Liquid take a bumpy ride
North America went 2-1 on the day as Liquid recovered from a false start early on in Mirage. Despite the early heroics of Antonio "Martinez" Martinez Sánchez stopping Liquid in their T-side tracks, the Spanish side were unable to quell the Americans as they battled back from a 13-5 deficit.
The game started off on an ominous tone after Maleks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis noted that the team was a little rusty after a short break. His outlook of the team was quickly made evident as the team lost the pistol and dropped down to a 1-7 scoreline. However, it was the same man who spoke of the team's weakness that was the team's strength. He was able to almost singlehandedly claw the team back to a 5-10 scoreline.
As the sides switched, it was almost like a lightbulb went off in the Americans as they put their foot on the gas and never let up with Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski and Maleks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis powering their way through the opposition en route to posting 25 and 32 kills, respectively. Liquid went ahead and never dropped a single round on their CT side to secure their map pick 16-13.
With the map headed to the Riders pick of Inferno, the odds were once again not in the favor of Liquid as they seemed to be slow on the uptake quickly falling behind 5-3 on their CT-side. However, Maleks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis would not let this match slip as far away as it did on Mirage and he helped the Americans bring it back to a 8-7 scoreline by the half.
Sides switched, Liquid immediately lost the pistol which put them on the back foot. With Movistar confidently winning the subsequent force-buy rounds, they were able to widen the gap to 10-8. However, Liquid rallied back by winning the first gun round of the half and the following rounds — making it a back and forth half. Eventually, the Riders were able to close out the half and win the map 16-14 and force a third map.
The final map of Vertigo set the stage for a game of streaks, with Liquid immediately jumping out to a 7-1 lead before Movistar answers with seven rounds of their own to take a 8-7 lead at the half. Initially it looked like Liquid was in complete control of the match, but soon their defense crumbled after the Riders got comfortable in their offensive maneuvers. Once Liquid were forced to go on their T-side, the squad took advantage by winning the pistol and taking a solid 14-10 lead. Despite some late second half round wins by Riders, Maleks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis made sure that Liquid would not let it slip as they was 16-13.
LiquidMovistar Riders| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
77 - 65 | +12 | 100.6 | 70.5% | 1.34 |
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
73 - 59 | +14 | 89.5 | 75.0% | 1.21 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
53 - 54 | -1 | 67.9 | 76.1% | 1.06 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
52 - 54 | -2 | 55.4 | 65.9% | 0.89 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
44 - 59 | -15 | 54.8 | 65.9% | 0.78 |
| Movistar Riders |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Antonio 'MartinezSa' Martinez |
70 - 57 | +13 | 79.2 | 71.6% | 1.20 |
| Alejandro 'alex' Masanet |
65 - 56 | +9 | 82.4 | 69.3% | 1.15 |
| Raúl 'DeathZz' Jordán Nieto |
62 - 59 | +3 | 80.7 | 71.6% | 1.11 |
| Alejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo Cano |
50 - 63 | -13 | 67.0 | 56.8% | 0.84 |
| David 'dav1g' Granado Bermudo |
42 - 64 | -22 | 57.2 | 68.2% | 0.78 |
Liquid looks to continue their good form against Evil Geniuses tomorrow at 01:30PM.
