Liquid comeback stifled by Heroic

North America's last remaining hope at the Rio Major, Liquid, had their first chance to qualify in their 2:1 match up against the Danish side of Heroic. Despite starting the Legends stage slow with a measly two rounds in their opener against MOUZ, the NA side had proved their strength in wins against both Sprout and NAVI, while Heroic had missed out on qualification earlier in the event after their loss to Cloud9.

Liquid's comeback victory against NAVI was a message to the rest of the teams in Rio that they are back in full force, the dip in results since the Grand Slam days has been painful for NA fans but with Nick "nitr0" Canella, aka Captain America, back at the helm the future is bright. Their immediate future took them to their map pick Vertigo to start the series, somewhat of a surprise with just how good Liquid had looked on Ancient against NAVI.

Liquid showed early promise with a pistol round win landing themselves an early three-round advantage after squashing the Heroic force-buys. The CT-side would find their feet in the fourth with Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard going uncleared at the sandbag position on the A site, cleaning up the rushing attackers.

The Brazilian crowd were largely in favour of the NA team, but regardless they were certainly going to be in for another great match if the early rounds were anything to go by. After tying the game 3-3 Heroic dropped the next two rounds thanks in large part to Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis, who had been quiet in Rio so far, but was showing his class early in this match sitting on eleven kills after ten rounds.

Heroic managed to force the North American team onto an eco after clinching a 6-5 lead, giving them a marginally two-round lead heading into the final rounds of the half. Scarily for NA fans former American resident, when he played for Rogue, Casper "cadiaN" Møller was looking in prime form something the Danes would need if they were to overcome Liquid and qualify a day early for the playoffs.

Whilst cadiaN was looking scary for the Danish side, Liquids American superstar Jonathan "ELiGE" Jablonowski was being kept quiet with just two kills in the first half, alongside YEKINDAR it was the ever-reliable Keith "NAF" Markovic who kept the scoreline close going into the side swap with a huge 4k in the penultimate round of the half.

After the early back and forth, Heroic had managed to stabilize their defense and came out of the half with a 9-6 lead, a pistol-round win on their T-side with the following anti-eco conversions would potentially have them double that gap before Liquid even got guns out. This would be the unfortunate scenario that would play out as the Danes ran rampant in the opening rounds taking a 12-6 lead.

Vertigo looked to be a mistake; an attempt at a punish pick from the NA side led to them experiencing all the pain. Heroic got themselves up to 14 rounds but a good round from Liquid's captain, nitr0, managed to pause the Dane's charge towards victory temporarily. Map point would be locked up soon enough though with cadiaN, often a target of criticism on the Heroic side, one kill away from breaking the 30-kill mark.

Liquid could not get their feet sorted on the defensive side and would have to reverse-sweep the series in order to avoid having to come back and play for their tournament lives tomorrow. The second map would be Mirage on paper a strong map for both teams. Mirage started off where Vertigo left off, with cadiaN being instrumental in their pistol round win with 2 kills.

The Danish side continued their momentum with the following two rounds but the first gun round went the way of Liquid allowing them to post their first CT round. Just like the first map, the two teams were locked in a tight contest for the opening rounds, NA fans would have to hope that Liquid could stop Heroic from running away with Mirage as they had on Vertigo.

It was once again Liquid's Canadian rock, NAF, that was finding the important kills for the NA squad as they took a 5-3 lead on their CT-side. For the Dane's it was a role reversal with only René "TeSeS" Madsen managing to find any impact since the opening rounds, and after dropping the tenth round to their North American opponents the Heroic side were once again forced into a pistol buy.

Liquid have often come under scrutiny for their poor mental strength, especially on previous lineups, however, it looked like there were signs of a real new dawn for 'America's Team' as they had shaken off the dismantling of their defense on Vertigo by putting up an absolute wall on Mirage. The rock-solid defense led Liquid to put up an 11-4 scoreline heading into the half.

A full-force attack on the A site in the pistol gave Liquid the pistol round and once again the team that won the pistol managed to avoid any force buy shenanigans. The three rounds at the start of the half allowed the American side to have a big buffer moving into the first gun round of the second half.

Liquid confidently finished out the half, dropping just one round on their T-side as they got revenge for their blow-out loss in map one, with a rampant and easy win on Mirage. This was managed with ELiGE still not being in form; ELiGE has been in the HLTV top 20 every year since 2017 and if he could demonstrate some of that skill in the deciding map Liquid would be rocking their way to the playoff stage.

Heroic started off Overpass on the right foot with a pistol win, and they would continue the trend of the BO3 with the team that wins the pistol owning the next two rounds as well. The difference this time around was that Liquid invested into the third round and so would have to take a poor buy on the fourth to give Heroic an even bigger headstart.

It was once again cadiaN and TeSeS doing the heavy lifting for the Danish side early on in the final map, a necessary contribution if Heroic were to recover from dropping their map pick and seeing out the game. Liquid took the first proper gun round of the half after NAF caught out the sole B defender to gift the NA team the bomb site.

A classic Heroic aggressive setup in the A bathrooms gave the Danes a man advantage into the sixth and they made the most of their numbers with a successful retake of the B bombsite. Liquid got their own back with an execute this time on the A site, and with the Heroic side 2 men down they called off any retake attempt to give Liquid their second round.

Liquid were consistently finding themselves with the bomb down on their T-side, once again managing to break through the Heroic defense but a perfectly executed retake from jabbi and Rasmus "sjuush" Beck, who was having a tough day at the office, stole the round in the favor of the Danes. ELiGE finally woke up with a 4k in the tenth round to singlehandedly win the round and an opening kill onto TeSeS in the next gave Liquid two more T rounds.

Heroic managed to get away with murder in the twelfth round after cadiaN made use of one of the team's two rifles to find the opening and Liquid walked straight into the pistol stack on the A site to secure an 8-4 lead. jabbi has yet to hit the same form he showed when he was on Copenhagen Flames, but in what could be a breakout map for the young rifler he was putting in an impactful performance racking up 15 kills in the opening 15 rounds.

Heroic closed the half out 11-4 and Liquid would have to rely on their entire supporting cast to manage to pull off another comeback against a top team. cadiaN was playing mind games during the halftime break, trying to entice the crowd into supporting his team instead of his North American opponents.

The mental games didn't seem to give the Danish side the boost they wanted as Liquid managed to secure the pistol and once again, the following two rounds to reduce the deficit to just four rounds. Liquid's comeback train continued along the tracks thanks in large part to ELiGE finding his feet when his team needed him most, including showing great trigger discipline to get a 4k from behind.

The North American team tied up the game 11-11 and the close match that had been promised at the start of the day was finally bearing fruit and to the delight of the crowd, both teams were now awake and in the server. A big opening kill in the 24th onto ELiGE in connector gave Heroic's T-side the opportunity to collapse onto the A site and regain a two-point lead.

An incredibly well-played fake by Heroic gave them an open A bombsite and extended their lead to three rounds, and with the money of Liquid in shambles, it looked like the Liquid comeback would falter at the final hurdle. A final execute on the B bombsite gave Heroic a spot in the playoffs forcing Liquid to have to return tomorrow to try and make the Champions stage.