What to expect from Liquid v. The MongolZ at BLAST Open Lisbon 2025

Liquid have a tall task in front of them to stay in contention at BLAST Open Lisbon.

The MongolZ are one of the top teams in the world and beat Liquid at IEM Katowice last month. Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken and co. will need to learn from their previous missteps in order to have a chance against the Mongolians.

Liquid need their role players to step up

Liquid will need their rifle core to be up for the task against a hard-shooting MongolZ side.

• Justin "jks" Savage and Keith "NAF" Makovic need to find their footing. Their performances haven't been up-to-par of late

• Twistzz will have a tough matchup against fellow fragging IGL Garidmagnai "bLitz" Byambasuren. Keep an eye on who is calling the better T-sides

• Liquid may need to reconsider their veto from what they did in the last matchup v. The MongolZ

The MongolZ need to prove they can do it with the pressure on

The MongolZ will expect to win this matchup and eventually move on to the playoffs in Lisbon. They have been serial playoff contenders since the Shanghai Major, but can't get past the semi-finals.

• Sodbayar "Techno" Munkhbold needs to shake off his performance against NAVI, he managed just 33 frags over the three maps

• Usukhbayar "910" Banzragch will be pitted against fellow AWPer Roland "ultimate" Tomkowiak, 910 needs to show his class over ultimate

• The MongolZ can go multiple ways with their veto, they are very good on Mirage and Anubis, and just beat NAVI 13-1 on Inferno.

Previous Matchups

The MongolZ defeated Liquid 2-1 at IEM Katowice in February.

Likely vetoes

• Liquid ban Mirage (they lost to The MongolZ recently on this map)

• The MongolZ ban Train (it's their perma-ban)

• Liquid pick Anubis (it's one of their favorite maps and a weakness for the MongolZ)

• The MongolZ pick Ancient (It's one of their best maps and one of Liquid's weaker ones)

• Liquid ban Dust2 (it's not Liquid's strongest map)

• The MongolZ ban Nuke (given the result against NAVI, they will be confident on Inferno)

• Inferno is left over