Liquid drop opening despite Patsi arrival
Today started with a late arrival of Robert "Patsi" Isyanov, who received his passport in the mail, jumped on a flight, and made it to the venue with only 15 minutes to spare. Despite the heroics and good luck, Liquid were on the unlucky end of a Virtus.pro that looked organized, structured, and powerful as they dominated halves and orchestrated several winning stretches. Liquid getting a win today would have been a great turn in their fortunes, but it wasn't really in the cards for them.
The first map began on Inferno, a setting that Keith "NAF" Markovic even informed Dust2.us in an interview yesterday that was being toyed with tactically to better situate Patsi and Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis on the T-side. The new changes didn't seem to help, however, as Liquid only managed to win four rounds on their offense as they had no answer to VP's first half defense. The second half was a bit better for the Americans and Europeans as they started to make it closer, but VP ended up closing it out 16-11.
Mirage started out on a much better note for Liquid as their ineffectual T-side of Inferno was essentially reversed to start out this second map. A convincing 5-0 start was only marred by Liquid failing to convert two back-to-back 1v2 situations, which eventually led the team to lose out the first half 6-9. It was an emotional blow to the team who had started the game so well. In the second half, Liquid seemed to find themselves once again, as they regained the lead and remained resilient despite some close defeats to take the second map into overtime and secure a 19-17 win.
Liquid finally headed into the last map where they once again proved themselves strong on the T-side as they powered their way to a 9-6 half. Unfortunately, it did not look like it would be enough as VP made a staunch rebound to tie it up and look to take the lead in the second half at 11-11. Liquid, determined not to start off their Pro League campaign on a loss, would be resilient in their defense and go up 14-11. That wouldn't be enough as VP mounted a masterful comeback and secured the final map 16-14 in regulation to face off against G2.
LiquidVirtus.pro| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aleks 'Rainwaker' Petrov |
58 - 53 | +5 | 71.3 | 74.2% | 1.11 |
 Robert 'Patsi' Isyanov |
60 - 64 | -4 | 74.8 | 72.0% | 1.03 |
 Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
56 - 56 | +0 | 63.2 | 74.2% | 0.98 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
48 - 54 | -6 | 61.4 | 71.0% | 0.93 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
51 - 61 | -10 | 60.2 | 63.4% | 0.85 |
| Virtus.pro |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dzhami 'Jame' Ali |
67 - 45 | +22 | 67.8 | 80.6% | 1.21 |
| Nikolay 'mir' Bityukov |
61 - 60 | +1 | 78.2 | 73.1% | 1.10 |
| Petr 'fame' Bolyshev |
53 - 55 | -2 | 63.4 | 80.6% | 1.08 |
| Evgenii 'FL1T' Lebedev |
57 - 57 | +0 | 65.0 | 71.0% | 0.97 |
| David 'n0rb3r7' Danielyan |
50 - 57 | -7 | 59.9 | 71.0% | 0.94 |
