Liquid fall to lower bracket in Katowice
After gatekeeping the progress of two NA opponents during the play-in stage, Liquid lost their momentum from the early stages at IEM Katowice, finding themselves reverse swept on Mirage and Ancient after winning their opening map pick of Nuke.
This top-ten matchup started well for Liquid as they strung together a 6-6 half on offense with a stalwart defense spearheaded by Guy "NertZ" Iluz and Justin "jks" Savage, who combined for 25 kills in their 7-4 second half win. The former finished the map with a 1.70 HLTV rating.
Things went from optimistic to disastrous in a hurry though, largely the result of Usukhbayar "910" Banzragch's dominant display on Mirage. He finished with 25 kills, just 9 deaths, and a 2.02 HLTV rating in a defensive victory for the Mongolian side. Liquid recovered an 8-4 deficit all the way to an 8-7 scoreline, but then The MongolZ won five of the final six rounds to secure a map victory and force the Ancient decider.
The decider ended up being close, but despite a balanced production from Liquid with four of five players having 16 kills or more, Roland "ultimate" Tomkowiak had his worst series at the worst possible time, finishing with HLTV ratings below 0.75 in all three maps of a best-of-three series for the first time since he was playing for AGO at the Elisa Invitational in June of 2022, the only other recorded instance of this lowlight in his entire career on HLTV. Liquid cut a 12-8 deficit to 12-11 late on defense but then conceded round 24 to lose a heartbreaker in regulation, 13-11.
The MongolZLiquid| The MongolZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Usukhbayar '910' Banzragch |
53 - 38 | +15 | 80.6 | 75.0% | 1.24 |
| Ayush 'mzinho' Batbold |
48 - 49 | -1 | 85.9 | 73.5% | 1.18 |
| Munkhbold 'Senzu' Azbayar |
42 - 48 | -6 | 67.1 | 66.2% | 0.90 |
| Sodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold |
42 - 48 | -6 | 58.2 | 64.7% | 0.88 |
| Garidmagnai 'bLitz' Byambasuren |
35 - 47 | -12 | 62.2 | 69.1% | 0.84 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Guy 'NertZ' Iluz |
60 - 48 | +12 | 101.6 | 82.4% | 1.40 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
52 - 37 | +15 | 77.0 | 72.1% | 1.17 |
 Justin 'jks' Savage |
44 - 42 | +2 | 73.2 | 73.5% | 1.02 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
41 - 45 | -4 | 68.3 | 75.0% | 0.93 |
 Roland 'ultimate' Tomkowiak |
30 - 49 | -19 | 50.0 | 63.2% | 0.69 |
Liquid remains in the main event of IEM Katowice but now must face MOUZ with their tournament life on the line, the first of three such series needed to qualify for playoffs. The pressure will only increase from here, as Liquid choosing to not compete at PGL Cluj-Napoca intensifies the weight of their result here in Poland when it comes to their Major aspirations later this year.
