Liquid tumble at the finish line
Liquid v. Astralis will go down as one of the most exciting rivalries in CS:GO history. Back in 2019, Astralis may have had the upper hand in most of their encounter back in 2019, but now with Liquid's new European lineup, it was unclear who had the upper hand heading into today's game. With just Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz and Keith "NAF" Markovic remaining from the rivalry of old, both teams were equally fired up looking to send the other team down to the doldrums of the Showdown today.
Opening up on the Danish squad's pick of Overpass, it was Liquid who took first blood by winning the pistol round and the follow-up on their CT side. Despite losing a couple of rounds to the clock, Astralis looked locked in and in control on their offensive end, winning four rounds straight to give them a 5-2 lead. Liquid would manage a string of rounds of their own to reclaim the lead at 6-5, but Benjamin "blameF" Bremer's calling managed to stabilize Astralis on the T-side, earning the Danes a narrow 8-7 lead at halftime.
Liquid claimed the second pistol round of the game, staving off the efforts of two scouts purchased in the follow-up to reclaim the lead yet again at 9-8. Johannes "b0RUP" Borup would not let Liquid extend their lead however, claiming a GALIL from the hands of NAF before pulling off an impressive 3k with said GALIL on A site. Liquid continued to feel the wrath of b0RUP, this time on the B site as another 3k from the Dane extended Astralis' lead to 12-9. Astralis would reach map point before Liquid could mount any sort of response, but it was too little, too late, as the Danes closed out 16-11 and sent the two teams to Ancient.
Liquid lost their first pistol round of the series on their own map pick of Inferno, with Astralis stretching out to an early 5-0 lead off the back of their successful Round 1 endeavor. NAF would finally find a response for Liquid in the sixth round, opening up with a double entry toward apartments, despite a 2k from Victor "Staehr" Staeh nearly shifting the round back in the Danes' favor. This opening was exactly what Liquid needed, building back into the half and narrowing the lead to just one at 5-4 and eventually securing an 8-7 half.
That lead would be the last time that Liquid would find themselves in the driver’s seat, as their defense crumbled behind dev1ce’s clinical AWPing. A lost pistol round would bruise Liquid’s confidence and stifle their ability to win a single round as they would end up losing the map 16-9.
LiquidAstralis| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Robert 'Patsi' Isyanov |
34 - 34 | +0 | 76.1 | 75.0% | 1.10 |
 Aleks 'Rainwaker' Petrov |
32 - 35 | -3 | 71.5 | 69.2% | 1.00 |
 Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
33 - 34 | -1 | 64.2 | 65.4% | 0.91 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
24 - 36 | -12 | 60.9 | 53.8% | 0.76 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
24 - 39 | -15 | 59.7 | 53.8% | 0.70 |
| Astralis |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nicolai 'device' Reedtz |
41 - 28 | +13 | 89.4 | 73.1% | 1.29 |
| Victor 'Staehr' Staehr |
35 - 29 | +6 | 86.5 | 73.1% | 1.21 |
| Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer |
32 - 27 | +5 | 73.8 | 75.0% | 1.20 |
| Johannes 'b0RUP' Borup |
39 - 32 | +7 | 63.3 | 69.2% | 1.09 |
| Christian 'Buzz' Andersen |
30 - 32 | -2 | 60.9 | 69.2% | 0.96 |
