incredibly well under the circumstances. The team will root for you wherever you go!

— William Lee (@Blitz_DotA) June 8, 2021

As for SumaiL, he goes back to being a free agent. Liquid really struggled to hit their stride in the AniMajor group stage, and SumaiL’s Templar Assassin mid shenanigans did not bear fruit. That said, SumaiL remains one of the top mid players of Dota 2. It is still within the realm of possibilities that he gets signed by another team before the TI Qualifiers kick off in July.