Liquid fall to Fnatic in overtime
The second day of the group stage started with an interesting tie, as Liquid faced off against Fnatic. Both teams were looking for a win to keep their playoff hopes alive. The crucial best-of-one tie was vetoed down to Mirage.
Fnatic were the team to start the tie off, picking up the pistol and following anti-ecos on their T-side. Liquid bounced back on the first full buy round, claiming two others afterwards in part thanks to Nick 'nitr0' Cannella securing multiple key frags to defend A-site. The Swedes weren't to be kept down for long, securing round after round thanks to Jesper 'JW' Wecksell performing at a peak level, as they notched up their eighth round. Liquid came back once more before the half, picking up a selection of rounds to keep theirselves in the tie, where Fnatic were 9:6 up going into the half-time break.
Liquid then game straight out of the starting blocks onto a humungous run. Picking up the pistol round, thanks to Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken and Josh 'jdm64' Marzano linking up to get two kills a piece, they then followed on to claim seven rounds in a row on the second half. They were finally beaten by a strong Fnatic site hold, helped along by strong plays from Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson, but Liquid were soon back on top. Collecting the final two rounds to get to match point, it seemed it was all done and dusted as Liquid were nearly much closer to the playoffs. Fnatic pulled it out of the hat right on their deathbed, securing a forcebuy round to win, before the Swedes kept up with dogged determinism to take it to 15-15, sending the game to overtime.
The first half of overtime saw Fnatic take the lead quickly, thanks to Jesper 'JW' Wecksell keeping window locked down, before Liquid picked a round up in the middle of the half to keep their nose in, where Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski secured a 1v2 on low health to take the round. Fnatic ended the half with a win, but Liquid instantly replied on overtime's second half. The two sides then repeated the score line, sending the game to another overtime on 18-18.
Fnatic were then unrepentant on the second overtime. Round after round was won by the Swedes, handing them the victory they so badly needed. The game ended 22:18 for Fnatic, and that meant Liquid's hopes of qualifying were unfortunately over.
fnaticLiquid| fnatic |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jesper 'JW' Wecksell |
40 - 29 | +11 | 103.9 | 70.0% | 1.39 |
| Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson |
31 - 24 | +7 | 84.5 | 80.0% | 1.33 |
| Jonas 'Lekr0' Olofsson |
35 - 25 | +10 | 80.5 | 80.0% | 1.26 |
| Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist |
31 - 24 | +7 | 90.7 | 77.5% | 1.20 |
| Maikil 'Golden' Selim |
14 - 28 | -14 | 53.8 | 57.5% | 0.65 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
39 - 32 | +7 | 105.6 | 72.5% | 1.32 |
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
27 - 31 | -4 | 70.7 | 67.5% | 0.97 |
| Josh 'jdm64' Marzano |
28 - 29 | -1 | 76.0 | 55.0% | 0.96 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
22 - 29 | -7 | 67.5 | 67.5% | 0.90 |
 Wilton 'zews' Prado |
13 - 30 | -17 | 42.6 | 57.5% | 0.51 |
Liquid are next in action in their final Group A game, facing off against Luminosity.
