Liquid scrape by Eternal Fire at EPL S21 in close series
Liquid have continued their winning ways at ESL Pro League Season 21 today with a close win over Eternal Fire to propel NA's sole remaining team in the tournament to a 2-1 record in the Swiss Stage. While the series was a two-map affair for Liquid, both maps went the distance, with the team showing encouraging resolve after their run in Stockholm started with the team folding against Falcons on Friday.
Starting on Inferno, Liquid's map pick, the team secured an early lead on their T-side, winning the opening pistol round and the following four rounds to climb up to a 5-0 lead that would eventually translate to a 9-3 scoreline at halftime. After switching sides, Liquid struggled on their CT-side, allowing Eternal Fire to win eight of the first nine rounds on their own T-side, rapidly closing the gap before taking the lead with an 11-10 scoreline.
Fortunately for Liquid, the team finally found some consistency and a counter for Eternal Fire in the final rounds of the map, winning round 22 by denying a bomb plant before two retakes secured Liquid a 13-11 win.
Moving onto Eternal Fire's pick, Train, Liquid once again started in the driver's seat as they secured their CT-side pistol round and the next four rounds to once again be up 5-0. This lead would hold firm throughout the half, with a strong CT-side presence from Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken culminating in an 8-4 lead at the half.
In the second half Liquid kicked off their T-side by winning their third pistol round of the series before winning two of the next four rounds. With Liquid sitting at an 11-6 scoreline Train seemed all but secure, however Eternal Fire would answer back in strong form by winning the next six rounds in a row to take the lead with a 12-11 scoreline before Liquid avoided a third map by winning round 24 and sending Train into overtime.
Overtime ended up being quite the scrappy affair, however the decisive factor for Liquid was the team's strength on the CT-side, with the first overtime being a draw before Liquid posted a perfect CT-side in double OT to pave the way to a 19-17 victory.
LiquidEternal Fire| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
53 - 29 | +24 | 82.6 | 73.3% | 1.29 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
44 - 31 | +13 | 82.0 | 81.7% | 1.24 |
 Roland 'ultimate' Tomkowiak |
49 - 38 | +11 | 85.5 | 75.0% | 1.23 |
 Guy 'NertZ' Iluz |
33 - 39 | -6 | 67.7 | 75.0% | 1.07 |
 Justin 'jks' Savage |
33 - 43 | -10 | 70.8 | 73.3% | 0.99 |
| Eternal Fire |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Samet 'jottAAA' Köklü |
42 - 42 | +0 | 70.3 | 68.3% | 1.01 |
| Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar Yalçın |
45 - 45 | +0 | 71.6 | 73.3% | 0.99 |
| Özgür 'woxic' Eker |
34 - 39 | -5 | 64.7 | 65.0% | 0.92 |
| Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş |
33 - 42 | -9 | 67.6 | 73.3% | 0.90 |
| Engin 'MAJ3R' Küpeli |
24 - 44 | -20 | 50.3 | 58.3% | 0.60 |
Liquid will be back in action tomorrow against MOUZ at 11:00AM.
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