Liquid crush their Spirit
Liquid and Spirit squared off in the lower-bracket semi-final with both sides preparing for a tough battle as a loss would mean that one heads home from Katowice early. Liquid are looking to bounce back from a 0-2 drubbing against NAVI while Spirit want to force a rematch against FaZe where they lost the first meeting 0-2.
The game started out on Spirit's pick of Nuke, but the Russians were not baring their teeth too early as the North Americans were in prime form defending each of the bombsites. Liquid were able to defuse bomb after bomb as they closed the first half with a 10-5 lead.
When the Americans then moved to their T-side, it was just more of the same as they reached their 15th round only six rounds after the half began. However, even though they were on the cusp of stealing their opponent's map pick away, Spirit started to slowly climb back, but ultimately fell short as Liquid closed out Nuke 16-12.
Liquid were then hoping to close out the map on their pick of Overpass. Starting off the contest on the wrong foot, Liquid lost the pistol and went 3-0 down, however clawed their way back to a 8-7 lead at the break. This could have been a bigger gap, however, but Liquid were unable to close out the last three rounds in the half.
The second half would not go the way of the Americans as Spirit would overwhelm them on their T-side. Liquid were unable to grapple with an offense that simply overpowered them. Spirit would go on to win the map 16-13.
With Anubis as the final arena for the two sides to settle it all out on, Liquid was hoping to set a match up against FaZe and get one step closer to the Spodek. Liquid would start on the defense, but like Overpass, it would not be as effective as they would have liked. Spirit were able to continue their assault as they closed the first half 9-6 in the Russians favor.
Liquid finally got their chance to play on the attack, and attack they overwhelmingly did. They were utterly dominant as they only allowed Spirit to get two rounds on their defense as they won Anubis 16-11 and closed out the match 2-1.
SpiritLiquid| Spirit |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov |
66 - 45 | +21 | 71.8 | 72.6% | 1.21 |
 Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev |
53 - 54 | -1 | 73.1 | 71.4% | 1.03 |
| Robert 'Patsi' Isyanov |
52 - 63 | -11 | 80.5 | 72.6% | 1.01 |
| Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov |
48 - 59 | -11 | 68.5 | 71.4% | 0.94 |
| Pavel 's1ren' Ogloblin |
46 - 56 | -10 | 58.4 | 69.0% | 0.91 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
64 - 45 | +19 | 70.6 | 79.8% | 1.17 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
65 - 54 | +11 | 81.0 | 73.8% | 1.16 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
51 - 46 | +5 | 69.2 | 76.2% | 1.06 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
53 - 60 | -7 | 72.0 | 67.9% | 0.96 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
44 - 62 | -18 | 65.6 | 64.3% | 0.88 |
