Liquid Eliminated from DraculaN Season 6 as Major Qualification Hopes Hang in the Balance

Liquid’s late push for a place at the IEM Cologne Major suffered another setback on Tuesday as the team crashed out of DraculaN Season 6 before the final weekend, ending a run that began with cautious optimism but finished in familiar frustration. The HLTV report confirmed that Liquid were eliminated as the tournament field was cut to six teams, while M80 also produced one of the day’s biggest surprises by knocking off Aurora in the upper bracket. 

The result matters because DraculaN was never just another small LAN for Liquid. After their early exit from ESL Pro League Season 23 Stage 1, the team signed up for Roman Imperium Cup VI and DraculaN Season 6 in an effort to salvage their Major campaign. At the time, HLTV reported that Liquid’s chances of qualifying for the Cologne Major stood at only 13 percent, with attendance at both events potentially lifting that number to 35 percent. DraculaN, scheduled for March 29 to April 2, was therefore one of the last realistic opportunities to add ranking value before the April 6 VRS cut-off used for Major qualification. 

Liquid did at least reach the playoffs. HLTV’s playoff preview noted that DraculaN’s group stage ended with a 16-team double-elimination bracket, and Liquid entered that phase with a new-looking lineup built around Keith “NAF” Markovic, Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski, Mario “malbsMd” Samayoa, Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek, and Roland “ultimate” Tomkowiak. Before Tuesday’s collapse, they had opened the playoff run with a 2-0 win over Inner Circle, which kept them on course for a potentially valuable lower-tier title. 

That momentum disappeared quickly in the all-North American derby against M80. In the upper-bracket quarter-final, Liquid lost 0-2, with HLTV listing 13-7 on Ancient and 13-9 on Inferno in M80’s favor. The defeat was especially painful because it came just as Liquid completed the fifth official match required for malbsMd on the roster, allowing the team to enter the Americas VRS. HLTV described that switch as a moment that offered some relief in the Major race, but the immediate sporting blow was still severe: Liquid were dropped into the lower bracket and suddenly had no margin for error. Dust2.us also confirmed the broader story from the M80 side, describing the victory as a clean 2-0 that sent Liquid downward in the bracket. 

To their credit, Liquid did respond. Later the same day they survived a three-map elimination series against HAVU, recovering from a poor start to win 2-1. HLTV’s match page shows HAVU taking Nuke 13-6 before Liquid answered with a 13-8 win on Mirage and a 13-7 closeout on Dust2. HLTV’s event recap framed that series as a near-disaster, noting that Liquid “nearly saw their own Major hopes take a grim turn” after losing the opening map. What followed, however, was less a reset than a brief postponement of the inevitable. 

The decisive blow came against Sashi. Liquid were swept 2-0 in the next lower-bracket round, with the HLTV match page listing 13-10 for Sashi on Nuke and 13-10 again on Anubis. Dust2.us corroborated the result and added that, while the loss was “unlikely to affect Liquid’s Major prospects” as dramatically as it would have earlier in the month, it was still another disappointing outcome and another reminder that these supposedly manageable Tier 2 LANs are anything but easy for unstable top-20 teams. Dust2’s report also highlighted Frederik “Fessor” Sørensen’s impact on Anubis, while Lukas “Beccie” Bauder Balcells finished as Sashi’s highest-rated player for the series. 

Liquid’s exit also unfolded in the context of a wider Major race shake-up. On the same day, FaZe were eliminated after losses to Passion UA and fnatic, leaving their Cologne hopes effectively dead unless they changed plans and skipped PGL Bucharest for another VRS event. M80, meanwhile, did far more than simply beat Liquid: they followed it up with a comeback win over Aurora, overturning a one-map deficit to win 2-1. Dust2.us described Aurora as a major scalp, noting that the Turkish side had recently finished runner-up at ESL Pro League Season 23 and reached the top four at BLAST Open Rotterdam. That combination of results turned DraculaN into one of the most consequential secondary events on the calendar, not because of prestige, but because every win and every loss was feeding directly into the final pre-Major rankings picture. 

In the end, Liquid leave Romania with the same questions that followed them into it. The team entered DraculaN as a squad trying to rescue its season, armed with a refreshed roster and a clearer path through the Americas ranking. Instead, it managed only one clean playoff win, one recovery against HAVU, and two losses on the most important day of the event. The numbers say their position is less desperate than it was before the malbsMd-related VRS switch, but the eye test is harsher: this was supposed to be a proving ground, and Liquid failed it. With the Cologne Major’s April 6 VRS snapshot closing in fast, the team is now left hoping that the structural benefit of the region change will matter more than the competitive warning signs exposed at DraculaN Season 6.