Liquid romp and BIG stop the Party on day two of ESL Pro League Season 15
The second day of Group C of ESL Pro League Season 15 has drawn to a close, with Party Astronauts being unable to find an answer for Johannes "TabseN" Wodarz as he carried BIG to victory. Elsewhere, Liquid had no trouble taking down their Brazilian counterparts in GODSENT, cruising to victory on the back of a swift 2-0 affair.
Party Astronauts, who have been in the news more for their off-server drama rather than performances in recent weeks struggled to combat the Germans of Berlin International Gaming. BIG secured their first win of group play this week with their 2-0 win over the North Americans and have improved to 1-1, while the Astronauts remain winless. Despite the routs on Overpass and Dust2, there was more life to the Party for Joe "Muenster" Lima's crew as they were able to secure nineteen total rounds today, which is an improvement from the ten rounds they won yesterday against Players. Party Astronauts will have a lot of work left to do as they are at the bottom of their group with more matches against Liquid, GODSENT, and Movistar Riders awaiting them.
The series started off on Party Astronauts' pick of Overpass, with the squad not making the most out of their T-side. The Americans scrapped ahead to a 4-3 lead, trading rounds back and forth before they lost the 8th round to a full eco buy from BIG. It seemed almost impossible for the Astronauts to recover from the devastating reversal as the half closed with a 11-4 scoreline in the favor of the Germans. The game seemed almost forgettable for audiences as BIG secured the second half pistol round and were poised to run away with the map, however a force-buy from the defense showed some light at the end of the tunnel. Four consecutive rounds later and the gap had been closed to 12-9 before BIG recovered and shut the game down 16-9.
Moving onto BIG's pick of Dust2, it almost seemed like there was more life in the Astronauts who will rue several pivotal rounds which came down to timing, health, and generally bad luck. With the likes of Peter "ptr" Gurney and Jonathan "djay" Dallal showing strong performances on the defense, the first half scoreline of 6-9 was not representative of each team's performances. BIG started the second half by winning their fourth pistol of the match, which set an early tone for the course of the offense. With the scoreline gap narrowing to only 11-9, BIG were able to secure the 21st round with an aggressive push towards Long A doors and then closing down the rotation towards the B site. The Party was looking over for the Americans as they were only able to secure one more round after and lost the map 10-16.
BIGParty Astronauts| BIG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz |
53 - 31 | +22 | 105.0 | 76.5% | 1.55 |
| Karim 'Krimbo' Moussa |
44 - 25 | +19 | 90.3 | 72.5% | 1.38 |
| Florian 'syrsoN' Rische |
34 - 27 | +7 | 69.8 | 80.4% | 1.21 |
| Josef 'faveN' Baumann |
34 - 31 | +3 | 75.5 | 64.7% | 1.07 |
| Tizian 'tiziaN' Feldbusch |
26 - 29 | -3 | 57.1 | 68.6% | 0.90 |
| Party Astronauts |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey |
37 - 39 | -2 | 75.9 | 66.7% | 0.95 |
| Jonathan 'djay' Dallal |
31 - 36 | -5 | 68.7 | 70.6% | 0.92 |
 Peter 'ptr' Gurney |
31 - 37 | -6 | 62.0 | 60.8% | 0.84 |
| Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
28 - 41 | -13 | 57.5 | 54.9% | 0.82 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
16 - 38 | -22 | 54.4 | 64.7% | 0.65 |
The final matchup of the day saw Liquid face off versus GODSENT, with the former easily taking care of business as they keep up their solid form in the event so far.
The series kicked off on GODSENT’s pick of Ancient where neither team was able to pull ahead to begin with, exchanging rounds back and forth until Nick "nitr0" Cannella's men eventually managed to find their footing. From then onwards, it was simply a case of brushing aside sporadic GODSENT resistance as Liquid managed to run up an overwhelming 11-4 lead by the switch. Once on their T-side, it was a relatively smooth sailing affair for the North American heavyweights, as they soon posted the remaining five rounds they needed to crush Epitacio "TACO" de Melo and company 16-4.
Traveling to Dust2 for the second time of the day, things initially looked bright for the Brazilians, overcoming Liquid’s first two rounds by going on a four-round spree of their own. Despite this, Liquid soon found their stride, with Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski, nitr0 and Josh "oSee" Ohm joining forces to spearhead the squad to a 10-5 lead by the turn of the half. Once there, a lone round by GODSENT would be the only interruption to a stellar Liquid who had no trouble deconstructing their foes, closing the map out 16-6 as they continue to impress in Germany.
LiquidGODSENT| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
49 - 27 | +22 | 111.1 | 78.6% | 1.70 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
41 - 14 | +27 | 92.3 | 85.7% | 1.68 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
37 - 21 | +16 | 93.0 | 85.7% | 1.48 |
 Richard 'shox' Papillon |
24 - 19 | +5 | 66.6 | 81.0% | 1.17 |
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
21 - 17 | +4 | 62.3 | 83.3% | 1.10 |
| GODSENT |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Bruno 'b4rtiN' Câmara |
28 - 35 | -7 | 61.4 | 54.8% | 0.77 |
| Eduardo 'dumau' Wolkmer |
21 - 30 | -9 | 56.6 | 54.8% | 0.70 |
| Bruno 'latto' Rebelatto |
20 - 35 | -15 | 57.1 | 57.1% | 0.66 |
| Henrique 'HEN1' Teles |
14 - 34 | -20 | 59.1 | 47.6% | 0.54 |
| Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
13 - 38 | -25 | 52.1 | 45.2% | 0.48 |
Day three of Group C begins tomorrow, where nitr0's men will be looking to continue their good form so far with a matchup versus a promising Movistar Riders. Elsewhere, the two other North American rosters in GODSENT and Party Astronauts will square off with both sides eager to post a win on the board if they're to have any chance at making it to the playoff stage of the tournament.
Liquid vs 
Movistar Riders
Party Astronauts vs GODSENT
Liquid's game will begin tomorrow at 11:00AM whilst GODSENT and Party Astronauts' matchup starts shortly after at 02:30PM.
