Liquid take scrappy win over Cloud9
After an expected win against the massive underdogs of Lynn Vision, Liquid have picked up their first proper win of ESL Pro League Season 18, pulling out a narrow 2-1 win over Denis "electroNic" Sharipov's Cloud9. While scrappy, the win over the top ten squad will likely come as a confidence boost for Liquid as they have worked to find their footing in tier one after transitioning to a European squad.
Map one, Ancient, started the series off on a very firm footing for Liquid as they won their won their T-side 8-7 before putting up a rock-solid CT-side to take the map 16-10. This opening map saw an exuberant performance from Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis as the IGL went 20-9 and 101.1 ADR, allowing him to post a 1.32 rating.
Moving into Inferno, Liquid started off trailing 1-6 on their CT-side, looking flat for much of the half before suddenly finding their footing, allowing the team to pull ahead and win it 8-7. With this newfound confidence, Liquid maintained a strong tempo on their T-side, however, in a heartbreaker TL fell flat at the finish line as Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov led the charge for Clodu9 to take the map 16-14 and force the series onto Mirage.
With the series tied up heading into Mirage, the series continued to be scrappy, with Liquid being in the lead on their opening T-side before Cloud9 rallied to narrowly win the first half 8-7. After switching sides, Cloud9's lead quickly began to slip away as Liquid avoided any choking to take the map 16-12 and extend their run in Malta.
Cloud9Liquid| Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov |
75 - 56 | +19 | 84.5 | 71.8% | 1.25 |
| Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov |
66 - 56 | +10 | 85.0 | 74.1% | 1.22 |
| Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov |
51 - 57 | -6 | 68.0 | 69.4% | 0.94 |
| Ilya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy |
35 - 53 | -18 | 56.5 | 64.7% | 0.78 |
 Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov |
39 - 55 | -16 | 57.9 | 62.4% | 0.77 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
63 - 47 | +16 | 68.3 | 71.8% | 1.17 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
51 - 45 | +6 | 74.6 | 68.2% | 1.09 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
56 - 60 | -4 | 82.8 | 68.2% | 1.09 |
| Robert 'Patsi' Isyanov |
58 - 63 | -5 | 72.0 | 74.1% | 1.04 |
 Aleks 'Rainwaker' Petrov |
47 - 51 | -4 | 64.4 | 67.1% | 0.94 |
