IEM Chicago Day 4: Liquid avoid LDLC scare; advance to semifinals
The first quarterfinal of IEM Chicago kicked off with Liquid going up against LDLC, who's miracle run at IEM Chicago came to an end after they managed to take Liquid to three maps.
In a veto that saw Liquid sticking with their usual Train ban while Inferno was removed by the Frenchmen, LDLC chose to start the series off on Overpass, a map they've become quite adept at playing in the past three months.
Successfully taking the first pistol in the series, LDLC started off on the winning side of a series of short round streaks at an 8-5 scoreline. Thanks to a 2vs4 flank and ace by Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski, Liquid managed to reduce the deficit at the half to 8-7.
Although they initially took the lead by securing the first five rounds in the second half, Liquid were unable to maintain a handle on LDLC's defense leading to seven straight rounds and a map victory for the French side.
Liquid's pick of Cache was up next, with the team quickly finding out that it may not have been the best idea. The LDLC terrorist side came out guns blazing taking 11 of the first 13 rounds before giving up the final two rounds to retakes for an 11-4 scoreline.
With Nick "nitr0" Cannella notably absent on the map, it was Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken who stepped up for the team in their time of need having to come back from the 11-4 first half. Putting up 30 frags, Twistzz was able to pull Liquid back to a 16-14 win, completing the prophecy made by Jacob "FugLy" Medina.
The final showdown saw LDLC up against Liquid on Mirage with nitr0 and Keith "NAF" Markovic finally coming to life. With the entire team combining, Liquid put up a 12-3 first half on their T-side thanks in part to multiple opening kill rounds from nitr0.
Going into their final T-side of the series, LDLC had only won six of their last 30 rounds across the two maps. With little confidence to garner from that, they'd only succeed in taking a single round, with EliGE closing out the game 16-4 with a 3k, and the series 2-1.
LDLCLiquid| LDLC |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 François 'AMANEK' Delaunay |
49 - 53 | -4 | 78.8 | 74.0% | 1.04 |
 Alex 'ALEX' McMeekin |
55 - 59 | -4 | 75.0 | 62.3% | 0.95 |
| David 'devoduvek' Dobrosavljevic |
45 - 57 | -12 | 73.0 | 63.6% | 0.90 |
 Antoine 'to1nou' Pirard |
49 - 50 | -1 | 60.7 | 63.6% | 0.90 |
| Logan 'LOGAN' Corti |
32 - 54 | -22 | 46.5 | 58.4% | 0.64 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
58 - 41 | +17 | 79.0 | 84.4% | 1.40 |
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
62 - 46 | +16 | 87.2 | 74.0% | 1.30 |
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
53 - 48 | +5 | 79.0 | 72.7% | 1.12 |
 Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
54 - 49 | +5 | 74.7 | 70.1% | 1.10 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
46 - 46 | +0 | 62.8 | 76.6% | 1.02 |
Liquid now goes into the semifinal against the Group B winner FaZe, scheduled for tomorrow at either 2PM EST or 5:50PM EST, as it hasn't been announced which semifinal will be playing first.
Astralis and mousesports are up next to see who will play fnatic on the other side of the bracket. The stream can be found here.
