Malr1ne Leaked as Team Liquid Midlane Tryout in Post-TI Roster Shuffle

A podcast host reportedly leaked that star midlaner Malr1ne is joining Team Liquid as part of a wave of roster moves following The International 2026.

While discussing Team Liquid and its new player Wisper on the Last Free Nation DoTA podcast, host Austin "Cap" Walsh said Malr1ne is "joining Liquid" alongside Wisper, followed by a moment of silence suggesting the information was meant to be confidential.

Team Liquid coach Blitz, who is active on Reddit and popular Dota 2 Twitch streams, has not commented on the leak.

The popular interpretation is that current stand-in MidOne is only playing for Liquid in the upcoming Blast Slam VIII tournament, and Malr1ne will be the team's proper midlane tryout afterward.

Team Liquid will play Blast Slam VIII with two new roster members: Wisper replacing Ace, and MidOne stepping in for the benched Nisha.

In another major move, two-time TI champion Topson has returned to OG for the new season after a year of retirement and national military service.

He recently returned as a stand-in for LGD Gaming at TI 2026, where his Dragon Knight pick was adopted by other teams in the group stage meta.

After TI, Topson expressed his intention of trying out a pro Dota 2 season one more time.

He now joins a rebuilt OG roster that retains Filipino players Natsumi and skem from a squad that had an underwhelming TI showing, and adds ex-PARIVISION offlaner SSS and ex-Virtus.pro support OneJey. Redington Cybersport reported in September that OG reunited with Topson in a major roster overhaul.

The PGL Wallachia Season 9 tournament, the first tier-1 event after TI, revealed several other new or overhauled rosters.

In a surprising move, SumaiL came out of a three-week retirement to join a new stack coached by BuLba, alongside South American prodigy Davai and ex-Falconer Sneyking.

A separate Kuroky-coached stack, rumored to be BC.Game Esports, picked up DM and Ghost after their departures from TI-contender teams this year.

PlayTime, following the EWC match-fixing scandal involving Darkmago and Vintage, signed two of the best players from the former LGD Gaming roster after their contracts expired in August.

With Team Falcons exiting the scene, its players have found new homes.

Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf has replaced DM as the offlaner for Team Yandex, as confirmed on the organization's official Telegram channel, a move a vast majority of insider predictions had projected.

Oliver "Skiter" Lepko has joined Aurora Gaming as its new carry, while the team's intended cornerstone, Nightfall, was moved to the inactive roster.

BetBoom Team revealed a shuffled roster with two new talents and a major role change.

Swedenstrong joins as position 4, while TORONTOTOKYO moves into a coaching stint after trying out midlane, support, and offlane.

The twist is that Save will now play as the team's midlaner, a position change gpk vaguely hinted Save wanted for a while.

The TI-winning Team Falcons roster, coached by Aui_2000, set a record by playing 799 total professional games without a single roster modification since entering the scene in November 2023.

This run has now ended following Aui_2000's retirement in August and Cr1t hinting at retirement during their TI exit.