Liquid becomes first NA team to make the Champions Stage since 2019
At the start of the Legends stage, pretty much everyone in the scene had written off Into the Breach and condemned the British side to go 0-3. As the first UK team to ever make a Major, ITB was determined to prove the naysayers wrong and that's just what they did with their wins over two legitimate contenders in FaZe and ENCE to earn their 2-1 status. Facing Liquid, the North Americans have looked like a completely new team after the Challengers stage with wins over 9INE and NAVI, pushing Heroic to the brink in the 2-0 game.
Kicking off on Liquid's pick of Overpass, it was a strong start on the T-side for the NA outfit as Liquid pulled out into an early 5-2 lead on their offensive. Despite being the underdogs, you wouldn't be able to tell based on the rest of the first half for ITB as they did not drop another round for the rest of the half, going in at the break up 10-5.
Liquid put up their own string of rounds to start the second half, winning the opening eight rounds of the half and reclaiming the lead at 13-10. It was a back-and-forth affair for the remainder of the half, with Liquid reaching map point but the Brits managed to send it to Overtime. The NA squad managed to close out the arduous affair 19-17 off the back of Josh "oSee" Ohm's whopping 35-23 stat line, with Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis closing in style with a knife kill.
Moving onto Anubis, despite falling to an early 0-3 deficit on their CT-side, Liquid quickly rebounded and mounted an incredibly strong defense against the Brits, with oSee and Keith "NAF" Markovic leading the charge as Liquid put up an incredibly strong 9-6 CT-side.
This incredibly strong CT-side effort quickly led to an absolutely dominant T-side for Liquid as they ran down Into The Breach as the Americans quickly looked to make their way into the Champions Stage. With another stellar half from oSee, Liquid won out the map 16-9, marking the first time an NA lineup will grace the Major playoffs after four long years.
LiquidInto the Breach| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
61 - 34 | +27 | 95.8 | 83.6% | 1.50 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
49 - 34 | +15 | 90.4 | 82.0% | 1.35 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
40 - 34 | +6 | 78.1 | 77.0% | 1.14 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
39 - 34 | +5 | 72.5 | 72.1% | 1.12 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
27 - 43 | -16 | 54.3 | 72.1% | 0.83 |
| Into the Breach |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Sebastian 'volt' Maloș |
38 - 39 | -1 | 73.1 | 68.9% | 0.98 |
 Thomas 'Thomas' Utting |
35 - 45 | -10 | 71.3 | 77.0% | 0.93 |
 Karol 'rallen' Rodowicz |
41 - 46 | -5 | 80.4 | 67.2% | 0.93 |
 Joey 'CRUC1AL' Steusel |
32 - 41 | -9 | 59.8 | 63.9% | 0.85 |
| Cai 'CYPHER' Watson |
32 - 45 | -13 | 57.2 | 73.8% | 0.84 |
