Liquid draw old foes in play-off bracket
After Complexity fell just short, in a heartbreakingly close fashion, of making it two NA sides in the Katowice play-offs for the first time in five years all North Americas hopes now rest on Liquid. With the bracket now announced the NA squad's path to glory in the Spodek has been revealed.
Liquid will have to fight Vitality in the opening round of the play-offs, the French-Danish mix were responsible for crushing Liquids dreams at ESL Pro League Season 17 last year when the NA side ran out of gas in the Grand Final losing 2-3. This iteration of Liquid are yet to beat the Vitality squad, however, its not all bad news as to progress to the Spodek Arena Liquid had to slay another previously unbeatable demon in FaZe.
Dispatching FaZe should give the NA squad confidence that they can put an end to another loss streak when they face Vitality on Friday. In order to do so the Liquid side will have to find a way to put a stop to superstar AWPer Mathieu "Zyw0o" Herbaut who is currently the second highest rated player at the tournament.
A key difference in the match-up in Katowice will be Anubis, a map that Liquid have shown a early affinity on meanwhile Vitality have only played once losing to G2 at the BLAST World Final at the end of 2022. With the French-Danish mix choosing to perma ban Ancient, another map Liquid aren't shy of playing, one would imagine Liquid will take their chances on the new map and exploit this potential map pool advantage.
If North Americas top team manages to overcome the Vitality machine, it will not get any easier as they will face G2 in the Semi-Final shoudl they get there. G2 have been in scary form since their win at the BLAST World Final, where they steamrolled Liquid in the Grand Final to win their first trophy since 2017. With Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov continuing his impressive form and Nikola "NiKo" Kovač in a rich vein of form the G2 squad look almost unstoppable, especially with Justin "jks" Savage playing out of his skin in Katowice posting a 1.30 rating at the event so far.
If, and its a big if, Liquid were able to ice over the G2 hot streak, one could argue that the final would be the easiest match in the run. Both Outsiders and Heroic have looked shaky at Katowice, with Outsiders incredibly lucky to even be in the play offs after Complexity were a couple of rounds away from knocking the CIS squad out. NAVI have to be the favorites to make the final but even they needed overtime to beat Liquid 2-0 in their earlier contest in the tournament and no doubt the NA team will be more competitive if it was for the trophy.
Liquids journey in the Spodek Arena starts on Friday against Vitality, where they will seek to make the top four a feat only achieved by a North American team once (on LAN) by themselves in 2018 in the tournament's history.
