Is it time to worry about Liquid?
Liquid were hailed going into the Major as the only North American team worth giving a damn about. Not only that, they were supposed to make the Legends stage, sitting at a comfortable #13 in the world rankings. So, the question is, why are they sitting in the bottom quarter of Challenger teams?
A 16-6 loss to G2 on Inferno started the backslide, but even just the 2-13 first half was terrible enough to shake your head at. Despite that loss, G2 are the second highest-ranked team in this stage, and undoubtedly one of the worst matchups to play against. At least Liquid's second match would be against another 0-1 team, so they should be all set to end the first day dead even with a lot to look forward to. Right?
Right?
Well... no. In their second match, Liquid again chose Inferno to fight, this time doing battle against Imperial. This Americas match-up saw Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo play his former team, although in an interview with Dust2.us he claimed there was no rivalry between the teams, so it wouldn't be a grudge match.
Although the two teams missed each other's paths in the Americas RMR, they found themselves butting heads to see who would end the day even and who would end the day one series from defeat. Well, Imperial won. Picking into Inferno for a second time, the cobblestone roads didn't treat them much better. Liquid won the inaugural pistol round, but a Brazilian force-buy quickly turned the tables as Imperial stormed through the first half taking an 8-3 lead.
Although seven rounds on the T-side saw Liquid in a better position at the half than versus G2, the Brazilian's attack broke through Liquid's shoddy defenses. Liquid won the second pistol round, and this time converted the following as well, making six rounds in a row counting the previous half. Unfortunately, that's about all the good news to report, since from the 18th round onward, Liquid only stopped one of Imperial's marches to the bombsites, culminating in a souring 10-16 loss.
ImperialLiquid| Imperial |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga |
27 - 12 | +15 | 110.2 | 92.3% | 1.78 |
| Ricardo 'boltz' Prass |
22 - 12 | +10 | 81.6 | 84.6% | 1.42 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
16 - 12 | +4 | 65.7 | 80.8% | 1.26 |
| Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo |
15 - 14 | +1 | 65.8 | 76.9% | 1.07 |
| Lincoln 'fnx' Lau |
11 - 11 | +0 | 58.1 | 76.9% | 1.03 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
19 - 17 | +2 | 85.7 | 65.4% | 1.06 |
 Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
12 - 20 | -8 | 51.2 | 73.1% | 0.74 |
 Richard 'shox' Papillon |
13 - 17 | -4 | 59.5 | 53.8% | 0.74 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
9 - 18 | -9 | 52.5 | 61.5% | 0.68 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
8 - 19 | -11 | 50.5 | 42.3% | 0.56 |
Standing out on the server was Fernando "fer" Alvarenga who took a blast to the past, emerging from Inferno with over 110 ADR and 27 kills in the 26-round game. Despite the double-digit scoreline from Liquid, only Keith "NAF" Markovic's 1.06 rating sits above Imperial's lowest of 1.03.
Now comes the question, do we have to worry about Liquid?
Sitting 0-2 is clearly...suboptimal. North America does have a legendary history with 0-2 in Swiss stages, harkening back to the days of the Cloud9 Boston Major victory. However, a loss is a loss and Liquid needs to avoid those for the next three best-of-three series if they want to progress to the next stage of the Major. Of course, they'll presumably be playing easier opponents, but we thought that before this game as well. Worry or not, the team plays their next match tomorrow, and we'll have our answer at furthest in three days. Stay tuned to read other Major post-match coverage and interviews with the players to see how they felt about the matches.
