Liquid take down mousesports; to playoffs
The next game up in Kiev saw Liquid take on European upstarts mousesports. The two sides were looking to qualify for the playoffs, and it was set to take place over Train, Mirage and Inferno.
Train commenced with Liquid taking the pistol round, but mousesports secured the following eco round thanks to a Miikka "suNny" Kemppi Deagle headshot ace. From there mousesports secured the next three rounds, including what had become the first buy round.
Liquid picked up the forcebuy to then push into a third round, with Lucas "steel" Lopes collecting three kills, but it was mousesports in control throughout the half. All but one of the remaining eight rounds went the way of mousesports for an 11-4 lead going into their CT-side.
Liquid put their first steps into returning to the game with the pistol round, but mousesports come out with a set of Deagles to, once again, claim the forcebuy. The North Americans weren't happy with that, so Keith "NAF" Markovic and co. returned with a successful forcebuy of their own, and then pushed on into the half.
With Liquid edging closer to evening out the game, mousesports put a stop to that with a flawless round, thanks to Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný collecting three AWP kills. However, NAF and Russell "Twistzz" Van Dulken combined to immediately reset the European side and keep the map close.
Liquid finally equaled the scores up at 13-13, before mousesports returned fire to keep themselves in the game, partially thanks to Martin "STYKO" Styk. Liquid instantly shot back to reset the European team, with Nick "nitr0" Cannella taking a 4k. The North American team then secured match point against a badly economically damaged mousesports team, before mousesports managed to secure the final round to even the game 15-15.
Overtime began with Liquid securing the first round on their T-side, before mousesports (and suNny) barreled into the remaining two rounds of that half to take a narrow lead. Although Liquid secured the first round of the second half, it was the European team who secured the map by taking the final two rounds for a 19-17 win.
Mirage was the next map, with NAF winning a 1vs2 to secure Liquid the pistol round. Liquid then secured the first anti-eco, but mousesports came out hard in their forcebuy to get onto the board. But Liquid immediately answered back into the match to start a run of their own, as the North Americans started to take a lead in the game.
mousesports put a temporary stop to that, with suNny up to familiar tricks with two 3ks, as they came close to evening the match up. It was Liquid to ensure they were ahead, going on a four round run with Twistzz and nitr0 performing strong. mousesports did claim the last two rounds in the first half, but it was Liquid who were 9-6 up.
The second half began with Liquid securing the pistol round and following anti-ecos, before oskar and Chris "chrisJ" de Jong combined to secure the first buy round. However, Liquid returned in the next round to reset mousesports to be able to push onto the 14th round.
mousesports weren't going to take that lying down though, getting back into the game to try and edge Liquid out of it, with suNny and ropz taking centre stage. Eventually Liquid claimed map point, and then pushed onto secure the game 16-11.
Liquid started off Inferno on the T-side, securing the pistol round and two anti-ecos. mousesports did claim the first buy round, but Liquid instantly followed up to reset the European side to start taking a strong lead.
Eight rounds in a row for Liquid prevented mousesports from re-entering the match as Twistzz and nitr0 were topping the tables for the North Americans. When mousesports finally took another round, they were instantly reset once again thanks to Twistzz cracking open the A site, and the fifth 3v5 Liquid had won. mousesports claimed the final round of the half, but Liquid were 12-3 ahead.
Liquid began their CT-side off with the pistol round, but mousesports' forcebuy saw them instantly reply into the game. From there the European side pushed on to close the gap, with oskar waking up in the second half. Although Liquid secured their 14th round, chrisJ and co. pushed back and kept securing rounds.
It took four further mousesports rounds before Liquid could claim map point, and after that a B-site retake against two T-side players was all it took for Liquid to, eventually, claim the series with a 16-12 map win.
LiquidMOUZ| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
67 - 70 | -3 | 84.7 | 79.1% | 1.20 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
69 - 52 | +17 | 70.6 | 74.7% | 1.18 |
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
67 - 58 | +9 | 75.4 | 72.5% | 1.11 |
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
57 - 67 | -10 | 78.0 | 70.3% | 1.02 |
 Lucas 'steel' Lopes |
47 - 60 | -13 | 62.2 | 64.8% | 0.89 |
| MOUZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tomáš 'oskar' Šťastný |
76 - 57 | +19 | 85.8 | 75.8% | 1.27 |
 Miikka 'suNny' Kemppi |
70 - 61 | +9 | 83.1 | 74.7% | 1.22 |
 Robin 'ropz' Kool |
63 - 58 | +5 | 78.9 | 74.7% | 1.10 |
 Chris 'chrisJ' de Jong |
61 - 61 | +0 | 75.2 | 68.1% | 1.05 |
 Martin 'STYKO' Styk |
37 - 71 | -34 | 52.6 | 74.7% | 0.72 |
This result sends Liquid to the StarSeries i-League Season 4 playoffs with a 3-1 record, and mousesports go to the 2-2 Swiss bracket. Next up in Kiev will be SK facing off against Na`Vi.
