Liquid move on to face FaZe on the BIG stage
Liquid have mirrored their result from their opening matchup at ESL One Belo Horizonte by claiming victory over BIG on Cache and Inferno, moving forward into the semifinals where they are set to take on FaZe.
The series began on Cache with Liquid getting off to a roaring start. Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski and Keith "NAF" Markovic opened up the fragging for Liquid, allowing the North Americans a dominant 3-0 start. Although BIG replied with three rounds of their own, two three-kill rounds from NAF demolished the Germans' economy to put Liquid back in control.
From here the half belonged to Liquid as their players came to life. EliGE found himself a quick ace on the anti-eco and continued to shut BIG down with four kills in the ensuing round. Owen "smooya" Butterfield's best efforts were in vain as BIG were only able to muster one additional round in the half, resulting in Liquid doing one better than their prior performance against BIG by finding 11 rounds.
The trend of repeat performances continued as BIG rallied for a comeback, winning the second pistol round and immediately resetting Liquid's economy after Nick "nitr0" Cannella and co. secured the first gun round. This gave Fatih "gob b" Dayik's side the opportunity to secure 12 rounds before NAF shut them out of the B site by finding four frags with an AWP.
Liquid found their groove off the back of NAF's site hold, locking BIG out of both bombsites to close out the map 16-12 — two rounds sooner than in their previous matchup.
The first gun round reset trend also continued as Inferno kicked off. Liquid fought back from a two-on-five on the pistol round to work their way to a 3-0 lead, where BIG's Tizian "tiziaN" Feldbusch took three kills to give his team their first round. The economic reset came through to allow Liquid an easy path to a 7-1 lead.
This time it was Johannes "nex" Maget who shut down Liquid with three frags, and BIG capitalized on the opening to secure an additional three rounds. Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken fought back at the end of the half with an ace to reverse Liquid's previous Inferno halftime score, ending their T side with 10 rounds to BIG's five.
smooya tried his best to keep BIG in the running by finding four frags on the second pistol round, but once Liquid had guns on the board there was no shutting them out. One final reset ensured the victory for Liquid, once again finishing with a better scoreline than their previous showing against BIG.
BIGLiquid| BIG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tizian 'tiziaN' Feldbusch |
39 - 33 | +6 | 74.5 | 75.9% | 1.08 |
 Owen 'smooya' Butterfield |
37 - 40 | -3 | 71.9 | 64.8% | 1.01 |
| Johannes 'nex' Maget |
35 - 38 | -3 | 76.6 | 68.5% | 0.98 |
| Fatih 'gob b' Dayik |
22 - 38 | -16 | 48.5 | 63.0% | 0.72 |
| Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz |
24 - 42 | -18 | 58.8 | 55.6% | 0.69 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
45 - 33 | +12 | 87.8 | 81.5% | 1.37 |
 Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
38 - 28 | +10 | 75.2 | 72.2% | 1.19 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
39 - 33 | +6 | 73.3 | 81.5% | 1.18 |
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
38 - 35 | +3 | 82.1 | 68.5% | 1.13 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
31 - 29 | +2 | 66.9 | 74.1% | 1.07 |
Liquid now move on to take on FaZe in the semifinals of ESL One Belo Horizonte, with their match set to kick off day 4 at 10 AM EDT. The home crowd favorite, SK, will face off against mousesports shortly after for a place in the grand finals, with Jordan 'n0thing" Gilbert looking to prove he still has what it takes to compete against the best.
