NRG battle past Liquid; to StarSeries i-League Semifinals
NRG and Liquid became the first quarterfinal match at the StarSeries i-League Season 5 Finals playoffs, so don't feel too bad for missing the match as it was broadcast in the early morning. The two teams set themselves up to fight on Inferno, Nuke and Train.
Inferno began with Liquid exploding out of the gates, Keith "NAF" Markovic's 1.60 rating made sure of that, to appear as if NRG's LAN run was set to be over. With a 10-5 finish in favor of Liquid, NRG had to make up a lot of ground in the second half to remain competitive. Their CT-side was unable to do such a thing, only just managing to take a tenth round, with Liquid taking the map 16-10.
Nuke was NRG's pick, and former coach Ian "Immi" Harding seemed to agree with such a move. With Liquid starting strong, taking the pistol and following rounds, NRG came out of the blocks with eight rounds won in a row on their CT-side. With the team 9-6 at the switch, Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov was in control of the map, reaching 102.8 ADR, helping his team go unbeaten on their second half, taking the map 16-6.
The decider was Train. NRG finally got the upper hand on their opponents by securing the pistol round, but it wasn't too long before Liquid put themselves ahead. But any lead was short lived before Damian "daps" Steele helped see his team over the line, securing ten rounds in a row on both halves to take the final map. Another 16-6 win was all NRG needed to continue their tournament run.
LiquidNRG| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
48 - 47 | +1 | 75.2 | 68.6% | 1.07 |
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
50 - 48 | +2 | 73.7 | 67.1% | 1.05 |
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
44 - 48 | -4 | 84.0 | 67.1% | 1.05 |
 Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
41 - 51 | -10 | 64.4 | 61.4% | 0.87 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
29 - 48 | -19 | 46.7 | 65.7% | 0.72 |
| NRG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
55 - 43 | +12 | 75.2 | 70.0% | 1.20 |
 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov |
52 - 40 | +12 | 76.4 | 77.1% | 1.19 |
| Damian 'daps' Steele |
51 - 41 | +10 | 77.6 | 78.6% | 1.15 |
| Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold |
43 - 45 | -2 | 73.7 | 77.1% | 1.09 |
| Jacob 'FugLy' Medina |
41 - 43 | -2 | 71.8 | 71.4% | 1.02 |
This result means they'll face the winner of North or AGO in tomorrow's semifinal, at 5am EDT. SK are the other North American-based team left in the competition, with their quarterfinal match against Natus Vincere scheduled for 12pm EDT today.
