Not Liquid's day
In a day where two World Finals would happen, CS:GO fans got the short stick, and North America, most of it, would not watch Liquid or G2 raise the trophy. Neither team had lifted a trophy in a while, with Liquid not winning a Tier S event since 2019 and G2 since 2017. Unfortunately for NA CS, today was not the day, as G2 put an end to their drought.
The map veto decided that Inferno, Mirage, and Anubis would be the maps played today, with Liquid having better stats in all of them.
Inferno, picked by G2, started off rather strangely. G2 won the T-side pistol round, and then Liquid got the force buy win, but G2 answered back with a force buy from their own. Liquid, not happy with that got another force buy win, and, of course, G2 did the same in the following round. G2 was leading 3-2 at that moment and such round trading isn't healthy for the CT-side economy. The European squad managed to not lose the next round and put itself up 11-4 by the end of the half, with Liquid finding only two more sparse rounds.
G2 also got the CT-side pistol and two more. Liquid got back with three rounds of their own, but the margin to make mistakes was too little, and two round wins from G2 sealed map one. Liquid would go to Mirage down 1-0, after losing Inferno 16-7.
Mirage continued the trend of G2 winning the pistol rounds, this time on the CT-side. The following round also went G2's way but Liquid didn't let their opposition get three with no answer and got their first, and then tied the game, and then got the lead. Just like Inferno, after that start, Liquid went missing and G2 got seven rounds in a row. By the end of the half, Liquid managed to get three rounds and switched sides with a 9-6 deficit.
A comeback was very possible, but another pistol round loss meant it was more difficult now. Liquid didn't buy anything the following round, which proved to be the right move, as they won the next one. 11-7 was now the score, with a slight economic advantage going Liquid's way. Once again, Liquid opened a half with three round wins in five possible, only this time they didn't stop there. The North Americans managed to tie the game 11-11. G2 got the lead back and only once looked back. The map ended 16-12, with G2 winning the grand final 2-0.
Despite the final result, BLAST Premier World Finals was a good competition for Liquid to close out the year, after the unsuccessful run in Rio de Janeiro. The players will now rest but with IEM Katowice 2023 on their sights, which starts January 31st with the Play-in stage.
LiquidG2| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
37 - 33 | +4 | 77.5 | 72.5% | 1.09 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
30 - 38 | -8 | 68.8 | 62.7% | 0.87 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
29 - 34 | -5 | 59.5 | 66.7% | 0.80 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
26 - 39 | -13 | 58.2 | 56.9% | 0.74 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
21 - 36 | -15 | 57.6 | 56.9% | 0.73 |
| G2 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Justin 'jks' Savage |
40 - 24 | +16 | 83.0 | 78.4% | 1.35 |
 Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov |
39 - 28 | +11 | 74.2 | 74.5% | 1.27 |
 Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač |
38 - 31 | +7 | 83.2 | 74.5% | 1.22 |
| Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač |
35 - 31 | +4 | 76.2 | 78.4% | 1.22 |
 Rasmus 'HooXi' Nielsen |
26 - 29 | -3 | 62.1 | 68.6% | 0.97 |
