FaZe triumph over Liquid, to face Astralis in winners match
Liquid made their first true debut with Lucas "steel" Lopes on Mirage, taking on FaZe for a chance to face Astralis in the winners match. Although the North American squad previously played with steel at IEM Oakland, they'd had little to no practice with their new addition going into the event.
Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski began his CT side reign of terror for Liquid in the pistol round, where he found three kills to give his team the lead. Though Liquid found the initial three frags against FaZe's force-buy, the Europeans were able to being the round into a one-on-one. EliGE took the round in the end, but Liquid's economy suffered greatly, allowing FaZe to crush their money in the ensuing round with another force-buy. Three P250 frags from Josh "jdm64" Marzano gave Liquid the round advantage once again, despite their demolished economy; however, four kills from Nikola "NiKo" Kovač in the next round once again saw a trade of rounds. This time around FaZe maintained control, taking the next two rounds to put themselves up to a total of four. EliGE began finding two frags each round, giving Liquid every opportunity to further their lead — which they did, taking five rounds in a row.
The final three rounds of the half once again saw trading back-and-forth between the two sides, with FaZe taking two of them. This left Liquid with one last round of their own, putting them up to a 9-6 lead going into the second half.
Another dominant pistol round win from Liquid set the squad up for a 12-6 lead, but double-kills from NiKo and Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer halted steel & co. in their tracks. The first CT half may have had EliGE putting up big numbers for his side, but the second CT half was far more dominant for NiKo: by round 26 the Bosnian boasted 37 frags, and Liquid only took two more rounds in the match before FaZe closed it out. The final three rounds saw NiKo secured three last kills for himself, ending the match with 40 kills in 28 rounds.
FaZeLiquid| FaZe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač |
40 - 16 | +24 | 136.3 | 75.0% | 2.07 |
 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard |
18 - 18 | +0 | 75.2 | 78.6% | 1.11 |
 Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács |
19 - 19 | +0 | 71.6 | 67.9% | 1.06 |
 Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer |
17 - 18 | -1 | 71.1 | 71.4% | 0.98 |
 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen |
13 - 18 | -5 | 51.9 | 67.9% | 0.76 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
23 - 20 | +3 | 87.1 | 67.9% | 1.20 |
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
18 - 20 | -2 | 83.4 | 67.9% | 0.97 |
 Lucas 'steel' Lopes |
19 - 21 | -2 | 72.2 | 64.3% | 0.86 |
| Josh 'jdm64' Marzano |
16 - 24 | -8 | 71.1 | 64.3% | 0.83 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
12 - 22 | -10 | 44.9 | 60.7% | 0.62 |
One of the North American teams now faces elimination as Cloud9 will face Liquid tomorrow in the losers match. FaZe will also face Astralis in the winners match for a spot in the playoffs.
