Liquid overpower G2 to win EPL Season 9 Finals; EliGE claims another MVP award
Liquid have lifted another trophy after claiming a 3-1 victory over G2 in the ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals. Montpellier is Liquid's third big trophy of the year and puts the team on the edge of winning $1,000,000 Intel Grand Slam Season 2 prize.
Compared to Dallas, Liquid's road to the finals was filled with far more trials and tribulations as the team dropped maps to North, HellRaisers, and Astralis before they reached G2 to the finals. In the finals, Liquid came out with all guns blazing as they started the best of five off by taking G2's map pick of Dust2 with a clean 19-15 overtime victory. Moving onto Overpass, Liquid demonstrated why are one of the best Overpass teams in the world as they decimated G2 to claim a 16-3 victory on the map. With the French squad on the ropes, G2 managed to force a fourth following strong performances from Audric "JaCkz" Jug and Kenny "kennyS" Schrub.
Though the first three maps had their share of amazing plays from both teams, Inferno will likely be the event that sticks out in everyone’s mind after G2 managed to pull off a massive comeback to force overtime. In overtime, both teams were neck to neck, forcing Inferno into triple overtime. In the end massive clutches and plays from Jake "Stewie2K" Yip and Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken helped Liquid claim avoid a fifth map and claim the 25-22 victory. Over the course of the whole series though, Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski was team Liquid's rock as he managed to put an insane 1.23 rating over the course of the four maps.
G2Liquid| G2 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub |
88 - 81 | +7 | 71.2 | 65.6% | 1.07 |
| Audric 'JACKZ' Jug |
80 - 94 | -14 | 73.8 | 70.3% | 0.99 |
| Richard 'shox' Papillon |
93 - 91 | +2 | 73.1 | 70.3% | 0.97 |
| François 'AMANEK' Delaunay |
80 - 93 | -13 | 72.2 | 71.1% | 0.96 |
| Lucas 'Lucky' Chastang |
70 - 94 | -24 | 67.4 | 68.8% | 0.88 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
103 - 86 | +17 | 84.2 | 72.7% | 1.23 |
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
101 - 73 | +28 | 75.7 | 75.0% | 1.21 |
| Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip |
88 - 87 | +1 | 76.2 | 75.8% | 1.11 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
81 - 80 | +1 | 73.6 | 71.9% | 1.05 |
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
79 - 85 | -6 | 77.9 | 68.8% | 1.03 |
Overall this event was another success for North America as NRG finished top four after claiming wins over Fnatic, G2, and Astralis. Although this was another top four finish for the Damian "daps" Steele led squad cementing their place a top 10 team, it raises questions if NRG will be able to find the same success with new IGL Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz as this was daps' last event with NRG. As for MIBR, this event was a modest success as the Brazilians managed to find top eight following wins over Luminosity and North. However, a dark cloud hangs over their placement as rumors swirl about the team potentially changing their roster by acquiring Lucas "LUCAS1" Teles from Luminosity.
Cloud9 on the other hand have continued to flounder as their sole win this event was against DETONA. Finally, Luminosity finished next to DETONA as they fell to HellRaisers and MIBR without much fanfare.
The final standings of ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals are as follows:
1. Liquid - $250,000 + Intel Grand Slam point
2. G2 - $80,000
3-4. 
mousesports - $40,000
3-4. NRG - $40,000
5-6. 
Astralis - $20,000
5-6. FaZe - $20,000
7-8. Heroic - $17,000
7-8. 
MIBR - $17,000
9-12. Cloud9 - $15,000
9-12. 
Fnatic - $15,000
9-12. HellRaisers - $15,000
9-12. North - $15,000
13-16. DETONA - $14,000
13-16. 
Grayhound - $14,000
13-16. Luminosity - $14,000
13-16. 
TYLOO - $14,000
Following the conclusion of the event, HLTV named EliGE the HLTV x betway MVP of the tournament, netting the player his second MVP award, and making him back-to-back MVP following his stellar performance at Dallas. This tournament proved to be a massive success for EliGE as he managed to claim a massive 1.29 event rating over the course of 17 maps, making him the single highest rated player at the whole event.
In little over a week, Liquid are headed to Cologne, where they look to claim the Intel Grand Slam $1,000,000 and cement their era at one of the most packed events of the year.
