Liquid's Inferno comeback secures win over world #1
Liquid started off its BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2024 campaign with a huge 2-0 win over Virtus.pro, but the team would have to face the Major champions, NAVI, to advance to the Group D Finals.
The series opened with a spectacular T-side comeback on Anubis but got tricky on Natus Vincere took their own pick of Mirage. While everything came down to Inferno, it was Liquid who were able to stage an incredible comeback to show the world that this lineup is different from years past.
With this result, Liquid is set to face the Consolidation match winner, which will be NAVI, BIG, or Virtus.pro.
Anubis was the opening map to the series, picked by Liquid. The match didn't begin well for the squad led by Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken, as NAVI claimed an early 6-2 lead on the T-side, and would go into the CT-side with an 8-4 advantage. This was when Liquid went up a gear, with Keith "NAF" Markovic propelling Liquid to a six round win streak, taking a 10-8 lead. NAVI managed to claim three more rounds, but it would be Liquid taking map one 13-11.
Mirage was a map that Liquid will look to forget after the demolition from NAVI. Liquid just couldn't get anything going on their CT side, and the European squad ran them down to claim ten rounds in the first half. The second half did not go much better, as Liquid was blanked on their attack, and NAVI evened up the series score 1-1.
Inferno was an absolute can't-miss map as Liquid were shutout for the first seven rounds making it look like it would just be a replay of Mirage. However, the international squad slowly crept back before taking the lead at 8-7. They wouldn't stop there, however, as Liquid continued to show that they knew how to play this map as they pulled away with a 13-11 map victory to reach the Group D Finals.
Natus VincereLiquid| Natus Vincere |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy |
63 - 38 | +25 | 93.4 | 77.8% | 1.44 |
| Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov |
41 - 33 | +8 | 64.1 | 76.2% | 1.10 |
 Justinas 'jL' Lekavicius |
34 - 44 | -10 | 72.9 | 79.4% | 1.02 |
 Mihai 'iM' Ivan |
42 - 44 | -2 | 72.1 | 66.7% | 1.01 |
 Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen |
27 - 41 | -14 | 62.6 | 74.6% | 0.90 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
52 - 40 | +12 | 95.9 | 74.6% | 1.31 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
43 - 42 | +1 | 79.4 | 73.0% | 1.11 |
 Roland 'ultimate' Tomkowiak |
39 - 37 | +2 | 66.2 | 71.4% | 1.09 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
36 - 45 | -9 | 66.0 | 60.3% | 0.90 |
 Justin 'jks' Savage |
29 - 43 | -14 | 49.7 | 73.0% | 0.75 |
