Following Team Liquid’s elimination from the WePlay Esports AniMajor’s group stage, the Dota 2 team has confirmed that Samuel “Boxi” Svahn will return to the org’s active roster ahead of The International 10 regional qualifiers.
SumaiL, who stood in for the team during the second season of the Dota Pro Circuit and the Major, will once again become a free agent.
Prior to the start of the season, Liquid announced that Boxi would be “taking time away” from competitive Dota 2 for personal reasons. It was his decision to step away and take a bit of time off, but now he’s ready to rejoin the team and begin preparing for TI qualifiers.
Liquid’s coach William “Blitz” Lee confirmed Boxi’s return, partially to shut down circulating rumors that the roster was going to continue playing with SumaiL even if Boxi was ready to come back.
“As stated beforehand, it was his (Boxi’s) choice to take the break and his choice to come back,” Blitz said. “There has been some speculation that we were trying to see who we would do better with but that could not be further from the truth. Boxi took some much needed personal time off and is now ready to play once again. I hope people are understanding and try not to speculate about his break too much.”
Boxi has been a part of Liquid’s Dota team since they were signed after The International 2019. He’s been playing with his current teammates in some form since 2017 when they were signed by Alliance.
Liquid will be competing against the likes of OG, Tundra Esports, and Viking.gg in the European TI10 qualifiers from July 7 to 10 for one of the final six spots in the biggest Dota event of the year.
