Sharks smell blood in the water, defeat Liquid in ECS Season 8 Week 1
Sharks have upset Liquid in the first semifinal matchup of ECS Season 8 Week 1, pulling off a pair of narrow 16-13 and 16-14 victories on Vertigo and Mirage.
The two teams began their battle on Vertigo, with Sharks starting off on the offense. An early lead saw the South American side pull ahead 4-1 before Liquid were able to begin fighting back, winning out a back-and-forth battle to eventually take the lead 6-5. The final four rounds of the half were split evenly between the two teams, with Liquid remaining ahead by a single round as the sides swapped over.
A quartet of rounds at the start of the second half Keith "NAF" Markovic and company push up to a 12-7 scoreline, but from there, Sharks took firm control of the proceedings. Solid AWPing by Jhonatan "jnt" Silva and stellar fragging from Leonardo "leo_druNky" Oliveira and Ignacio "meyern" Meyer allowed for Sharks to win seven rounds in a row, with Liquid only managing to put one on the board before their fate was sealed with a 16-13 victory for the South Americans.
Jonathan "EliGE" Jablownowski's side seemed set to bounce back as their own pick of Mirage got underway, opening up the map by taking the first four rounds. Although Sharks battled back with a five-round spree of their own, Liquid remained firmly ahead at the half as they conceded just a single additional round on the road to a 9-6 lead.
Sharks quickly rallied back as they mirrored Liquid's start from the first half, securing four rounds to steal away the lead at 10-9. Liquid answered back in kind to crush Sharks economy, moving up to a 13-10 scoreline and putting their opponents on eco as they looked to even the series score. Sharks were unwilling to concede however, winning a 3vs5 with pistols to regain control and close out the map 16-14 to steal the series 2-0.
LiquidSharks| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
47 - 43 | +4 | 86.0 | 72.9% | 1.16 |
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
45 - 40 | +5 | 82.8 | 71.2% | 1.09 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
34 - 39 | -5 | 62.3 | 66.1% | 0.90 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
31 - 42 | -11 | 62.6 | 67.8% | 0.82 |
| Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip |
33 - 47 | -14 | 60.8 | 64.4% | 0.80 |
| Sharks |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ignacio 'meyern' Meyer |
48 - 34 | +14 | 82.3 | 83.1% | 1.33 |
 Leonardo 'leo_drk' Oliveira |
45 - 45 | +0 | 93.2 | 74.6% | 1.20 |
| Luca 'Luken' Nadotti |
42 - 39 | +3 | 72.9 | 74.6% | 1.14 |
| Jhonatan 'jnt' Silva |
40 - 33 | +7 | 66.1 | 71.2% | 1.13 |
| Raphael 'exit' Lacerda |
36 - 40 | -4 | 64.7 | 78.0% | 0.99 |
With their win, Sharks have advanced to the grand finals of ECS Season 8 Week 1. They will take on the winner of the second semifinal matchup between NRG and Cloud9, with the two teams set to clash tomorrow at 5 PM EDT. As a reminder, in a change from last season, the winner of the first two weeks will not directly qualify for the ECS Season 8 Finals, but rather the team with the most combined prize winnings between the two weeks will earn the first spot at the LAN.
