Team Liquid have opened their Dota 2 offseason with a headline move: Danish offlaner Marcus “Ace” Hoelgaard is leaving the organisation after exactly one year, and the rumour mill already has a replacement lined up. According to a report from Cyberscore, Jordanian star Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf – most recently of the now-disbanded Team Falcons roster – is being considered for the position-3 slot. Liquid have not confirmed anything yet, but the timing and the profile of the name involved make this the most intriguing storyline of the early post-TI window.
A trophy-laden year that ended short of the Aegis
Ace arrived at Liquid in October 2025 together with Erik “tOfu” Engel, both leaving Gaimin Gladiators in the aftermath of that organisation’s messy roster dispute. The pairing paid off quickly. With Ace in the offlane, Liquid lifted BLAST Slam VI and the 1win Series Essence II title, and they were a fixture in the final four at FISSURE Playground 2, three consecutive seasons of PGL Wallachia (6, 7 and 8) and DreamLeague Season 28.
Heading into The International 2026 in Shanghai, the squad looked like a live contender for the Aegis. They had just swept Team Falcons in the grand final of 1win Essence, the last tier-one event before TI, and they were widely regarded as one of the favourites. The tournament itself did not follow the script: Liquid were knocked out in the lower-bracket quarter-finals, losing 0-2 to Team Spirit – the team that went on to claim a record third Aegis. A fifth-sixth-place finish is respectable, but for a roster built to win, it clearly was not enough to keep the lineup intact.
The club’s farewell post struck a warm tone – “Today we say goodbye and thank you to Ace,” Team Liquid wrote – and highlighted his theory-crafting and the trophies he added to the cabinet. Ace now enters free agency at a moment when several top teams are rebuilding.
Who stays, and who might arrive
Four players remain under the Liquid banner: carry Michael “miCKe” Vu, midlaner Michał “Nisha” Jankowski, soft support Samuel “Boxi” Svahn and captain tOfu in the hard-support role, with William “Blitz” Lee still coaching. That core is one of the most stable in the Western scene, so whoever fills the offlane will step into a fully functioning system rather than a rebuild.
That is where ATF comes in. The Jordanian has spent the past seasons as one of the most aggressive and mechanically gifted position-3 players in the world, first at OG and then at Team Falcons, where he was part of the roster that dominated the 2024-25 calendar and won TI 2025. Falcons’ abrupt exit from Dota 2 earlier this month left the entire lineup on the market, and speculation immediately centred on where ATF and midlaner Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak would land.
Interestingly, ATF himself has dampened expectations of a Falcons reunion. Speaking with analyst Maurice “KheZu” Gutmann, he described the split as a complete disband rather than a shuffle, and indicated that he wants to take six months to a year away from his former teammates before considering playing together again. If that holds, a solo move to a ready-made contender like Liquid makes a great deal of sense for both sides.
What it means for the 2026-27 season and the betting picture
A Liquid roster with ATF in the offlane would arguably be stronger on paper than the version that finished top six in Shanghai. Ace was a cerebral, drafting-oriented offlaner; ATF brings raw tempo and space creation, which pairs naturally with Nisha’s mid-game dominance and miCKe’s late-game scaling. Expect Liquid to open as one of the shortest-priced teams for the first tier-one events of the new season if the deal is confirmed – and expect the market to move fast once an official announcement lands.
With Falcons gone, Virtus.pro disbanded and Team Spirit sitting on three Aegises, the competitive landscape is shifting more than it has in years. For punters, the offseason is the ideal time to compare which esports bookmakers price early-season Dota 2 outright markets most generously, and to weigh up the welcome offers available before the first LANs kick off. We will update this story as soon as Liquid make their new offlaner official.
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