Liquid survive four and a half hour, quadruple OT thriller
Starting at 06:30AM and ending more than four hours later at 11:05AM, Liquid and 00 Nation's lower bracket battle consisted of 107 rounds played, including four overtimes. To say that this match was a walk in the park for Liquid would be like saying that FaZe Clan didn't choke a 15-11 lead in the CS:GO Boston Major Final on the final map, Inferno, giving C9 and NA their first Major.
The epic battle began on 00 Nation's pick of Overpass where the Brazilians, despite winning their T-side pistol round, began to fall apart to a persistent Liquid defense that allowed the Americans to win their CT-side 11-4. After switching sides and winning three out of the first four rounds on their CT-side, 00 Nation looked more and more confident now that repelled the Americans and managed to force Overpass into overtime despite individual heroics from Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski. The first overtime was a heated battle back and forth, however it looked more apparent throughout the second overtime that 00 Nation had the momentum. In the third overtime, Liquid were unable to effectively attack the bombsite and would fall 25-22.
With a devastating and mentally grueling loss now in the heads of Liquid, they were now look to respond on their pick of Mirage. Starting out on the T-side, Liquid went down early after losing the pistol, but were able to battle back, keeping themselves in the game and closing out the first half 8-7 in their favor. In the second half, Liquid again lost out on the pistol and immediately fell behind 11-9 with their work cut out for them. Late round wins, by Josh "oSee" Ohm allowed Liquid to force Mirage into overtime where they clinched it 19-17 to avoid a repeat of Overpass.
With four overtimes played, each team mentally defeated, they had to battle it out one more time on Ancient to decide who would be going home, and who would have one more shot to get to the LANXESS Arena for IEM Cologne. Liquid started off Ancient a little shaky in the early rounds and ended up 5-4 behind. However, Liquid soon found their groove on their CT-side and closed down the half 10-5 while looking in control. Once the sides switched, Liquid secured the ever-elusive pistol round on their T-side of Ancient. Liquid never let go of the opportunity and despite some scary rounds, were able to finish out the half 16-8 and send 00 Nation packing.
Liquid00NATION| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
90 - 65 | +25 | 97.8 | 77.6% | 1.36 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
83 - 58 | +25 | 76.5 | 76.6% | 1.22 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
82 - 66 | +16 | 84.4 | 69.2% | 1.18 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
67 - 68 | -1 | 66.4 | 70.1% | 0.98 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
41 - 72 | -31 | 49.8 | 67.3% | 0.72 |
| 00NATION |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Santino 'try' Rigal |
77 - 69 | +8 | 80.6 | 66.4% | 1.09 |
 Eduardo 'dumau' Wolkmer |
78 - 78 | +0 | 82.4 | 62.6% | 1.06 |
| Marcelo 'coldzera' David |
62 - 76 | -14 | 64.3 | 70.1% | 0.92 |
| Bruno 'latto' Rebelatto |
62 - 67 | -5 | 64.7 | 57.9% | 0.88 |
| Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
49 - 74 | -25 | 57.0 | 64.5% | 0.80 |
Liquid now await the loser of Cloud9 - Astralis to see who they will be facing to survive in IEM Cologne. The Americans will be playing tomorrow at 06:30AM.
