Liquid manage to cling on to IEM Dallas tournament life
The series of the respective Americas giants, Liquid versus Imperial, kicked off on the North American's map pick of Overpass. Despite being able to choose their starting side, Imperial opted for the T-side where they were only able to secure four rounds. The only player to put up any resistance to the flood of Liquid was Fernando "fer" Alvarenga with a 0.92 rating on the T-side, finish the half down 4-11.
Swapping sides, Liquid won the first three rounds, similarly to Imperial's T-side, and were able to convert a fourth too. Imperial finally found a limited stride and managed to string together five CT rounds in a row. Unfortunately Liquid were already on 15 rounds and all that was required was a single round for Liquid to close it out. The 25th round came around and Liquid closed out the map 16-9.
Next up was Imperial's map pick, Vertigo, where their opponents also opted to start on the T-side. The Brazilian side were able to win the pistol and convert the following two rounds on the CT-side, but that's where it turned south again and Liquid came back strong on their first full-buy round. From there, Liquid posted another six rounds on the board to a 7-4 lead.
Imperial were afforded a single round win after which the North Americans claimed every remaining round in the half, ending with a 11-4 lead. Ricardo "boltz" Prass was the strongest defender with a 1.24 rating but it could not be matched against Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski who returns to his high form following a poor Major.
The second half was a less one-sided affair with both teams having an equal showing. Liquid won the pistol and converted the following round but were unable to repeat their strong openers with Imperial claiming five T-side rounds in a row up to a 9-13 scoreline. Unfortunately, that's where their streak ended and Liquid clutched the three rounds they needed to end the map 16-9. On Imperial, boltz continued his strong performance, outbesting everyone on Liquid with a 1.66 T-side rating, however, it was not enough to stop Liquid's 2-0 series victory.
ImperialLiquid| Imperial |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ricardo 'boltz' Prass |
38 - 36 | +2 | 85.6 | 66.0% | 1.13 |
| Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga |
31 - 39 | -8 | 73.5 | 62.0% | 0.88 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
29 - 37 | -8 | 61.8 | 60.0% | 0.78 |
| Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo |
25 - 38 | -13 | 63.1 | 54.0% | 0.75 |
| Lincoln 'fnx' Lau |
25 - 40 | -15 | 57.0 | 60.0% | 0.68 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
46 - 27 | +19 | 96.7 | 80.0% | 1.50 |
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
44 - 29 | +15 | 98.1 | 74.0% | 1.41 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
37 - 26 | +11 | 77.6 | 78.0% | 1.29 |
 Richard 'shox' Papillon |
38 - 37 | +1 | 85.1 | 70.0% | 1.08 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
25 - 29 | -4 | 55.9 | 66.0% | 0.86 |
Imperial and now eliminated in joint last-place at IEM Dallas and Liquid will face the loser of BIG vs MIBR tomorrow at 12:00PM.
