Spirit eliminate Liquid from IEM Katowice 2025
Spirit have put an end to Liquid's lower bracket run at IEM Katowice 2025 Stage 2 on February 4th with a comfortable 2-0 victory.
Liquid were the last NA team left in the tournament, so this means that all NA fans can cheer for at this point is for Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski to reach playoffs with FaZe, who play against Eternal Fire on 10:00AM.
Liquid surprisingly picked Nuke, which is one of Spirit's most consistent maps. While Liquid displayed an effective, albeit simple plan on the T-side, their CT-side was more lackluster than the final scoreboard suggests. Spirit blocked Liquid's rotations in many rounds and knew exactly when to speed up or slow down.
Losing Nuke proved to be too much for Liquid to handle as the series proceeded to Dust2, a map Spirit have been crushing lately. Winning the first pistol would have helped a lot, but Boris "magixx" Vorobyev saved Spirit with a 1v2 clutch against Roland "ultimate" Tomkowiak and Keith "NAF" Markovic.
Spirit went on to dominate most rounds on their T-side, securing themselves a great 8-4 advantage. While Liquid put up a fair fight in the second half, Danil "donk" Kryshkovets found a 4K to close the series for Spirit.
As highlighted by caster Jason "moses" O'Toole, Liquid have lost all four Dust2 matches they played in the past three months.
LiquidSpirit| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
25 - 30 | -5 | 79.5 | 68.2% | 1.00 |
 Roland 'ultimate' Tomkowiak |
26 - 23 | +3 | 55.8 | 70.5% | 0.91 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
22 - 32 | -10 | 62.1 | 72.7% | 0.81 |
 Justin 'jks' Savage |
23 - 28 | -5 | 52.9 | 79.5% | 0.79 |
 Guy 'NertZ' Iluz |
23 - 34 | -11 | 65.2 | 59.1% | 0.75 |
| Spirit |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets |
44 - 25 | +19 | 96.0 | 88.6% | 1.54 |
 Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia |
30 - 23 | +7 | 79.8 | 79.5% | 1.17 |
| Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev |
26 - 20 | +6 | 70.7 | 86.4% | 1.12 |
| Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov |
23 - 17 | +6 | 53.2 | 84.1% | 1.00 |
| Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov |
21 - 35 | -14 | 55.2 | 63.6% | 0.79 |
Spirit will play against GamerLegion for a spot in the IEM Katowice 2025 playoffs later today, while Liquid will figure out what to do in the coming days as the organization decided to skip PGL Cluj-Napoca. This decision could cost Liquid in the future as they'll likely fall behind in the Valve Regional Standings (VRS).
