malbsMd on Team Liquid: “When you hit a bit of a slump, it’s really hard to get out of it.”
Daria Ushakova
Team Liquid rifler Mario “malbsMd” Samayo commented on the recent match against HEROIC in an interview at the IEM Cologne Major 2026, and also explained why his team has been performing poorly lately.
On the match against HEROIC
On Nuke, we generally had good calls, and EliGE did a great job playing defense. On Inferno, I read the enemy perfectly on the “banana” for both sides. Although I lost a bit of control on defense at the end, overall everything was fine. So I’m happy that we beat a team we’re capable of beating, since we’ve been working hard lately.
On Team Liquid’s struggles
Maybe sometimes we overthink things, since the guys have been facing difficulties for a long time, and it’s been tough for them. When you hit a bit of a slump, it’s really hard to get out of it. When I first joined the team, I already had a bit of an understanding of what was going on and why the slump was happening. So I tried to help them and did everything I could.
On the pressure
Another reason why it’s hard for them is the pressure. People say unpleasant things about ultimate and siuhy; they take it to heart and start overthinking things. At some point, they want to be heroes and prove that they’re capable of playing on the big stage.
Earlier, Team Liquid exited the IEM Cologne Major 2026 in the first stage. Kamil “siuhy” Skaradek’s team lost to FlyQuest in the decisive match. On the first map, Anubis, Team Liquid performed poorly, losing by a wide margin (2-13), and later lost on Inferno as well (7-13).
Photo — Stephanie Lindgren, BLAST.
Daria Ushakova
