Liquid bear the paiN
Fresh off of a dominant showing at the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, Liquid are in the drivers seat as the squeak by their Brazilian colleagues in a tight two map affair.
paiN ensured that it would be a tough task for Liquid coming into IEM Cologne as they forced overtime on the first map and then ensured that everyone would be pulling their hair out on Inferno.
For some reason, paiN elected not to punish Liquid by selecting Mirage to begin the series and instead chose to play on Anubis, a map where Liquid was already comfortable. Liquid jumped out to a 9-3 lead on their T-side, but paiN would come right back with the same score to force an overtime.
Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken called a fantastic overtime as his squad were able to hold strong and pull out a tight 16-13 map win.
With that one win, Liquid were hoping to close it out on Inferno to advance to the upper bracket round. It was once again a stressful affair as Liquid went up 9-3 in the first half thanks to their T-side, with paiN creeping back in the second half. The Brazilians continued to impress and got closer to a result, but ultimately fell short as Liquid ended up winning the final round to avoid overtime and claim the series 2-0.
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 |
