More Dota 2 squads are joining the annual post-International roster shuffle, this time with Team Liquid moving Jonáš “SabeRLight-” Volek to their inactive list. Liquid announced the move this morning via their social media channels, saying that SabeRLight- would be “moving to the bench for the next chapter”, and noting that he “has shown tremendous growth, dedication, and positivity” in his one season with the team.
SabeRLight- joined Liquid almost exactly a year ago now, in the aftermath of The International 2024 (TI13) — right as Liquid had presumably finished celebrating winning the world title that season. He replaced the outgoing Neta “33” Shapira, who led Liquid to their second International victory as an organization.
Young Jedi
I do agree wholeheartedly with Liquid here: SabeRLight- has improved vastly since joining the squad in September of last year. While he still has a long way to go when it comes to even getting close to 33’s impact, he has stepped into the shoes he had to fill admirably for someone that has only been playing at the highest level regularly over the last two to three years.
The results prove it, too. With Liquid, he won back-to-back editions of PGL Wallachia (the third and fourth seasons, to be precise), placed third in one of them, and beat PARIVISION three games to none in the FISSURE Universe Episode 5 grand finals. Unfortunately, he and the rest of Liquid didn’t defend their title very well at TI14, having bombed out below the top 8 as a result of their poor performance in the Swiss group stage.
Where is 33 headed?
But with him now getting benched, it would seem that Liquid are looking at perhaps going with someone else in this regard. Considering that Tundra Esports have likewise sidelined Martin “Saksa” Sazdov for the upcoming season, I’m thinking that Tundra might also be making more moves there.
Perhaps 33 is looking to come back to Liquid, then? The biggest reason he even left the team in the first place after winning another Aegis of Champions with them is because he wanted to play again with Saksa, one of his best friends and undoubtedly the best lane partner he’s ever had in his entire career. Given Saksa’s break from competitive play, 33 might be thinking that now is a good time to jump ship once more.
And as much as I respect SabeRLight- and his work ethic, this would just be a huge upgrade, straight up. 33 is the greatest offlaner of all time, and any organization on this planet (save maybe the Chinese teams due to possible communication issues) would kill to have him on their roster. If Aydin “Insania” Sarkohi wants to do one more run before he retires for good, getting 33 to come back might just be the winning move here.
They were pretty damn inconsistent throughout the 2024-2025 season, after all, and bringing such a stable offlaner like 33 back into the fold would help tremendously in this regard.
