Heroic progress to playoffs over Liquid after a thrilling encounter
Following their dominant displays against 9INE and NAVI yesterday, hopes were high for Liquid's clash with Heroic today in the 2-0 match. The number one team in the world has been in daunting form, dispatching FaZe and Apeks with ease on day one, but with playoffs on the line there was no way to pick with certainty which team would progress.
Kicking off on Inferno, it was a complete reverse of Liquid's encounter against NAVI as the hunters became the hunted on their T-side. Racking up 14 T rounds against the CIS giants yesterday, Liquid managed merely four today against the Danes, going down 9-1 initially before salvaging what they could from the ruins.
The second half showed some signs of life for Liquid, opening up with an important pistol round and managing to pull things back to within one round at 12-11. René "TeSeS" Madsen would hold on just long enough in a 1v1 vs Josh "oSee" Ohm to put Heroic up 14-11, destroying Liquids economy and allowing Heroic to finish out the map 16-11 and send the two sides to the Dane's pick of Mirage.
Liquid put up a solid CT-side on Mirage despite a rough start which consisted of losing against the force buy after winning the pistol and throwing away a 2v1 that they had created from an eco round. Stabilizing, Liquid pushed out to a 9-4 lead on their defense before Heroic claimed the last two leaving us with a 9-6 Liquid lead at halftime.
Liquid's impressive form continued on their offensive end, as oSee and Nick "nitr0" Cannella wreaked havoc across the map with slick entry fragging. Only conceding one round before reaching map point, Liquid led 15-7 when things began looking shaky. Heroic slowly built back into the game, but it was too little, too late as Liquid shut them down 16-11 and sent the affair to the decider on Ancient.
A back-and-forth war of attrition was on the cards for the opening of the final map of the series. Starting on the T-side, Liquid strung together three rounds as a result of their force-buy win which came about from a single kill secured by nitr0. Neither team could gain any real momentum, continuing to trade rounds with the game being tied up at 7-7, with the NA team taking a slight 8-7 lead into the break.
The battle raged on into the second half, with Heroic taking the slightest of leads at 11-10. Jakob "Jabbi" Nygaard's 1v2 to make it 12-10 put Liquid's money on the brink but a massive 3k from Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis averted disaster. Another 1v2 from Martin "stavn" Lund this time around put Liquid back in the doldrums economically. Despite their best efforts, it was not meant to be for Liquid today, as Heroic closed out the game 16-12 and sent Liquid to the 1-2 game tomorrow.
HEROICLiquid| HEROIC |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Martin 'stavn' Lund |
69 - 56 | +13 | 90.2 | 72.0% | 1.25 |
| Jakob 'jabbi' Nygaard |
58 - 55 | +3 | 79.5 | 73.2% | 1.16 |
| Casper 'cadiaN' Møller |
55 - 45 | +10 | 65.8 | 68.3% | 1.08 |
| Rasmus 'sjuush' Beck |
41 - 56 | -15 | 68.2 | 74.4% | 0.93 |
| René 'TeSeS' Madsen |
47 - 57 | -10 | 62.6 | 69.5% | 0.90 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
59 - 53 | +6 | 88.4 | 70.7% | 1.18 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
58 - 52 | +6 | 74.5 | 63.4% | 1.05 |
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
47 - 57 | -10 | 78.0 | 69.5% | 0.98 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
56 - 54 | +2 | 65.3 | 65.9% | 0.98 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
49 - 54 | -5 | 62.1 | 70.7% | 0.97 |
