Liquid flood through Cloud9; to group final
The final game of the day saw Major Champions Cloud9 face off against North American foes Liquid in the Group A Upper Bracket Semifinal. The two teams were set to play on Inferno, Overpass and Train.
Inferno commenced with Cloud9 taking the pistol round and two following anti-ecos, before securing the first full buy round. They then pushed on for a seven round lead without much response from Liquid, even when Timothy "autimatic" Ta secured an ace.
Liquid finally got into the game with the round afterwards, but Tarik "tarik" Celik and co. made sure they were going to be ahead at the half with the following rounds. Liquid finally strung a few rounds together as they reached five rounds, with Keith "NAF" Markovic making sure his team were still in the game. But Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham took three kills to secure the final round of the half for his team, for a 10-5 lead.
The second half began with Liquid securing the pistol round and two anti-ecos on their CT-side, before securing the first buy round. From there they were near-unstoppable, securing round-after-round on a fantastic comeback. Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski and NAF were at the top of their game in the second half, forcing their team to the front.
With Cloud9 eventually taking a single round, a CZ rush no less, that was all she wrote for the all-American lineup. From there Liquid returned fire to reset Cloud9 and raced off back into the lead, and the end of the map for a 16-11 win.
Overpass began with Cloud9's T-side picking up the pistol round and two anti-ecos, before also securing the first buy round. Just as Cloud9 looked to push forwards, a Liquid forcebuy stopped them in their tracks. That started off a close first half where no-one was really in control.
Skadoodle tried to keep his team in control by picking up selections of three kill rounds, before Lucas "steel" Lopes was pushing his team forwards as well. But in the end, Liquid secured the final few rounds of the half to secure a narrow 8-7 lead.
The second half started strong for Cloud9, taking the pistol and two anti-eco rounds on their CT-side. They then followed up by winning the first full buy round, but just as in the first map a bare-bones force from Liquid put them back on the board. From there they secured round after round to re-secure the lead.
From there Liquid were unstoppable. Round after round, after round went the way of the North American mixture as NAF and steel helped their team secure match point. Cloud9 came back for another round but that was all she wrote for Cloud9 as Liquid secured the map 16-12.
Cloud9Liquid| Cloud9 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tyler 'Skadoodle' Latham |
45 - 37 | +8 | 81.4 | 76.4% | 1.20 |
| Timothy 'autimatic' Ta |
43 - 40 | +3 | 84.9 | 65.5% | 1.11 |
| Tarik 'tarik' Celik |
35 - 38 | -3 | 74.0 | 72.7% | 1.06 |
| William 'RUSH' Wierzba |
31 - 39 | -8 | 65.1 | 67.3% | 0.86 |
| Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip |
21 - 39 | -18 | 52.5 | 65.5% | 0.72 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
51 - 30 | +21 | 99.0 | 78.2% | 1.43 |
 Lucas 'steel' Lopes |
42 - 38 | +4 | 70.8 | 74.5% | 1.14 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
35 - 36 | -1 | 77.4 | 70.9% | 1.07 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
31 - 37 | -6 | 68.4 | 74.5% | 0.94 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
33 - 34 | -1 | 58.1 | 74.5% | 0.92 |
This result secures Liquid a spot in the playoffs, and lines them up for a Group A Final against Liquid. Meanwhile, Cloud9 head to the Group A Lower Bracket against Renegades tomorrow.
