On Thursday,
Team Liquid announced that Dominykas “
MiniBoo” Lukaševičius had been moved to the bench following his own request to step away from the team's
VALORANT roster. According to sources close to
Sheep Esports, the organization intends to replace him with a member of its academy squad, Kimmie “
Kicks” Laasner.
The Estonian player joined Team Liquid Academy at the beginning of the year and had already briefly featured for the main roster as a stand-in during the opening week of the
VCT EMEA Kickoff, replacing Wayne “
wayne” Chang. He also brings prior VCT experience, having spent the previous two seasons competing with
Team Vitality. Following a strong year in the Challengers circuit, Kicks is now set to receive another opportunity at the VCT level.
Second change coming from the player’s desire
This would mark Team Liquid’s second roster change ahead of Stage 2. The organization had already announced that wayne would be taking a break from competitive play to return home to Singapore. As previously reported by Sheep Esports, he is expected to be replaced by trexx. After a promising Stage 1 campaign that ultimately ended in a disappointing playoff run, followed by a short-lived appearance in the EWC EMEA Qualifier, Team Liquid felt changes were necessary heading into the second half of the season.
Team Liquid is one of the few VCT organizations able to draw directly from its academy system in a situation like this. Kicks achieved solid results with the academy roster in VALORANT Challengers NORTH//EAST, consistently finishing near the top of the standings, most often in second place behind Enterprise Esports. Those performances were typically followed by top-eight finishes at the VCL EMEA level.
Having been replaced in the academy lineup by Baptiste “Yohpa” Khoury since the start of VCL EMEA Stage 3, Kicks is now expected to join the main roster. The Estonian primarily specializes in Initiator agents but has also played Controller throughout his career. His promotion is therefore likely to trigger a broader tactical reshuffle within Team Liquid, particularly given that MiniBoo had occupied the team's Duelist role.
