Liquid survive donk-less Spirit
The new-look Liquid has finally made its LAN debut and it was with a tough win against a watered-down Spirit, who are missing Boris "magixx" Vorobiev and Danil "donk" Kryshkovets. With the first map setting the tone for the rest of the series, Liquid struggled to get comfortable against the Russian opponents but managed to escape with the win.
The first LAN frag for Liquid came from none other than Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken who ended the first map with 29 kills (25 were headshots!) and a 1.51 rating. After that, all went downhill until the very last half of the last map.
The series opened with Nuke, picked by Spirit, who showed a solid T-side despite having a coach and an academy player standing in for two of their best players. After a 7-5 CT-side where many rounds were close, Twistzz was the one pushing Liquid to five T-side rounds, forcing overtime after a slow start to the half that saw Spirit reach a 12-10 scoreline. After forcing overtime, Liquid only won a single T-side round but had a flawless CT-side round winning the map.
Liquid's pick, Anubis, started off strong for the American roster with the CT-side pistol and the following rounds win but Spirit would show that Anubis really is T-sided as the Russian squad would end the half 9-3 ahead. Despite winning the T-side pistol as well, Liquid found themselves down 12-5 early in the second half and, although they climbed their way to a 12-10 deficit, Spirit closed the map 13-10.
The Ancient decider wasn't much better, in fact, the first half ended with the exact same score, 9-3 with Spirit leading after a poor start from Liquid who were down 4-0 to open the map. The second half was much better, with the American squad coming back to life and managing an eight-round streak to take the 11-9 lead before Spirit got back on the board. After Spirit got their 10th, Liquid ran across the finish line and got the 13-10 win and the series victory.
SpiritLiquid| Spirit |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov |
56 - 45 | +11 | 81.7 | 67.1% | 1.12 |
| Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov |
62 - 53 | +9 | 83.5 | 64.5% | 1.09 |
 Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia |
48 - 52 | -4 | 68.6 | 75.0% | 1.01 |
| Oleg 'baz' Kulynych |
47 - 57 | -10 | 68.0 | 61.8% | 0.94 |
| Sergey 'hally' Shavaev |
27 - 59 | -32 | 44.4 | 53.9% | 0.57 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
64 - 53 | +11 | 89.1 | 84.2% | 1.29 |
 Felipe 'skullz' Medeiros |
61 - 48 | +13 | 82.8 | 75.0% | 1.21 |
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
56 - 41 | +15 | 79.5 | 76.3% | 1.20 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
53 - 50 | +3 | 77.6 | 75.0% | 1.12 |
 Casper 'cadiaN' Møller |
29 - 48 | -19 | 39.1 | 63.2% | 0.70 |
Liquid's next game will come tomorrow against GamerLegion to decide which team from Group B is the first to reach the BLAST Premier Spring Final. The series starts at 06:00AM.
