Liquid outlast Astralis in New York to claim playoff spot
Inferno, Liquid's pick, began with a convincing Astralis round win in which they lost none of their players. Liquid immediately answered back in the next round, however, and took four more before the Danes returned to the scoreboard. Astralis clawed back on the unfavored Terrorist side, and ended the half with a slim 8-7 lead.
Liquid opened their T-side with a pistol win, but just like Astralis in the first half, they could not convert the following round. The Danes would run the score up to 12-8 before Liquid was able to answer back. Astralis would retort with one of their own, but then all of a sudden the North Americans bulldozed their way to matchpoint (despite a triple kill from Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz). Astralis fought valiantly, bringing the score to 15-14, but two kills from Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken opened the round, and put the final nail in Astralis' coffin.
Moving onto Cache, Astralis won the opening pistol on their T-side. The score was 5-1 in favor of the Danes when Liquid went on a five round spree. Astralis answered back with a round of their own, but the North Americans picked up three more to end the half with a 9-6 scoreline.
Astralis won the second half pistol as well, and quickly tied the score at 9-9. Liquid would proceed to win three of their own, after which began a see-saw series of round trading. Liquid eventually reached matchpoint thanks to multikills from Josh "jdm64" Marzano and Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski. Decisive entry frags from Astralis forced the North Americans back to save for the 30th round. Liquid made things scary for Astralis with their grab bag buy, but the Danes composed themselves and sent the map to overtime.
The first overtime ended with the score at 17-16 in the favor of Liquid, thanks to a solid defense and in spite of Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen's efforts. the good news ended there for Liquid however, as Astralis took all three rounds of the second overtime half to claim their map pick.
The final map of the set was Mirage, which Liquid got off to a great Terrorist start on by winning the pistol and reaching 4-0. Astralis answered right back, however, winning seven rounds in a row before the North American side could respond. The half ended 9-6 in favor of the Danes, with dupreeh doing much of the heavy lifting.
Liquid also took the second half pistol, dramatically increasing their chances to win the map as a whole. They again won four rounds off the back of it, but were stopped when jdm64 was unable to clutch a 2v1 situation with bomb planted. Fortunately for Liquid, they were able to take the following round, forcing Astralis back onto a double eco, which EliGE ended with an ace. Liquid were poised to take the map at 15-11, with Astralis again armed only with pistols, but the Danes pulled off a miraculous round win to keep their tournament hopes alive. Liquid were not to be denied twice in a row, however, as they decisively won the next round to send Astralis packing.
AstralisLiquid| Astralis |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen |
71 - 57 | +14 | 81.5 | 66.0% | 1.17 |
| Nicolai 'device' Reedtz |
62 - 60 | +2 | 76.0 | 75.5% | 1.11 |
| Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander |
66 - 63 | +3 | 80.3 | 63.8% | 1.07 |
| Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth |
61 - 54 | +7 | 71.7 | 69.1% | 1.04 |
| Markus 'Kjaerbye' Kjærbye |
46 - 64 | -18 | 51.1 | 66.0% | 0.81 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
79 - 59 | +20 | 91.1 | 74.5% | 1.33 |
 Josh 'jdm64' Marzano |
73 - 59 | +14 | 81.1 | 69.1% | 1.18 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
68 - 61 | +7 | 82.8 | 66.0% | 1.12 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
40 - 60 | -20 | 49.5 | 62.8% | 0.76 |
| Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz |
37 - 67 | -30 | 52.9 | 59.6% | 0.68 |
Liquid will join SK, Cloud9 and FaZe tomorrow in the Barclays Arena. Liquid's semi-final match will be against domestic rivals SK.
