Liquid smashed by FaZe, what went wrong?
Despite having quite the exciting debut, Liquid's honeymoon with their new European roster hit its first serious snag today as Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis and co. were smashed by FaZe in a one-sided fashion today. This second outing against the original European superteam compares quite unfavorably to their previous bout on July 17th so, what went wrong?
NAF's disappearance on Overpass
On Overpass, the series' starting map, you could be forgiven for thinking that Keith "NAF" Markovic wasn't even in the server... and you'd be partially right. With the Canadian star only garnering three pistol kills over a 27-round game, a win could never be in the cards especially as NAF was an integral part in Liquid's previous showdown with FaZe. Despite NAF turning it around on Ancient, a team can't survive if one of their most aggressive player isn't finding frags.
Carrygan?
Today's performance from Finn "karrigan" Andersen was not normally. For the elder statesmen IGL, there is really no expectation from karrigan that he puts up numbers, but it was certainly a pleasant surprise from FaZe fans today. Leading his team with a 1.40 rating and 90.1 ADR, a star performance from karrigan is either a symptom or a cause of an upcoming 2-0 loss to FaZe.
Does FaZe have YEKINDAR's number?
While it's still incredibly early days for this new EU Liquid squad, it is interesting to note that in four out of five maps against FaZe, YEKINDAR has posted a negative rating. Whether this comes down to karrigan specifically knowing how to antistrat YEKINDAR or YEKINDAR needing to dedicate more of his attempt to countering the Dane remains to be seen, but it's definitely something to keep an eye on.
What next?
Liquid's next bout in BLAST Premier Spring Groups will be against either Astralis or Complexity. There's a lot of intrigue here as Liquid may face off against their old star in Jonathan "ELiGE" Jablonowski or against an Astralis-in-only that is looking to prove it can carry the banner without Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander. Either way, it is sure to be an interesting watch.
