Liquid fall once more to OG
One of the favorites of the event, Liquid, will now have to battle it out in the single-elimination last-chance gauntlet after suffering a second defeat at the hands of OG. The Americans have a lot of questions that they need to answer as they shake off the rust from the off-season.
The game began on Liquid's pick of Mirage, where the Americans would start off strong by winning the pistol and taking a 4-0 lead, just to let the Europeans find a way back into the game by giving up seven straight rounds to expand the gap to 7-4. Liquid would not be held back too long and would tie it up at 7-7 before relinquishing the last round to their opponent.
OG would continue that late momentum into the second half by winning the pistol and subsequent rounds to gain some space. Despite the back and forth nature of the match, it was OG that would continue their dominance on the map and eventually close it out 16-12.
With Liquid on the back foot, they would have to find some better footing on OG's pick of Ancient. Liquid start the series off well with a pistol, but were immediately rebuked as OG would win the second round and quickly separate themselves to a 5-2 lead. With the game looking to go off the rails, Liquid pulled themselves back and would earn a respectable 8-7 scoreline by the half.
OG were now onto the favored CT-side, but that would not matter for Liquid as they once again would win the pistol and become the unstoppable steamroller. With the Ancient changes not fully fleshed out by most teams, Liquid were able to settle Ancient thanks to an 8-1 T-side.
Finally, we reached the third map of the contest where Liquid and OG would lay it all out one last time. This time on Overpass, Liquid would be the favorite thanks to their ranking and historical performance on the map, but OG would not just roll over. OG's effective T-side caught the Americans off-guard and put them in an awkward position in the first half. OG would win the pistol, but it wouldn't matter so much as the two sides would trade rounds back and forth until OG ended up the better side at the end of the half, going 8-7.
Liquid was then forced to play the aggressor, where it really started to look frustrating for the squad. It would be another half that Liquid would fail to win the pistol, causing them once again to be on the back foot in a half that would decide so much. Liquid were unable to string enough rounds together as OG would take the late lead and close out the map 16-10.
Liquid are now scheduled to face off against against Astralis this Saturday at 09:30AM.
OGLiquid| OG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Abdul 'degster' Gasanov |
63 - 41 | +22 | 71.8 | 75.6% | 1.22 |
 Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan |
48 - 55 | -7 | 79.9 | 66.7% | 1.04 |
 Maciej 'F1KU' Miklas |
46 - 47 | -1 | 67.7 | 69.2% | 1.02 |
 Adam 'NEOFRAG' Zouhar |
51 - 58 | -7 | 80.6 | 70.5% | 1.02 |
 Nemanja 'nexa' Isaković |
39 - 49 | -10 | 57.7 | 75.6% | 0.86 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
53 - 52 | +1 | 77.0 | 73.1% | 1.10 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
49 - 42 | +7 | 68.2 | 74.4% | 1.09 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
54 - 53 | +1 | 73.4 | 69.2% | 1.05 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
48 - 54 | -6 | 77.6 | 74.4% | 1.03 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
46 - 48 | -2 | 57.3 | 71.8% | 0.95 |
