Liquid confirmed for EPL 16 Grand Final
Some say Liquid is the last NA representative in ESL Pro League Season 16, others say Cloud9 is also NA, but this series has "banger" written all over it. Liquid comes from an authoritarian 2-0 win over MOUZ to grant themselves a top 4 finish. C9 comes from an incredible comeback against the #1 team in the world, FaZe. Both teams are looking on top of their game and, historically, the last four series between the two organizations have ended with the same score, but not the same winner. Liquid won the last two series 2-0 and C9 won the two before that, also 2-0. This semifinal will definitely see some good Counter-Strike being played.
Inferno started with Liquid taking the T-side pistol with no deaths, and winning the following two rounds. C9 won their first in a gun round, putting Liquid in a bad economic situation. The first half was very back-and-forth with Liquid winning a couple of low-buy rounds they had no business winning. Cloud9 was much more efficient when it came down to gun rounds, defending banana very well, and not providing Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis any space to work with. The half ended with an 8-7 scoreline in favor of Liquid.
The second half started with Keith "NAF" Markovic getting a huge triple kill to win the CT-side pistol. After losing the following round, C9 came alive, putting together three rounds to tie the game 10-10. After a little back-and-forth again, Liquid was able to run away with the game, with the help of some C9 miscalls. The map ended 16-11 for NA's #1 team. It's safe to say this was one of the least YEKINDAR-reliant games from the Liquid side, with NAF top-fragging and Josh "oSee" Ohm being very important in multiple rounds.
Over on Ancient, Liquid won their third pistol of the series on the CT-side. Despite losing the following round, Liquid went on a seven-round win streak, getting a large 8-1 lead. After the 8-2, C9 was only able to put one more on the board, as the half ended 12-3 in favor of the last NA representatives in EPL 16.
Cloud9 got their first pistol of the series at the start of this second half. The mostly-Russian squad tallied 10 straight rounds to take the lead of the game 13-12. Then Liquid finally tried to hit the A site and it paid off, getting their first T-side round win. That would be it for the Americans as C9 closed the map 16-13.
The decider map was Dust2, with both teams going into this game with a 75% win rate on it. Liquid won the knife round and elected to start the map on the CT-side. Immediately after, they got their fourth pistol round of the series and converted the subsequent round as well. After losing the third round with lesser equipment, the team, led by Nick "nitr0" Cannella, won another couple of rounds before C9 could get a second. That start set the tone for the rest of the half, with the teams exchanging blows. The first half ended with an 8-7 Liquid lead.
The second half started with Cloud9 winning the pistol round and the following one. Liquid then responded with four rounds in a row, making it a 12-9 game. C9 was able to tie the game up 12-12, and the teams traded rounds, up to 13-13. After that Liquid was able to run away with the game and won the map 16-13.
With this win over Cloud9, the North American dream is alive and well, while the CIS region is nowhere to be seen. Liquid will know who their EU opposition are after G2 and Vitality face off on the other side of the bracket.
LiquidCloud9| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
63 - 51 | +12 | 84.8 | 75.3% | 1.18 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
62 - 62 | +0 | 88.7 | 65.9% | 1.17 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
52 - 51 | +1 | 69.5 | 76.5% | 1.05 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
51 - 59 | -8 | 66.4 | 62.4% | 0.94 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
44 - 50 | -6 | 49.5 | 70.6% | 0.83 |
| Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov |
67 - 52 | +15 | 84.9 | 72.9% | 1.22 |
| Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov |
60 - 51 | +9 | 78.7 | 67.1% | 1.14 |
| Timofey 'interz' Yakushin |
47 - 45 | +2 | 62.1 | 77.6% | 1.00 |
 Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov |
50 - 58 | -8 | 65.0 | 63.5% | 0.88 |
| Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov |
46 - 66 | -20 | 66.4 | 67.1% | 0.84 |
