Liquid off to slow start with opening loss
Liquid comes into Rio with the burden of being North America's only representative in the Legends stage, and the expectation for the first time in years that a North American team could finally recapture Major glory for a scene that has struggled immensely since Cloud9's Boston 2018 triumph. On the other side, MOUZ comes in having blown away the competition in the Challengers stage, securing an easy 3-0 record, and with their young guns firing they would prove to be a stern opening competition.
The battleground would be Inferno, and it would be the European side that took the early lead with a relatively easy pistol round and despite some good kills from Josh "oSee" Ohm on the scout, the following two rounds would be locked up by the T side as well. Liquid took a risk on the opening gun round leaving IGL Nick "nitr0" Canella alone to defend the B site, a gamble that failed to work out as MOUZ overran the site with ease to take the fourth round.
The pain continued for the NA side going into the second gun round as MOUZ once again targeted the B site with their attack and once again Liquid's defense crumbled. Liquid seemed to be caught completely cold and it was looking tough for the American side to find a way back into the game at 7-0.
David "frozen" Čerňanský was a crowbar in the eighth cracking open the B site once again with three crisp headshots on the defending Liquid players, banana was open for business and it was MOUZ making the money. Just for style points, MOUZ decided to prove that they could take over Liquids A site as well and ten rounds in the NA team still had 0 rounds.
It took a mammoth 3k from Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis to get the team's first round on the board, however, it would be one and done for the team as they would instantly lose the next round to the MOUZ T-side. YEKINDAR has recently been the king of Banana but frozen was staking his claim to the crown, completely manhandling oSee and the Liquid defense.
MOUZ closed out the half with a dominant 13-2 half, and with the way the match was going Liquid might as well have surrendered. MOUZ locked up the pistol round and all but confirmed the 16-2 victory with a complete shut-down of the Liquid second round force buy.
The NA side came into the tournament with fresh hopes of a team from the region being able to challenge for top spot, but if their first match form was anything to go by they would be in for a rude awakening.
MOUZLiquid| MOUZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jon 'JDC' de Castro |
23 - 6 | +17 | 123.6 | 100.0% | 2.24 |
 David 'frozen' Čerňanský |
22 - 6 | +16 | 112.5 | 100.0% | 2.15 |
 Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás |
13 - 7 | +6 | 72.1 | 88.9% | 1.52 |
 Dorian 'xertioN' Berman |
14 - 11 | +3 | 82.8 | 88.9% | 1.33 |
 Christopher 'dexter' Nong |
8 - 14 | -6 | 56.0 | 61.1% | 0.78 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
7 - 15 | -8 | 49.8 | 77.8% | 0.68 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
11 - 16 | -5 | 62.1 | 50.0% | 0.64 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
9 - 17 | -8 | 71.4 | 55.6% | 0.55 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
7 - 15 | -8 | 52.9 | 50.0% | 0.49 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
8 - 17 | -9 | 56.1 | 38.9% | 0.47 |
