What to expect from Liquid versus BIG

After a lackluster Ancient match against Astralis which ended in a 16-10 for the Danes, Liquid has to beat BIG if they want to keep their hopes of going to the Lanxess alive. BIG are in the lower bracket thanks to Apeks, who beat them 16-10 on Mirage. Who has the better chance of staying alive today?

The dark horses are slowing down

After a great start to the second half of the year with wins over FaZe and G2, there was a lot of expectations thrust onto this new EU-centric lineup. Immediately after those wins, and after a jersey design change, Liquid have not been able to find a single map win, losing to FaZe and Astralis 2-0 during BLAST Premier Fall Groups and falling to Astralis again on IEM Cologne Play-in.

• Patsi and Rainwaker have lost some momentum

• NAF has not lost momentum

• YEKINDAR needs to be fragging more if they want to be successful today

• Pray they have the old jerseys in Cologne

Are we supposed to call them BIG Academy?

The German squad qualified for Cologne through the ESL Meisterschaft Spring with the academy lineup but it was their academy players that showed up at the bottom of the scoreboard yesterday against Apeks, despite all performing as well as the other two players. It was a close game, nonetheless, but Liquid is on a whole other level, or are they?

• s1n led the Germans in frags

• Krimbo needs to show up today

• S3NSEY was the most well-rated player for BIG

• tabseN has more IGL experience than YEKINDAR

Previous matchups

These two squads with their cores never met before, and this should be a great matchup as both teams have young and exciting players trying to prove themselves on the server.

Likely vetoes

This would be a great series for Liquid to try and play Vertigo, but given the do-or-die status of the match, I would say it's improbable that this will happen and we will most likely see a very standard veto coming from both sides.

• BIG ban Ancient

• Liquid ban Vertigo

• BIG pick Anubis

• Liquid pick Overpass

• BIG ban Nuke

• Liquid ban Inferno

• Mirage will be the decider

Liquid and BIG will meet at 10:00AM.