Team Liquid coach admitted that current Azure Ray squad player declined the team's invitation

William ‘Blitz’ Lee revealed that even before The Lima Major 2023, Team Liquid had invited Zhang ‘Faith_bian’ Zhuida to the Dota 2 roster. However, the cyber athlete declined, after which he joined Azure Ray.

The Team Liquid coach made the relevant statement on Austin ‘Capitalist’ Walsh's Twitch broadcast.

‘Once we brought Faith_bian to our base, treated him royally. It was before The Lima Major 2023, we were counting on him to go. He came, hung out, maybe coached a little bit. Just socialising, he was having fun. Then I invited him into a room with the founder and co-owner of the organisation and asked him if he was interested in joining us. He said: ‘Look, I've had a really good time here, all the guys are great. I like your philosophy and what you do, but professional Dota is not for me’. I said: ‘Okay.’

Then again during TI I texted him one last time, ‘I'll give you one more chance, one last offer, and I won't bother you anymore. I heard you, but in case you change your mind and want to play.’ He wrote, ‘No.’ And a week later, he signed up for Azure Ray.’

Team Liquid currently has three wins at Elite League Season 2. The team also managed to finish second at the Riyadh Masters 2024, where Azure Ray shared the last two spots with G2 x iG, exiting the tournament after the first Play-In stage. Azure Ray are now playing at the Clavision Snow Ruyi Invitational, at the time of writing the publication the team has 3 losses in three first stage matches played.

Earlier, William ‘Blitz’ Lee commented on the team's defeat to Gaimin Gladiators in the Riyadh Masters 2024 Grand Final.