Liquid's close loss to Heroic; what went wrong?
Squaring off against Heroic for the first time this year, Liquid's hot 2-0 start to the Legends Stage has been slowed as the Danes handed the North American side a 1-2 defeat. With that being said, Liquid showed that they have what it takes to tussle with the best of the best, especially comforting considering the team's limited success in the previous stage.
Rough start on Inferno
Liquid got off to an unfortunate start on their pick of Inferno, procuring only a middling four rounds on the offense. Although it was their map pick, it was still no doubt going to be a difficult map considering both Heroic's pedigree and previous successes on the map, with the squad snatching a comfortable 16-7 win over FaZe earlier in the event. The main concern on Inferno today stemmed from Casper "cadiaN" Møller's success on the AWP, with the Danish IGL posting fourteen AWP kills over Josh "oSee" Ohm's five, helping Heroic secure opening kills in 15 of the 27 rounds played.
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cadiaN claimed a 1.39 rating, oSee with a 0.74 rating
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Heroic beat out Liquid in opening kills, 15 to 12
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No player on Liquid managed a positive K-D on T-side
Key players gone missing
A critical component to Liquid's success versus NAVI yesterday was a stellar showing from Latvian talent Mareks "YEKINADR" Gaļinskis, who posted a 2.00 rating. This of course was extremely unlikely to be repeated, meaning that others would have to step up to the plate to bolster the squad's firepower. Most Liquid players struggled on Inferno, with Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski and Keith "NAF" Markovic posting the highest ratings, 1.13 and 1.10 respectively. Mirage saw a more well-rounded performance, with only YEKINDAR struggling to find impact. YEKINDAR would make up for this on Ancient with a 1.33 rating, but EliGE and Nick "nitr0" Canella were nowhere to be found, with 0.68 and 0.89 ratings in the final map of play.
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Average team rating of 0.94 on Inferno
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YEKINDAR and NAF performed well on Ancient but had no support
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Unable to contend with stavn's monstrous 1.60 rating on the final map
While Liquid will be disappointed that they haven't secured an early qualification for playoffs, the team should no doubt be proud of their impressive showing against arguably one of the favorites to win the whole event. If Liquid is able to replicate even half of the solid performance they showcased today in tomorrow's match versus Into the Breach, Liquid could look forward to a smooth 3-1 record in the Legends Stage.
