Liquid battle past HellRaisers, to semifinals
The third quarterfinal of the FACEIT London Major, and the first on Friday, saw the rising North American stars of Liquid taking on the international squad of HellRaisers. The veto saw the two teams set to face off on Mirage, Dust2 and left Cache as a decider.
Mirage was the first round, where the North Americans began the map taking the pistol round and following anti-eco rounds. From there they were near unstoppable, taking round after round, with Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski securing a large number of multi-kill rounds, including a key 4k to reset HellRasiers after they picked up a single round in the middle of the half. Liquid were 12-1 up before HellRaisers finally secured more rounds, with Liquid going in at the break 12-3 up.
The second half started up with HellRaisers taking the pistol round, pushing on from there to get more of a hand-hold back into the match, but it was Liquid who won the first buy round, with EliGE blocking Özgür "woxic" Eker's attempt at a 4k clutch. From there the two teams traded rounds, before Liquid were able to claim map point.
The international roster weren't being counted out just yet, with woxic and Vladyslav "bondik" Nechyporchuk salvaging double digit rounds for their team. But Liquid weren't losing their map pick, taking advantage of woxic's teamkill on bondik to push on for the map win.
Dust2 was up next, and HellRaisers had the ideal start to the map, taking the pistol round and pushing on for the next four rounds, including claiming the first buy round. Liquid weren't to be kept out of the game for too long, as they picked up the following round whilst on an eco, save for Keith "NAF" Markovic's rifle from the previous round. From there Liquid went on to control the half, taking the lead from the international roster into a 9-6 halftime score.
The second half saw Liquid take the pistol round, thanks to NAF picking up a crisp 1v3 to complete a 4k, swiftly followed up by a split second defuse to start the half off right. Disaster struck in the round immediately following, with a forcebuy from HellRasiers take the win, and from there they wrestled back control of the game. A number of rounds went exceptionally close, including allowing woxic to chalk up three 1vX wins throughout the entire game. Liquid were kept out, however, with HellRaisers taking ten rounds in a row for the 16-10 win.
Cache commenced well for Liquid, with the team securing the pistol round and keeping it up to the first buy round. In a feat similar to the previous map, HellRaisers win the following eco round to pick up three of their own in the first half. Liquid weren't letting the map slip away, with Russell "Twistzz" van Dulken ramping up his performance alongside NAF to control the game, headed for a 10-3 lead. HellRaisers kept themselves in the game, taking the final two rounds of the first half to go in 10-5.
Liquid started the second half strong, with NAF taking up three kills in the pistol round to start their run to match point off, helped along by a Nick "nitr0" Canella 4k. HellRaisers halted their win for a few rounds, but an eco round win from Liquid saw them take the win, in a 16-8 result.
LiquidHellRaisers| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
64 - 48 | +16 | 94.1 | 80.3% | 1.39 |
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
58 - 49 | +9 | 84.5 | 68.4% | 1.17 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
57 - 48 | +9 | 72.1 | 71.1% | 1.16 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
52 - 47 | +5 | 69.5 | 68.4% | 1.09 |
 Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
39 - 52 | -13 | 62.4 | 72.4% | 0.95 |
| HellRaisers |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Özgür 'woxic' Eker |
64 - 47 | +17 | 79.6 | 71.1% | 1.20 |
 Vladyslav 'bondik' Nechyporchuk |
57 - 50 | +7 | 75.2 | 71.1% | 1.10 |
 Bence 'DeadFox' Böröcz |
47 - 54 | -7 | 75.3 | 72.4% | 0.99 |
| Kirill 'ANGE1' Karasiow |
38 - 62 | -24 | 66.1 | 65.8% | 0.78 |
 Issa 'ISSAA' Murad |
38 - 58 | -20 | 56.5 | 57.9% | 0.70 |
This result means Liquid are headed to the semifinals tomorrow at 2:15 PM EDT, where they'll meet one of FaZe or Astralis, depending on the result of their quarterfinal up next here in London.
