Liquid’s road to glory

The last hope of North American Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will continue their journey in a quarter-final BO3, with a win putting them just two more series away from the region’s second Major trophy. Because every good story has adversity, Liquid’s journey did not come without obstacles.

A week of pre-Major media was full of promise that, despite a slow form at the RMR, Liquid would be good to go after their great boot camp. Alarm bells rang when the opposite turned out to be true, forcing Liquid to claw back from an 0-2 record to 3-2 thanks to three BO3 wins.

We always believed in ourselves, even when we started 0-2 … we always knew that if everything aligns and everyone plays on point we can beat any team. - Mareks “YEKINDAR Gaļinskis, HLTV

Wins over Fluxo, Complexity, and GRAYHOUND did the trick to get Liquid into the Legends stage, but wasn’t enough to convince others that the team was playoff ready. Despite the external concerns, Liquid’s lineup wasn’t hearing the noise.

Going down 0-2, I think struck a lot of fear into people's nerves … After our games, we just talked about what went wrong and no one was trying to hide anything at all, very open, we needed to be honest with ourselves and say "Hey, we are not really playing our best Counter-Strike, if we want to win the major here, we need to be better. - Keith "NAF" Markovic

Liquid had no problems backing up the talk in the Legends stage. Wins over 9INE, NAVI, and Into the Breach gave Liquid the near flawless 3-1 record to not only qualify for the Champions stage playoffs but also instill confidence through their play that the cobwebs are indeed shaken off and that they are ready to embark on their championship journey.

Now in the elite eight, Liquid’s road to glory is laid out right in front of them. From 0-2 on the brink of elimination, now in contention to lift the final CS:GO Major trophy. With just six map wins away from history, Liquid can right all the wrongs, make up for all of the chokes, and heal the heartache. All of it can be worth something, it just takes six more maps.

Liquid's BO3 quaterfinal match versus Apeks is scheduled for May 19th at 01:00PM.