Liquid move past G2 to post opening victory in Denmark

Liquid got their run through the BLAST Premier Fall Final off to a flying start after edging out a win over G2, 2-0. The American roster punished their foes on Vertigo 16-10 before closing the series out with a razor-thin 16-14 win on Mirage.

Liquid‘s victory came as a result of stellar performances from Mareks “⁠YEKINDAR⁠” Gaļinskis and Jonathan “⁠EliGE⁠” Jablonowski. The two players both led the charge for their team in the series with 48 and 45 kills and 1.27 and 1.33 ratings, respectively. Liquid now advance to the Group B upper-bracket final, where they will play Natus Vincere. The two teams last locked horns in a best-of-one at the IEM Rio Major, where Liquid narrowly took home the victory after a 30-round map.

G2 fall down to the lower bracket, where an early elimination is in the cards as they face off against Fluxo on Thursday at 16:00 . Rasmus “⁠HooXi⁠” Nielsen and company’s unsuccessful battle versus Liquid also marked the side’s return to competitive play. The quintet hadn’t played an official game since their disastrous 2-3 campaign through the IEM Road to Rio RMR back in October, which ended the organisation’s 11-Major-attending streak and forced the star-studded roster to watch the $1,250,000 event in Brazil from the sidelines.

The series began on Vertigo, G2‘s pick. Liquid quickly set off on punishing this map choice by the European roster, overturning an initial 0-3 deficit on the T-side by putting up a five-round spree of their own to boast a slender lead midway through the opening half. Liquid‘s stranglehold on the game only tightened as the half played out; multi-kill rounds by EliGE and YEKINDAR left G2 consistently fighting an uphill battle on retakes, and the North American roster sat firmly in the driver’s seat to run away with things and flex a comfortable 9-6 lead by the break.

Liquid continued their winning ways once play resumed. Nick “⁠nitr0⁠” Cannella‘s troops added four rounds to their tally before the international squad could find any noteworthy response, 13-6. G2 found their footing somewhat and exploited a chink in the American outfit’s armour to eat away at the deficit, hounding the B site three rounds on the trot to bring the score back to a more even 9-13. Liquid shored up their defensive line in response, however, with a sublime performance from EliGE, who topped the scoreboard with 31 frags, giving the American-majority lineup a platform with which to steal the map away 16-10.

The two teams became embroiled in a back-and-forth skirmish to kick off Mirage. Liquid barely took control of the economy to pile on the pressure, using clinical executes onto the A site as a springboard to go up 5-2 on the T-side. A solid team effort came to G2‘s rescue just as things appeared to be slipping away; the whole lineup connecting their shots to take the lead for the first time in the series, 6-5. G2 went more or less unopposed for the remainder of the half and won three of the ensuing four rounds to be in good stead to send the series to Inferno. HooXi proved to be a surprising source of firepower for the European combine, leading the server with a team-high 14 kills by the interval.

The second half began with G2 carrying their momentum forward, where they nabbed three rounds on the bounce to build some confidence. Liquid refused to let G2 get too comfortable and answered right back with a lethal comeback effort, where they went on a six-round streak to have the two teams sit with 12 rounds apiece. This hard-fought nature only got more intense as the map reached the dying stages. G2 inched ever closer to match point with two rounds back-to-back, but Liquid, spearhead by an absolutely world-class 29-kill performance from YEKINDAR, clinched the four rounds that followed to snatch the map 16-14 and the series 2-0.