After six months with
Team Liquid, Wayne "
wayne" Chang is already expected to be moved to the bench, according to sources close to
Sheep Esports. Having joined from Challengers Southeast Asia, the Singaporean player only made his Tier 1 debut in the
VCT EMEA this season. Despite qualifying for Masters Santiago, TL appear to have lost the formula that brought the team success and stability over the previous years. Nikita “
trexx” Cherednichenko is the player Team Liquid is most interested in for this replacement, sources tell
Sheep Esports.
Sent to the lower bracket at Kickoff after two defeats and just a single win, the teammates of the ever-present Ayaz "nAts" Akhmetshin had to string together five consecutive victories to qualify for Masters Santiago. After first defeating ULF Esports, the Dutch-American organization went on to beat GIANTX, Team Heretics, Team Vitality, and finally Fnatic in the grand final, a decisive match they won 3-0. In Chile, at the first international LAN of 2026, TL failed to reach the playoffs, exiting with a 1-2 record in the group stage after losses to Gentle Mates and NRG Esports, despite opening the tournament with a victory over T1.
A collapse after a strong start
The first half of Stage 1 was nevertheless a strong showing for Team Liquid, securing a playoff berth with a 4-1 record, their only defeat coming against a surprising FUT Esports. However, that momentum came to a halt in the playoffs, where they suffered back-to-back losses to two French organizations, Vitality and M8, resulting in an early elimination. The same pattern repeated itself in the Esports World Cup qualifier, where
wayne and his teammates failed to win a single map. They were defeated 2-0 in the upper bracket by Gentle Mates before falling by the same scoreline to Natus Vincere in the lower bracket.
Primarily active on Controller agents, wayne appeared to struggle during Stage 1, something that is partly reflected in his statistics. After finishing Kickoff with a 1.06 Kill/Death ratio, the Singaporean player ended up among the lowest-performing players in the VCT EMEA during the latest split, posting a 0.86 K:D. While those numbers are likely influenced by his role and positioning, they may also be one of the reasons behind his expected benching ahead of Stage 2.
Having moved to Europe at just 18 years old, far from his family and everything he had previously known in
VALORANT, wayne still showed promising signs with Team Liquid. He arrived as a young international prospect with no prior experience at the highest level, having only competed in Ascension Pacific, yet managed to hold his own on one of the most competitive stages in the game.
