Liquid survive scare to secure IEM Dallas 2024 invite
After falling to the lower bracket against Nouns on first day of the IEM Dallas 2024 Closed Qualifier, Liquid managed to come back and win the qualifier while only dropping one more map throughout their lower-bracket run.
Liquid are hoping not to repeat their results from last year when they could not get out of the group stage, only getting two map wins against Grayhound.
Day 2 started with the lower bracket consolation final between Liquid and BOSS. Swift is the word to describe that series, as Liquid posted 13-2 and 13-1 scorelines on Inferno and Anubis, respectively. Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis ended the series with 30 frags, the most out of all ten players.
BOSSLiquid| BOSS |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Josh 'PwnAlone' Pigue |
17 - 24 | -7 | 59.1 | 65.5% | 0.75 |
| Matthew 'Cryptic' Whitmore |
14 - 25 | -11 | 59.1 | 55.2% | 0.59 |
 Adam 'freshie' Paterson |
11 - 27 | -16 | 53.9 | 51.7% | 0.41 |
| Matthew 'd4rty' Paplawskas |
11 - 28 | -17 | 52.7 | 37.9% | 0.35 |
| Brett 'brett' Rhein |
7 - 27 | -20 | 38.0 | 44.8% | 0.27 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Felipe 'skullz' Medeiros |
29 - 12 | +17 | 98.9 | 100.0% | 1.86 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
28 - 13 | +15 | 106.3 | 86.2% | 1.81 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
30 - 17 | +13 | 99.8 | 89.7% | 1.71 |
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
24 - 12 | +12 | 94.6 | 89.7% | 1.60 |
 Casper 'cadiaN' Møller |
19 - 8 | +11 | 62.9 | 82.8% | 1.49 |
The grand final between Nouns and Liquid started on Inferno, picked by the international squad. It seemed like Liquid had corrected their mistakes from day one, and were able to compliment their T-side half, 8-4 in Liquid's favor with a solid CT-side, ending the match with a 13-7 score. Going into Mirage, where Nouns demolished Liquid just a day before, Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken put on an incredible defense dying only twice throughout the 12 rounds, and helping his team secure a 10-2 halftime lead. It was hard to close the map, though, as Nouns got seven round wins in a row and got close to tying the game but Liquid were able to win it 13-9.
NounsLiquid| Nouns |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jeorge 'Jeorge' Endicott |
37 - 27 | +10 | 95.4 | 81.0% | 1.35 |
| Paytyn 'junior' Johnson |
29 - 22 | +7 | 64.9 | 73.8% | 1.06 |
 Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado |
25 - 28 | -3 | 68.2 | 66.7% | 0.86 |
| Christopher 'cJ dA K1nG' Jones |
20 - 31 | -11 | 49.9 | 61.9% | 0.76 |
| Carson 'nosraC' O'Reilly |
15 - 33 | -18 | 60.6 | 69.0% | 0.64 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
31 - 24 | +7 | 84.7 | 66.7% | 1.19 |
| Felipe 'skullz' Medeiros |
31 - 29 | +2 | 80.0 | 71.4% | 1.15 |
| Casper 'cadiaN' Møller |
28 - 23 | +5 | 66.5 | 73.8% | 1.08 |
| Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
24 - 30 | -6 | 71.1 | 66.7% | 0.98 |
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
24 - 22 | +2 | 63.5 | 64.3% | 0.97 |
With this win, Liquid have secured a spot in IEM Dallas 2024. They join fellow American squads Complexity, M80, and 9z. FaZe, Vitality, Spirit, MOUZ, NAVI, G2, Falcons, Monte, and BIG have been invited to travel to Dallas, while Grayhound managed to qualify from Australia. There are still two open spots for the European qualifier. IEM Dallas 2024 is set to begin on May 27th.
