Liquid fall to Movistar Riders, GODSENT sweep Party Astronauts on day three of ESL Pro League Season 15
Day three of Group C of ESL Pro League Season 15 has concluded, seeing Liquid suffer their first defeat of the event after a laborious series versus Movistar Riders whilst Party Astronauts were brought down to earth by a GODSENT firing on all cylinders.
The first North American matchup saw Liquid and Movistar Riders square off in a best-of-three with Liquid suffering a gut-wrenching loss to go 2-1 in Group C.
Kicking off the series on Inferno, the two sides seemed near inseparable, with the match descending into a back and forth affair for much of the first half. Thankfully for the North American side, Josh "oSee" Ohm and Keith "NAF" Markovic were able to join forces on the defense, posting strong individual performances to spearhead Liquid to a 9-6 lead by the time of the switch. The match continued to be close once in the second half, with both Liquid and Movistar Riders exchanging four-round sprees until Liquid eventually hit match point. Once there, a shaky performance from Nick "nitr0" Cannella's men allowed the Spaniards to eat away at the deficit, adding three rounds to their score to bring the two sides one round away from a trip to overtime. Thankfully for Liquid, this scare would never become a reality, and Liquid barely managed to snatch Inferno 16-14 to lead 1-0 in the series.
Heading to Mirage for the second map, Liquid got off on the right foot with a pistol-round victory to start their T-side. But, the remainder of the half was nothing short of a mauling, with an uninspiring Liquid T-side coupled with a stalwart Spanish defense allowing Movistar Riders to accrue a 13-2 lead by the switch. Capitalizing on this lead, Movistar Riders quickly reached match point to start the second half, forcing nitr0 and company to launch a comeback attempt to try and send the map to overtime. However, despite Liquid going on a six-round streak in their heroic, last-ditch effort to salvage the map, the Spaniards soon succeeded in finding the remaining round they needed to close out Mirage 16-12 and send the match to the deciding map of Ancient.
Liquid found themselves on the CT-side once Ancient got underway, starting the map in the driver's seat for much of the half with nitr0 and co. leading 4-1 before Movistar Riders could stabilize. Once Alejandro "alex" Masanet's men found their footing, the Spanish roster managed to go on a five-round streak to keep the map competitive, forcing Liquid to change their approach if they were to take advantage of the CT-sided nature of the map. Thankfully for North American fans, they did, and Liquid managed to salvage what was left of the half, winning the five remaining rounds to be ahead 9-6 by the time the two teams swapped. At the switch, Liquid managed to extend their lead by winning the pistol and following two rounds, but not before the Spanish started to close the distance by winning five of the ensuing six rounds. Liquid was able to reach match point first but Movistar Riders never let off the gas, stealing the final four rounds to send Ancient to overtime. Once there, Movistar Riders' momentum proved too much for Liquid to handle, eventually seeing alex and company reign supreme with a hard-fought 19-16 scoreline.
LiquidMovistar Riders| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
65 - 57 | +8 | 66.2 | 71.0% | 1.06 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
62 - 61 | +1 | 81.5 | 67.7% | 1.05 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
56 - 69 | -13 | 76.4 | 74.2% | 1.01 |
 Richard 'shox' Papillon |
52 - 60 | -8 | 60.5 | 71.0% | 0.93 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
48 - 66 | -18 | 61.3 | 63.4% | 0.84 |
| Movistar Riders |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Álvaro 'SunPayus' García |
79 - 48 | +31 | 82.5 | 82.8% | 1.40 |
| Alejandro 'alex' Masanet |
71 - 56 | +15 | 84.5 | 76.3% | 1.17 |
| Raúl 'DeathZz' Jordán Nieto |
60 - 54 | +6 | 69.5 | 75.3% | 1.08 |
| Alejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo Cano |
57 - 64 | -7 | 74.2 | 74.2% | 0.99 |
| David 'dav1g' Granado Bermudo |
44 - 61 | -17 | 55.6 | 66.7% | 0.81 |
The second North American appearance of the day went as well as the first, with Party Astronauts continuing their international woes after an 0-2 loss to GODSENT. The Brazilian opposition took a dominating 10-0 lead on the CT-side of Party Astronauts’ Nuke pick. The Astronauts were able to break the streak in the eleventh round but failed to mount any momentum in the first half before closing 13-2 in favor of GODSENT. Veteran Epitacio "TACO" de Melo was a major catalyst in their defensive stonewalling of their opposition with his 23-4 K/D, 131.2 ADR first-half performance.
The second half of Nuke was much more competitive, as Party Astronauts were able to secure pistol and the four rounds that succeeded it. However, GODSENT found their footing in the sixth, winning two in a row to secure the fifteenth and set up map point. The NA squad fought as hard as they could but were unable to bring it to double digits before GODSENT closed Nuke out 16-9. The 0-10 start was too much for Party Astronauts and they needed to find quick solutions in time for their opponents' pick of Ancient.
GODSENT kicked off their map with intention, earning five of the first six rounds on T-side Ancient. Party Astronauts clawed their way back over the next two rounds to make it a 3-5 deficit, but two rounds is as close as they would get for the duration of the map. GODSENT won four of the next seven rounds to win the first-half 9-6. With a comfortable three-round lead heading into CT-side, GODSENT would not look back. A stellar 15-2 K/D, 161.7 ADR Bruno "b4rtiN" Câmara's defensive performance helped pave the way for his team to win seven of nine rounds played in the second half before closing the map 16-8, and the series 2-0 in favor of GODSENT.
The Brazilian lineup closed the series in impressive form, with all five finishing the two maps with a positive K/D, as well as operating at a 1.11 rating and above. The strong team showing puts GODSENT officially in the winner's column, as they now sit in fifth place in Group C at 1-2. With two more games left in group play, GODSENT could ride this win into their matches against Players and BIG and potentially find themselves inside of the top three. As for Party Astronauts, they are still looking for their first win inside of Pro League. Currently in last place of Group C at 0-3, they will have two more chances against Liquid and Movistar Riders to claim their first win as they fight to get out of the trenches.
Party AstronautsGODSENT| Party Astronauts |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jonathan 'Jonji' Carey |
36 - 40 | -4 | 83.7 | 57.1% | 0.95 |
| Jonathan 'djay' Dallal |
32 - 35 | -3 | 68.8 | 61.2% | 0.91 |
| Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
25 - 39 | -14 | 55.2 | 57.1% | 0.67 |
| Peter 'ptr' Gurney |
23 - 37 | -14 | 53.9 | 55.1% | 0.66 |
| Ben 'ben1337' Smith |
19 - 40 | -21 | 58.5 | 53.1% | 0.65 |
| GODSENT |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
42 - 27 | +15 | 88.7 | 77.6% | 1.37 |
| Bruno 'latto' Rebelatto |
38 - 27 | +11 | 89.3 | 77.6% | 1.33 |
| Bruno 'b4rtiN' Câmara |
41 - 28 | +13 | 82.5 | 75.5% | 1.31 |
| Henrique 'HEN1' Teles |
36 - 24 | +12 | 79.0 | 71.4% | 1.30 |
| Eduardo 'dumau' Wolkmer |
33 - 29 | +4 | 78.8 | 69.4% | 1.11 |
The two North American teams will aim to shrug off today's losses in a domestic derby, as Liquid faces off against Party Astronauts tomorrow at 11:00AM:
Liquid vs Party Astronauts
