EliGE: “The continued presence of each player on the roster should be in question.”

Team Liquid rifler Jonathan “EliGE” Yablonowski, in an interview at the IEM Cologne Major 2026, shared his thoughts after his team’s elimination from the tournament, summed up the season for the squad, and discussed the future of the current roster.
On his feelings after being eliminated from the event
I’m just disappointed. I think we had a chance to beat FlyQuest, but apparently, mentally we weren’t ready to win on both maps. It was as if we were afraid of our opponent on the first map; I didn’t feel like we trusted each other in the game. Of course, it’s a Major, so there’s more pressure and all that, but I don’t even know what else to say... Would I have liked the chance to play a third map? Of course. I think if we’d managed to pull it off on the second map, we definitely would have won on Ancient. No matter how strong our opponents are, I believe we would have easily beaten them, so yes, I’d be happy to get another chance.
On the work we’ve done and the season’s results
We tried a lot of things, and most of them didn’t work. I think that’s the main lesson we’ll take away from this season. Even while NertZ was still playing with us, the team tested different strategies and approaches to the game, and after all that, failing to even make it to the second stage at a Major is really tough. Of course, I, all my teammates, and Team Liquid fans would have liked to see a much better result, and what we showed is, in essence, unacceptable. We have a lot of issues to address after this tournament, because the way we’re playing right now is very poor.
On future prospects
I’ve said this in previous interviews, but I’ll say it again: every player’s continued presence on the roster should be up for debate. This, of course, is because of how many things we’ve already tried and how many of them didn’t work. So anyone could be on the chopping block right now, including me. The team’s future depends entirely on the organization and who they decide to keep, how they plan to develop the project, and which direction they choose to go. I have no say in any of this, so all I can do is wait and see what happens.
- Read also: malbsMd on Team Liquid: “When you hit a bit of a slump, it’s really hard to get out of it”
Team Liquid lost to FlyQuest in the fifth round of the first stage of the IEM Cologne Major 2026 with a score of 0-2 in a best-of-3 series. Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski’s team finished in 25th–27th place at the tournament, managing to win only two of their five matches.
Photo: StarLadder.


