Liquid secure grand finals appearance in Abu Dhabi
Nick "nitr0" Cannella kicked off Liquid's map pick with a 1v2 clutch on the A site of Overpass. Waltzing into a stacked B site resulted in a follow-up loss for Liquid, spiraling into a streak of rounds for the Europeans. Liquid's response arrived in the eighth round, with a double kill from Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski forcing a save from the B site players making it 6-2. A worrying point for Liquid was that their Latvian lad Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis posted his first frag in round 11. The North Americans claimed round 12 with the plant going down in a 5v5 and OG opting to save. Closing the half in dominant fashion, OG went in at the break up 11-4.
YEKINDAR doubled his kills in the pistol round, posting his second frag to close out a pistol round win and kick off the comeback. A solid defensive wall is what met OG on their T-side, with Liquid slowly building back into the game and becoming "on fire" at 11-9. Liquid's streak of rounds came to an end in round 21, with EliGE narrowly missing the timing to save YEKINDAR and Keith “NAF” Markovic being forced to save. EliGE flaunted his spray control prowess in round 23 with a 3k spray transfer to make it 12-11 in OG's favor. Nemanja "nexa" Isaković's side began to pull away, making it to map point at 15-11. Despite a valiant effort in a 3v3 retake on B-site, Liquid could not extend their stay on Overpass as OG closed the map 16-12.
Liquid opened up Inferno with their third pistol-round victory of the series. The T-side for OG caused issues for the best NA team, with a three-round run after Liquid's comfortable anti-eco. The cause for concern was quelled by Liquid who regained the lead and stretched it to 7-3. An epic collapse in a 5v3 with the bomb stranded on long for the majority of the round gifted OG their fifth and put Liquid's economy on the brink of collapsing. A double kill from nitr0 helped avoid that collapse, with OG's economy being ruined for the final round of the half. A chaotic B rush concluded the half with Adam "NEOFRAG" Zouhar's around-the-world flank in the post-plant securing the round and a sixth round for OG.
The EU side finally won a pistol round, with the follow-up victory making it 9-8 in Liquid's favor. YEKINDAR's impact on the offensive side became much more noticeable than it was on Overpass, with a double entry on B giving Liquid their twelfth, and a 1v2 on A putting Liquid up 13-8. Captain America was forced to step up after YEKINDAR was picked off in the opening duel, as nitr0's double entry onto B put Liquid within touching distance of map point. A clean sweep across the map secured Inferno 16-10 for Liquid and sent the two teams to map three, Anubis.
Another map. Another pistol-round win for Liquid. A YEKINDAR double kill repelled the force buy, allowing Liquid an early 3-0 lead after a scary nexa Deagle round forced a 1v1 which went the way of Josh "oSee" Ohm. oSee and nitr0 combined for a 2v3 retake on B to put Liquid up 6-0. OG would eventually post a round off the back of a Abdulkhalik "degster" Gasanov double kill, with an absolutely insane 1v4 from the AWPer in the follow-up breaking Liquid's economy. This clutch seemingly shifted the momentum in OG's favor, before NAF shut down another degster clutch attempt to give Liquid an 8-4 lead. Liquid continued to dominate for the remainder of the half, closing out with Zonic's law at 11-4.
OG claimed their second pistol round of the series, with the follow-up Glocks causing concern but being dealt with nonetheless. YEKINDAR's impact was evident in round 19, with a 3k disrupting OG's rotations and taking the AWP away. With the economy on the European side broken, Liquid marched into a 14-7 lead. The Latvian superstar YEKINDAR obliterated the B defense to give Liquid series point. Liquid would not choke today, winning it out 16-7 and heading to the grand finals against the winner of G2 vs FaZe.
OGLiquid| OG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Abdul 'degster' Gasanov |
52 - 47 | +5 | 69.5 | 70.1% | 1.07 |
 Nemanja 'nexa' Isaković |
44 - 50 | -6 | 66.4 | 71.4% | 0.95 |
 Adam 'NEOFRAG' Zouhar |
48 - 61 | -13 | 78.5 | 58.4% | 0.94 |
 Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan |
38 - 51 | -13 | 61.7 | 68.8% | 0.88 |
 Maciej 'F1KU' Miklas |
40 - 49 | -9 | 65.1 | 64.9% | 0.88 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
60 - 47 | +13 | 91.3 | 77.9% | 1.26 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
58 - 49 | +9 | 81.3 | 76.6% | 1.21 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
56 - 43 | +13 | 77.2 | 75.3% | 1.11 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
45 - 40 | +5 | 60.4 | 76.6% | 1.06 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
36 - 44 | -8 | 56.6 | 77.9% | 0.97 |
