Liquid collapse after 11-1 lead on Mirage to miss out on Lanxess
After an incredible series that seemed unwinnable and unlosable for both teams at times, FaZe ultimately crushed Liquid's dreams of making the Lanxess via a 2-1 victory. The absolutely insane series had a huge number of twists and turns, with the final twist seeing Liquid concede an 11-1 lead to face elimination from the IEM Cologne 2024 group stage.
The first map in the series, Inferno, began with Liquid carving out a modest three round lead on their T-side before FaZe rebounded by winning six out of the next seven rounds to climb up to a 6-3 lead. This lead was even up at half time as Mareks "YEKINDAR Gaļinskis and Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken led the charge in the fragging department. However, despite being tied at half-time, Inferno slipped away from Liquid as FaZe won the first five rounds on their T-side before Liquid were able to find three of their own, setting up a lead Liquid were unable to overcome. The first map would ultimately end with FaZe winning the next two rounds to strike the first blow in this rematch series.
With FaZe leading the series moving onto Nuke, the opening half of the map began with Liquid on their CT-side and FaZe on the T-side was largely an indecisive affair. While FaZe would find the two rounds at the start of the half and the final three rounds Liquid managed to keep things highly competitive, finding rounds where they were able to tie things up once again at 6-6.
The second half of Nuke would begin with Liquid winning their T-side pistol and two of the first three rounds to feel confident that they could force a third map through a protracted affair. However, in round 17 FaZe went on an incredible run of form winning five rounds in a row with three three retakes to find map, series, and arena point to back Liquid into a wall. With Liquid needing to win three rounds in a row to force overtime, the team did something truly incredible that perhaps a previous iteration could not, with round 22 starting an insane rally as the team won an incredible 3v5 with no health.
This absolutely insane round led to Liquid regaining their confidence to win the next two rounds to force a dazed and confused FaZe into overtime. Overtime would see a rejuvenated Liquid mount an oppressive 2-1 T-side before ultimately taking the map 16-13 with a perfect CT-side.
After such an incredibly close affair on both Inferno and Nuke, Mirage ended up being a tidal shift for Liquid as every single player was highly motivated and in top form against FaZe. With absolutely inspired performances from Twistzz, jks, and ultimate in particular, FaZe were utterly and completely brought down low on their T-side, as Liquid mounted an immaculate defense to claim an insane 11-1 lead heading onto their T-side. With an insurmountable lead and Liquid quick to find their twelfth round, many expected FaZe to completely crumble at this point.
However, in an absolutely insane comeback, Finn Andersen called a largely immaculate and sublime T-side as FaZe won the next eight rounds in a row with a resurgent Robin "ropz" Kool leading the charge as FaZe made the impossible possible, bringing Mirage to the final round of regulation play.
After a complete and utter emotional rollercoaster of a series that was completely impossible to predict, karrigan called another insanely close round that put him in a kingmaker position as Keith "NAF" Markovic was left fighting an unwinnable 1v3 that allow FaZe to claim an overtime that no one could have expected.
With both sides mounting 11-1 halves in regulation, overtime was a completely clean slate after triumph and tragedy for both sides in the first 24 rounds. This clean slate started with Liquid finding their first round before in a truly heartbreaking set of rounds, Liquid looked really and truly lost for the first time in the series as FaZe managed to win the next four rounds to eliminate Liquid in a series that would have been an ultimate triumph for Liquid before being the ultimate "what if?" story for the new roster.
LiquidFaZe| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Roland 'ultimate' Tomkowiak |
57 - 50 | +7 | 71.6 | 75.0% | 1.08 |
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
57 - 59 | -2 | 80.3 | 67.5% | 1.07 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
47 - 53 | -6 | 72.7 | 71.2% | 0.97 |
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
52 - 53 | -1 | 75.8 | 71.2% | 0.97 |
 Justin 'jks' Savage |
41 - 48 | -7 | 57.3 | 65.0% | 0.83 |
| FaZe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 David 'frozen' Čerňanský |
66 - 51 | +15 | 90.8 | 70.0% | 1.28 |
| Helvijs 'broky' Saukants |
59 - 44 | +15 | 70.0 | 73.8% | 1.09 |
 Robin 'ropz' Kool |
56 - 50 | +6 | 75.9 | 72.5% | 1.08 |
 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard |
42 - 57 | -15 | 70.7 | 67.5% | 0.88 |
 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen |
38 - 54 | -16 | 50.6 | 60.0% | 0.76 |
