Benched NAVI rifler, Justinas ‘jL’ Lekavicius, will stand-in for Liquid in place of Guy ‘NertZ’ Iluz at Roman Imperium Cup VI in a crucial event for Liquid’s chances of making the IEM Cologne 2026 Major. NertZ misses the event due to issues regarding travel, but is expected to return for BLAST Open Rotterdam the following week.
HLTV broke the news following speculation from leakers who noted that jL was practising with Liquid instead of NertZ. However, the news was soon confirmed to not be a permanent roster move.
The report was confirmed by jL on X, who started that he was “Happy to be back even though it’s not for long.”
Liquid bank on former Major MVP after a seven-month absence
The Lithuanian rifler has been out of professional play since voluntarily benching himself in July 2025 in what was described by the Natus Vincere org as a ‘joint decision’ between the player and the org.
The Lithuanian would later release a video outlining his reasons for stepping away, in which the PGL Copenhagen Major MVP cited physical and mental health as reasons, as well as focus on his marriage and a desire to engage more with content creation.
The rifler has only played one HLTV match since his July benching, standing-in for fish123 in a 2-1 loss to G2’s academy team, G2 Ares, in August of last year.
Since the decision to step away, jL has engaged in Twitch streaming, most notably in collaboration with Counter-Strike skins creator ohnePixel, as well as working as an analyst at IEM Kraków.
He now reunites with Liquid coach, Viktor ‘flashie’ Tamás Bea, who was NAVI’s analyst until July 2025. The Hungarian has struggled to embed even the most fundamental habits in Liquid’s players, but can at least draw upon jL as a player he is familiar with.
At the very least, jL may bring some new energy to a Liquid roster that has looked defeated and unmotivated in recent times.
Liquid in a desperate race for Major qualification
Little is known about the Lithuanian’s individal form going into what may be a crucial event for Liquid’s season. The team is currently sitting as the 26th highest team in Europe’s regional rankings, a full 10 places below where they need to be to qualify for the Major with the April 6th cutoff looming large.
After the organisation’s perplexing decision to skip PGL Cluj-Napoca, combined with truly abject form that saw them bomb out of ESL Pro League Season 23 in Stage 1, Liquid are in desperate need of fresh LAN wins to grow their VRS points.
They sit #35 in the global VRS rankings, far below expectations for a Liquid team whose roster is still full of notable stars, including Intel Grand Slam winners in Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski and Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic.
As such, Liquid will play local LANs in the form of Roman Imperium Cup VI from March 12-15 and DraculaN Season 6 from March 29-April 2 to try to notch up those much-needed LAN wins.
Liquid will attend BLAST Open Rotterdam from March 18-29 between the two LAN events, starting with a tough match-up against Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets’ Team Spirit.
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Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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