Team Liquid have announced their replacement for MATUMBAMAN in their Dota 2 roster ahead of the EPICENTER Major in Moscow.
MATUMBAMAN was dropped from the Team Liquid Dota 2 roster on June 12 after more than three years with the team.
Team Liquid has now announced MATUMBAMAN's replacement will be Aliwi 'w33' Omar, formerly of Team Secret, Chaos and paiN.
W33 said: "I’m happy and thankful to have been given a chance and I’m ready to prove myself once again."
It is the first change to the Team Liquid Dota 2 roster since September 2016, when Miracle joined, and a change we called earlier in the week as the most likely to occur.
w33, aged 24, will be thrown in at the deep end as Liquid begin the EPICENTER Major in Moscow on Friday when he will join Miracle-, MinD_ContRoL, GH and KuroKy in the Team Liquid Dota 2 roster.
'An outstanding player'
In an annoucement made on Thursday, Team Liquid said: "Our Dota 2 team is filled with some of the greatest players in the world for their positions and w33 will fit in terrifically with them. W33 has proven himself to be one of the most resourceful mid laners in Dota 2, going toe to toe with the greatest players who have ever played the role. He does not shy away from playing off-meta heroes when required even when the stakes are high as we have seen with his Skywrath and Jakiro.
"W33 made a name for himself playing Invoker and Meepo as a pubstar but solidified his position as a world class mid laner during his time on Secret and during his TI6 run. We're going to unleash that world class mid laner once again.
"W33 has continued to impress us during his time in South America where over and over again he has delivered, not only in the mid lane lane, but also with his rotations and his decision-making as a player.
"Any team would be lucky to have such an outstanding player join their roster and we once again welcome w33 to our family."
Team Liquid Dota 2 roster
- Amer 'Miracle-' Al-Barkawi
- Ivan 'MinD_ContRoL' Ivanov
- Aliwi 'w33' Omar
- Maroun 'GH' Merhej
- Kuro 'KuroKy' Salehi Takhasomi
