I assume they came to the conclusion that NA just doesn't have good options for players?
But at the same time I don't think Patsi and Rainwaker are necessarily the answer - but I could be wrong, of course, haven't followed them very closely. But someone like Yekindar at least was clearly a star level player, even if he hasn't always shown that in Liquid.
I imagine it was more of a case that either Elige wanted out or Liquid wanted Elige gone, doesn't really matter which as he's been dropping for a while now, and there just wasn't any NA talent to replace Nitr0 and Elige.