mousesports dry up Liquid to win ESL One New York
After taking down Gambit in the ESL One New York semifinals, Liquid seemed to be in one of their best forms yet, with the team's ratings being the highest of any team at the event prior to the grand finals.
Now in the grand finals, the only thing standing between Liquid and a win at a major event was mousesports, who had previously bested Liquid in a best-of-five grand finals. With a rejuvenated drive and a strong performance so far, the North Americans looked ready to take it all in New York.
The series kicked off on Cache, a particularly strong map for Liquid and their first map choice. mousesports immediately took the first three rounds of the map, with Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken retaliating with six straight rounds in Liquid's favor. mousesports conversely turned the map back in their favor, taking the lead 8-6, with Liquid closing the half 8-7.
In spite of a decent start by Liquid in the second half, mousesports slowly began to take control of the map, dominating the last half and taking Liquid's map 16-12, bringing the European squad up 1-0 in the series.
Moving onto mousesports' map pick, Liquid started out on the CT-side of Nuke, where Nick "nitr0" Cannella's strong plays with the AWP led Liquid through a strong 11-4 first half, propelling Liquid forward going into the second half.
Liquid immediately found match point following just four bomb plants. Down 4-15, mousesports clawed back a few rounds, but that only padded out the scoreline. On an eco round, Liquid finally found the 16-7 scoreline after rushing B-site and crushing mousesport's full buy, tying the series 1-1.
Liquid continued their strong performance onto their next map pick of Inferno, kicking off the map with a 7-1 head start. Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski struck back against the Americans with a monstrous performance, nearly tying the match for mousesports 6-7. Liquid finally found success again on the A-site, taking the last two rounds for themselves to retain their lead 9-6.
Liquid's performance continued well into the second half, with 1v3 from Keith "NAF" Markovic giving his team match point 15-7. After three round wins from mousesports, Liquid ultimately closed the map 16-10, putting them at series point 2-1.
The fourth map began in the form of Dust2, with Liquid starting off with three rounds of their own. After losing two rounds to mousesports, Epitacio "TACO" de Melo led Liquid through seven rounds, giving them a lead 9-2. Miikka "suNny" Kemppi kept mousesports in the game, with both teams trading rounds at the end of the first half, with Liquid still in the lead 11-4.
Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski and Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken easily held off the long offense from mousesports, giving Liquid the second pistol round, on which they were able to convert. Liquid's grip on the game slowly began to come loose as mousesports swiped away five rounds, nearly putting them at double digits 9-13. Liquid finally edged out another round, with TACO clutching out a 1v2, however mousesports responded with five straight rounds, tying the score 14-14. Off the back of two AWP kills from nitr0 and a 1v2 from NAF, Liquid finally found match point in the 29th round. Unfortunately, Liquid were unable to find the 30th round, with mousesports pushing Dust2 into overtime.
mousesports easily captured B-site in the first round of overtime, securing the first round. Liquid immediately responded, with EliGE holding off A site with a 3K, giving Liquid their first round in overtime. The North Americans followed up, closing the first half of overtime 17-16.
Despite strong prospects, Liquid failed to reach match point in the second half of overtime, with mousesports taking all three rounds in the second half to close Dust2 in their favor 19-17. With the series tied 2-2, mousesports give themselves one last chance to take the series on Mirage.
Following a clean pistol round on Mirage, Liquid converted the first two rounds before mousesports retaliated, putting a round on the board. While Liquid were able to trade back another round, mousesports rebounded, taking nine of the last ten rounds of the first half, giving them a solid 10-5 lead at halftime.
Things continued to look grim for Liquid, who were only able to string together one to two rounds in the second half, with Chris "chrisJ" de Jong's team ultimately coming out on top 16-8, giving mousesports their first ESL One title in New York.
MOUZLiquid| MOUZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Chris 'chrisJ' de Jong |
97 - 86 | +11 | 74.4 | 67.2% | 1.11 |
 Miikka 'suNny' Kemppi |
95 - 96 | -1 | 76.7 | 73.0% | 1.07 |
 Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski |
84 - 85 | -1 | 73.6 | 67.9% | 1.02 |
 Robin 'ropz' Kool |
85 - 83 | +2 | 68.7 | 69.3% | 1.00 |
 Tomáš 'oskar' Šťastný |
82 - 87 | -5 | 65.4 | 67.2% | 0.96 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
120 - 81 | +39 | 92.6 | 73.7% | 1.34 |
 Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
81 - 85 | -4 | 67.2 | 65.0% | 1.00 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
89 - 92 | -3 | 70.2 | 67.2% | 0.97 |
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
67 - 91 | -24 | 65.2 | 66.4% | 0.91 |
 Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
80 - 94 | -14 | 61.2 | 65.7% | 0.90 |
With mousesports claiming yet another 3-2 victory over Liquid in the grand finals of an event, Liquid's 2nd place finish in New York marks their fourth second place finish this year at a major event, joining the ELEAGUE Premier 2018, ECS Season 5 Finals, and the EPL S7 finals.
The final standings for ESL One New York are:
1. 
mousesports - $125,000
2. 
Liquid - $50,000
3-4. NRG - $25,00
3-4. 
Gambit - $25,000
5-6. 
Natus Vincere - $8,500
5-6. 
G2 - $8,500
7-8. 
Fnatic - $4,000
7-8. FaZe - $4,000
