stanislaw and co. carved a path of destruction through Astralis on their way to the playoffs

NRG conquer Astralis to claim Legends status; Liquid facing elimination

NRG are giving Liquid a run for their money as they crushed Astralis to make their way into the playoffs.

The third day of the New Legends stage of the StarLadder Berlin Major has come to an end, with many surprising results as Liquid continue to struggle while NRG have reached the peak of their form.

Day three started out with a upset loss for tournament favorites Liquid as they dropped their 1-1 match against AVANGAR. With the action taking place on Overpass, it looked to be smooth sailing for Liquid as they picked up  a 9-6 T-side. However, things started to go awry for Keith "NAF" Markovic and co. as AVANGAR immediately closed the gap in the second half. Following this, Liquid looked a step behind as AVANGAR managed to go tit-for-tat and force overtime. Liquid initially stabilized in the first overtime, before collapsing against AVANGAR as the team pulled off a perfect run of rounds to take Overpass 22-18.

With this, tournament favorites and number one team in the world Liquid are one loss away from exiting the tournament early.

Liquid
18 - 22
AVANGAR
All maps
Liquid K - D +/- ADR KAST Rating 2.0
Canada Keith 'NAF' Markovic 31 - 32 -1 103.6 70.0% 1.28
United States Nick 'nitr0' Cannella 28 - 27 +1 75.3 77.5% 1.08
United States Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski 29 - 26 +3 71.3 67.5% 1.06
Canada Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken 25 - 26 -1 58.9 77.5% 0.91
United States Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip 19 - 33 -14 56.5 77.5% 0.74
AVANGAR K - D +/- ADR KAST Rating 2.0
Dzhami 'Jame' Ali 32 - 21 +11 73.0 82.5% 1.31
Timur 'buster' Tulepov 33 - 27 +6 87.6 85.0% 1.28
Sanjar 'SANJI' Kuliev 30 - 26 +4 80.3 72.5% 1.17
Alexey 'Qikert' Golubev 29 - 34 -5 90.8 65.0% 1.00
Dauren 'AdreN' Kystaubayev 19 - 24 -5 52.0 60.0% 0.82

Continuing on, another upsetting loss came in for the Americas as MIBR floundered against G2. The French out-fragged MIBR to win their T-side before taking the map 16-4.

This performance further illustrates the team's lack of firepower with Wilton "zews" Prado standing-in as he only managed to find six kills, though it is worth mentioning that a massive performance from Audric "JaCkz" Jug definitely didn't help MIBR from getting the ball rolling on Inferno.

MIBR
4 - 16
G2
All maps
MIBR K - D +/- ADR KAST Rating 2.0
Brazil Lucas 'LUCAS1' Teles 13 - 13 +0 74.5 70.0% 0.98
Brazil Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo 11 - 12 -1 59.5 70.0% 0.88
Brazil Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga 11 - 16 -5 71.4 40.0% 0.76
Brazil Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo 6 - 15 -9 47.4 60.0% 0.50
Brazil Wilton 'zews' Prado 6 - 16 -10 40.0 45.0% 0.37
G2 K - D +/- ADR KAST Rating 2.0
Audric 'JACKZ' Jug 25 - 6 +19 115.0 85.0% 2.10
Lucas 'Lucky' Chastang 17 - 9 +8 79.6 90.0% 1.43
Richard 'shox' Papillon 12 - 11 +1 79.0 70.0% 1.21
François 'AMANEK' Delaunay 11 - 10 +1 54.5 70.0% 1.02
Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub 7 - 11 -4 43.8 70.0% 0.79

With their backs against the wall and facing elimination, Renegades finally found a win for North America today as they took down DreamEaters 2-0 on Mirage and Train. Starting on Mirage, Renegades got off to a strong start as they won seven out of the first nine rounds however their lead was greatly reduced as DreamEaters bounced back to whittle the round deficit to a single round. Luckily for Renegades, they quickly regained their composure on their CT-side as they mounted a strong defense, helping them to secure a 16-10 win. 

Moving onto Train, Renegades continued to illustrate their skill as a team with Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad leading the way as the team secured a dominant 12-3 CT-side. Following this, Renegades managed to send DreamEaters packing in quick order as they secured Train 16-8.

Renegades
2 - 0
DreamEaters
All maps
Renegades K - D +/- ADR KAST Rating 2.0
Australia Jay 'Liazz' Tregillgas 43 - 22 +21 83.5 78.0% 1.37
Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad 35 - 30 +5 81.8 74.0% 1.25
New Zealand Sean 'Gratisfaction' Kaiwai 38 - 26 +12 67.2 76.0% 1.24
Australia Aaron 'AZR' Ward 37 - 27 +10 80.9 64.0% 1.18
Australia Justin 'jks' Savage 30 - 27 +3 70.8 74.0% 1.07
DreamEaters K - D +/- ADR KAST Rating 2.0
Svyatoslav 'svyat' Dovbakh 29 - 39 -10 70.8 60.0% 0.88
Igor 'Forester' Bezotecheskiy 29 - 38 -9 60.3 64.0% 0.78
Vladislav 'Krad' Kravchenko 27 - 35 -8 61.2 52.0% 0.77
Anton 'speed4k' Titov 24 - 38 -14 60.2 56.0% 0.74
Semyon 'kinqie' Lisitsyn 23 - 33 -10 49.1 50.0% 0.71

With NRG leading the charge for North America at the Major, they picked up a massive victory as they found a 2-0 victory against Astralis to make their way into the playoffs with a 3-0 record. Starting on Train, NRG engaged in a shock and awe campaign as they overran Astralis' defenses, starting the map up 6-0 before ending the half with a 10-5 lead.

Reigning Major champions Astralis were not ready to give up though as clutch-minister Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth lead the way for his squad as they won ten out the first eleven rounds in a row to outpace NRG and find map point. Now with their backs against the wall, NRG answered back, in a large part due to massive heroics from Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov, holding the line to narrowly force overtime. 

In overtime, the two top teams managed to nearly play an entire game as neither team were able to find a decisive run of rounds to close Train out. After 59 rounds of play, tying it for the longest map in Majors history, CeRq and co. managed to close out Train and move onto Nuke with a 31-28 win.

After an incredibly action-packed matchup on Train, NRG made an even more poinent statement on Nuke as they proceeded to crush Astralis on what many consider their home turf. NRG were unstoppable as they claimed a 12-3 CT-side, only losing rounds due to a number of heroic clutches from Xyp9x, before closing out the map 16-4. During Nuke, Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz illustrated why he is considered one of the most mechanically skilled in-game leaders as he dominated on the server, racking up 25 kills alongside 126.4 ADR.

Astralis
0 - 2
NRG
All maps
Astralis K - D +/- ADR KAST Rating 2.0
Denmark Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth 56 - 55 +1 77.0 65.8% 1.10
Denmark Emil 'Magisk' Reif 49 - 61 -12 72.8 60.8% 0.90
Denmark Nicolai 'device' Reedtz 54 - 56 -2 67.2 58.2% 0.90
Denmark Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander 40 - 62 -22 69.2 51.9% 0.75
Denmark Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen 38 - 57 -19 48.7 58.2% 0.70
NRG K - D +/- ADR KAST Rating 2.0
Canada Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz 68 - 45 +23 94.8 70.9% 1.36
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov 66 - 46 +20 77.8 78.5% 1.27
United States Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte 56 - 45 +11 80.4 72.2% 1.18
United States Tarik 'tarik' Celik 55 - 52 +3 76.4 63.3% 1.04
United States Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold 46 - 51 -5 63.2 73.4% 0.92

Day four will see Liquid, Renegades, and MIBR fight for survival. The complete matchups, with times in EDT, are as follows:

1-2 Round
Brazil MIBR -vs- Natus Vincere 6:00 AM
FaZe -vs- Australia Renegades 9:15 AM
United States Liquid -vs- Denmark North 12:30 PM
2-1 Round
G2 -vs- AVANGAR 6:00 AM
 Vitality -vs- mousesports 9:15 AM
Denmark Astralis -vs- CR4ZY 12:30 PM

 

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