What to expect from Liquid v. paiN
Liquid are coming off of a miraculous start to their new roster with the unknown AWPer Roland "ultimate" Tomkowiak truly being a diamond in the rough. His sniper skills have immediately translated to the highest tiers while journeyman Justin "jks" Savage has slid in perfectly to this new team. The lineup has already taken down Natus Vincere twice and have come into IEM Cologne looking like one of the teams to beat, despite the few days of LAN experience they've had.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th times the charm!
You laugh, but this might be one of the best versions of Liquid in a long time. The squad look good, the roles are finally filled by players that should be filling them, and it has a little bit of underdog flair that fits the North American spirit. With Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis on his revenge tour after a troubling performance and recovery as the IGL, Liquid could finally be in position to win.
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Twistzz is the IGL NA has always needed
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NAF and jks are the dominant anchor duo
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ultimate is a real, real AWPer
Bring the paiN
First of all, vamos Brazil. Second of all, this paiN is in a bit of a shift from the paiN that we last really saw internationally at the 2024 PGL Copenhagen Major. That paiN shocked the world with their dominance and threat to making it to the Top 8 of the Major. Due to some transfer restrictions they had to let go of Vinicius "n1ssim" Pereira while bringing in young prodigy João "snow" Vinicius. This is paiN's time to show the world they mean business once more.
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nqz is one of Brazil's best AWPers at the moment
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biguzera v. twistzz for best fragging IGL
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snow still needs some time to adjust to the top level
Previous Matchups
These two lineups have never played one another.
Likely Vetoes
Liquid has a smaller map pool and not as much experience overall as paiN does. The vetoes unironically favor the Brazilians due to their experience, but because of the seeding, it might literally just come down to maps played rather than skill level.
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paiN ban Ancient
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Liquid ban Vertigo
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paiN pick Mirage
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Liquid pick Dust2
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paiN ban Inferno
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Liquid ban Nuke
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Decider is Anubis
Again, the veto just might end up favoring paiN. They should get the free win on either Mirage or Vertigo - which ever map Liquid doesn't play. It will really come down to the final map which is likely to be Anubis depending on the bans.
paiNLiquid| paiN |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 João 'snow' Vinicius |
36 - 38 | -2 | 79.8 | 71.7% | 1.01 |
| Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourt |
31 - 38 | -7 | 69.5 | 66.0% | 0.96 |
| Kaue 'kauez' Kaschuk |
35 - 39 | -4 | 72.4 | 69.8% | 0.94 |
| Lucas 'lux' Meneghini |
30 - 39 | -9 | 76.3 | 66.0% | 0.93 |
| Lucas 'nqz' Soares |
28 - 35 | -7 | 51.5 | 66.0% | 0.77 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Justin 'jks' Savage |
43 - 30 | +13 | 75.1 | 81.1% | 1.24 |
 Roland 'ultimate' Tomkowiak |
40 - 31 | +9 | 79.0 | 79.2% | 1.22 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
38 - 31 | +7 | 87.2 | 79.2% | 1.17 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
38 - 39 | -1 | 79.9 | 69.8% | 1.14 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
28 - 32 | -4 | 63.4 | 73.6% | 0.91 |
