Liquid take down Rio Major champs at BLAST World Final
Liquid have taken down Outsiders in their opening match at the BLAST Premier World Final, recovering from a tough Inferno loss with victories on Anubis and Mirage to stay in their group's upper-bracket. Liquid will now be preparing for the upper-bracket final slated for Thursday, where the squad will face the winner of G2 vs FaZe.
The series kicked off on Liquid's pick off Inferno, although after watching the first half one would be forgiven if they thought it was Outsiders who selected the map. The North Americans were unable to put up a cohesive offense, only garnering two rounds as Outsiders shut them out again and again. Although faced with a nearly insurmountable lead, Liquid did not roll over on the CT-side, claiming eight rounds of their own to reach double digits before Outsiders finally closed out the map 16-10.
Anubis is where Liquid looked to turn things around, in the first instance of the map being picked in tier-one play. Despite the unfortunate loss on Inferno, Liquid managed a strong 6-0 start on Anubis, and although their momentum slowed in the latter part of the half, Liquid still secured a 9-6 lead on their CT-side. Liquid regained their footing on the offense, letting only two rounds slip in the second half as they marched ahead to steal away Outsider's map pick 16-8.
With things all tied up, the series went to Mirage, where Outsiders snatched an early 4-1 lead on the defense despite dropping the first pistol round. Liquid were unphased by this development as they strung together eight rounds in a row to take control of the half. Outsiders eventually managed to break the streak with a single round of their own, but this did little to prevent a 10-5 half from Liquid heading into their CT-side.
The second half of Mirage proved to be a streaky affair, with neither squad able to string together more than two rounds in a row for the bulk of the half. Although Outsiders were preventing Liquid from running away with the game completely, the CIS side were only managing to win rounds by the thinnest of margins. Thanks to the lead they had built up from the previous half, Liquid inched their way to victory, closing out the game 16-8 to start their Abu Dhabi run with a big scalp.
OutsidersLiquid| Outsiders |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Petr 'fame' Bolyshev |
45 - 49 | -4 | 76.8 | 64.9% | 1.07 |
| Evgenii 'FL1T' Lebedev |
52 - 45 | +7 | 77.8 | 64.9% | 1.04 |
| Dzhami 'Jame' Ali |
42 - 44 | -2 | 56.1 | 77.0% | 0.94 |
 Alexey 'Qikert' Golubev |
39 - 53 | -14 | 60.8 | 68.9% | 0.89 |
| David 'n0rb3r7' Danielyan |
35 - 50 | -15 | 56.0 | 66.2% | 0.83 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
53 - 31 | +22 | 77.5 | 82.4% | 1.28 |
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
56 - 45 | +11 | 72.9 | 83.8% | 1.22 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
49 - 38 | +11 | 69.9 | 82.4% | 1.18 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
43 - 52 | -9 | 78.7 | 64.9% | 0.99 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
40 - 47 | -7 | 64.7 | 67.6% | 0.91 |
Liquid now eagerly await the result of FaZe vs G2, with the winner of that match set to face Liquid in the upper-bracket final on Thursday at 04:00AM.
