NertZ and jks shine in Liquid's first match of 2025
In Liquid's opening match of 2025, and the BLAST Bounty Spring season, offseason acquisition Guy "NertZ" Iluz showed off precisely what the fans wanted to see.
NertZ and Justin 'jks' Savage topped the scoreboard on both of Liquid's maps in the team's 2-0 win against 9 Pandas. NertZ finished the series with a 100+ ADR and a well-balanced performance, leading the server with nine total opening kills. jks was solid on Nuke but dominated on Ancient with a +16 K/D differential.
Liquid may have entered the series as the higher ranked favorite, but the result is what fans should expected from the favored opponent. Still, Liquid looked a bit out of sorts on the T-side, with a sizable majority of their kills and round wins coming on the CT side.
Liquid9 Pandas| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Justin 'jks' Savage |
38 - 21 | +17 | 84.6 | 86.4% | 1.44 |
 Guy 'NertZ' Iluz |
36 - 28 | +8 | 101.0 | 77.3% | 1.40 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
26 - 24 | +2 | 74.7 | 81.8% | 1.12 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
29 - 28 | +1 | 71.0 | 72.7% | 1.10 |
 Roland 'ultimate' Tomkowiak |
30 - 27 | +3 | 60.8 | 59.1% | 0.94 |
| 9 Pandas |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Daniil 'd1Ledez' Kustov |
25 - 33 | -8 | 74.9 | 63.6% | 0.98 |
| Vladislav 'Krad' Kravchenko |
23 - 33 | -10 | 66.2 | 63.6% | 0.87 |
| Vladislav 'Alv' Vorokhobov |
26 - 29 | -3 | 55.6 | 75.0% | 0.85 |
| Aleksandr 'shalfey' Marenov |
26 - 31 | -5 | 62.4 | 56.8% | 0.80 |
| Evgeny 'r3salt' Frolov |
27 - 34 | -7 | 70.2 | 56.8% | 0.79 |
With the win, Liquid holds onto the $30,000 bounty that 9 Pandas challenged for, and are now one more series win away from qualifying for the LAN Finals later this month.
