Liquid slip up against Eternal Fire
Liquid entered day four of ESL Pro League S16 group D wanting to get revenge from the day prior, where they lost 2-1 against FURIA. Their opponents for today were the Turkish from Eternal Fire. A loss here would jeopardize the #1 team from NA, putting them at risk of missing the playoffs, but a positive result would automatically grant them a top-three position in the group, making it to the next round.
For Eternal Fire, the situation at the start of this day was dire. The team was yet to find a win and only a 2-0 miracle win would put them in the fight for playoffs. Regardless, the Turkish superteam came in today looking to keep its fire alive.
The series started off in Vertigo, picked by Eternal Fire. Liquid chose to start on the T-side and won the pistol round. Despite this, what should have been three-straight for them, turned to three-straight for Eternal Fire. After taking a 3-1 lead, the Turkish were happy to trade rounds with Liquid, but the Americans were able to tie the game up 5-5. The first half ended 8-7 for Eternal Fire after some Liquid slips, as the best NA team can only blame themselves for not being ahead.
The second half saw EF take the pistol round and the trend continue, with teams exchanging blows. With the score 13-12 for Eternal Fire, Liquid had a chance of tying the game up once again, but, once again, managed to lose against a weak buy from the Turks and that could have been the breaking point of the map. Two rounds later, the same situation happened, with Liquid giving up another round versus a single AK-47 and pistols. 15-13 was the score after that and the North Americans didn't have much money. Unlike their opponents, Eternal Fire managed to win an eco round and the map ended 16-13.
On to Liquid's Inferno and Özgür "woxic" Eker's P2000 looked as sharp as it can get in a pistol round, helping his team win it to start the map. After Eternal Fire took the second round for free, Nick "nitr0" Cannella propelled his team to their first round of Inferno. By the end of round 4, it was Captain America the reason Liquid had anything going for them, with the IGL being the top fragger with five kills while the rest of the team had only three kills combined. Liquid then fired up and managed to put seven straight rounds on the board. Eternal Fire were able to mount a comeback after that, and the first half finished with an 8-7 scoreline in favor of the Turks
Inferno's second half saw Liquid winning an eco round, after trading some. Then the map one ghost came back to haunt them, losing again against an eco round, which gave EF a 10-9 lead. After that, Liquid were only able to put two more round on the board as the map finished 16-11 for the Turkish superteam.
With this loss, a spot for playoffs is still in the cards for everyone in the group except Movistar Riders. Tomorrow's games will decide who makes it through to the next phase. The final game of the group stage for Liquid is against Cloud9 at 01:30PM.
LiquidEternal Fire| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
38 - 39 | -1 | 87.8 | 73.2% | 1.16 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
43 - 39 | +4 | 85.3 | 71.4% | 1.06 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
37 - 37 | +0 | 67.9 | 69.6% | 1.02 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
29 - 41 | -12 | 64.2 | 64.3% | 0.87 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
23 - 42 | -19 | 50.4 | 57.1% | 0.71 |
| Eternal Fire |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Özgür 'woxic' Eker |
65 - 28 | +37 | 116.5 | 89.3% | 1.83 |
| Engin 'MAJ3R' Küpeli |
40 - 30 | +10 | 72.4 | 67.9% | 1.12 |
| Ömer 'imoRR' Karataş |
35 - 42 | -7 | 77.3 | 71.4% | 1.08 |
| Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş |
32 - 37 | -5 | 74.8 | 73.2% | 1.04 |
| Ahmet 'paz' Karahoca |
25 - 35 | -10 | 47.8 | 64.3% | 0.75 |
