American Brawl: Liquid takes down Nouns
Liquid vs Nouns, a decent matchup that might once again come to fruition in next week's BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR, but for now, it was a bit lopsided in the result.
Liquid up to their bag of tricks
They picked Nuke. They never pick Nuke. The last time that Liquid actually picked Nuke was against OG at the beginning of the year in BLAST Premier Spring Groups — and that was when they said they were trying to do a seven-map pool. The only other time was back at IEM Cologne 2021 when Michael "Grim" Wince, Jake "Stewie2K" Yip, and Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo were still on the team. Liquid played Nuke, Nick "nitr0" Cannella was not on the team, and they lost against BIG 16-13.
This time, Liquid won on Nuke after picking it, but it didn't look like their T-side was as strong as it should be. The squad traded rounds in streaks against Nouns, but in the end managed to prevail and close it out. Maybe we'll see Nuke become more and more common for the squad, but let's hope that they don't pick it in their BO1 matches during the RMR.
Nouns need footing
Playing Liquid is tough. Playing Liquid after they got embarrassed against a North American based team that should in no way beat them is tougher. Being another North American based team and having to face a Liquid looking to shut some people up, well, that's really not a fun way to spend a Thursday night.
It wasn't the worst thing for Nouns that they lost in a 2-0 fashion against Liquid, especially considering that the entire squad has been traveling and settling into their bootcamp hotel right before the RMR. With the squad even withdrawing from the EC Melbourne Closed Qualifier, their attention is likely fully on the all-important BO1 against BESTIA at the RMR. With a loss, they would be immediately threatened with elimination and with a win, they put themselves in a much more comfortable position.
Regardless, the positive to take from the match was David "cynic" Polster being an absolute menace to Liquid throughout the game. Server high 41 kills with a 84.7 ADR and a 1.15 HLTV Rating is nothing to slouch at. The rest of the team obviously saw their struggles on Inferno, but if we can imagine that this game was just a one-off, I wouldn't be too worried headed into Monterrey.
What's next?
Liquid now get their chance to play against paiN once more. This time it's online, however, this time Liquid might also be a bit more prepared as they don't want to lose again to the Brazilians. Somewhat surprisingly, this is a good matchup for paiN, as they beat Liquid 2-0 quite recently at ESL Pro League, and in fairly dominant fashion. While Liquid will of course be more prepared the second time around, paiN's recent success against the North American team bodes well for their chances at making the finals, and eventually Washington D.C.
For Nouns, like mentioned before, it's about looking forward to the BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR. With a first-round matchup that could spell disaster or provide the squad with an all-important boost, it's critical that the team remains focused on that objective. The Liquid match could hopefully provide some valuable insights into their Inferno play as the Americans look to be a spoiler in a South American dominant competition.
