IEM Chicago Day 5: Liquid to meet Astralis in the Grand Final
With the teams determined in the Wintrust Arena, IEM Chicago's Grand Finals feature the Danish titans Astralis who took down fnatic 2-1 in the semifinals, and now get to play in their ninth Grand Final of the year against the North American team Liquid who bested FaZe 2-1. Liquid are 0-3 when it comes to playing Astralis in Grand Finals.
Playing Inferno for the third time this tournament, the map had boded well for Liquid in each of their past matches against fnatic and mousesports with a 16-12 and 16-9 respectively. FaZe did not make the same mistake as the teams prior.
After falling to a quick 5-2 in favor of the Americans, FaZe began their climb with seven straight rounds on their CT-side, all due to Nikola "NiKo" Kovač getting a quad kill while FaZe was on a full eco round. The heroics lead to a 9-6 half, which would lead into the Europeans would continue their dominance into the next half.
Taking the pistol and the next four rounds, FaZe found themselves up 13-6 before Liquid would find only one more round before being buried on their map pick 16-7.
While FaZe stole away Liquid's pocket pick of Inferno, Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken decided to do to FaZe what they haven't experienced all year.
Liquid began their CT-side with six rounds right off the bat, until FaZe would win their only round of the map. For the next ten rounds, Liquid showed them why they're the third best team in the world. This marked the first time that FaZe had lost a game 16-1 for the entirety of 2018.
Carrying their new found momentum into the final map, Cache, Liquid won the first pistol round and the following gun rounds until FaZe managed a single retake to put it to a 3-1 start. With a single round buffer, NA continued their assault against EU winning the next nine of 11 rounds, putting themselves up 12-3 at the half.
FaZe did manage to take the second pistol round, marking the first multi-round success they'd have all game. With one final parting gift, Twistzz secured the map and the series with a triple kill, ending FaZe's Chicago run.
FaZeLiquid| FaZe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač |
49 - 39 | +10 | 85.5 | 65.0% | 1.18 |
 Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer |
35 - 44 | -9 | 64.9 | 65.0% | 0.83 |
 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen |
35 - 50 | -15 | 66.7 | 56.7% | 0.78 |
 Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács |
29 - 43 | -14 | 51.6 | 51.7% | 0.70 |
 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard |
22 - 44 | -22 | 53.6 | 53.3% | 0.61 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
51 - 30 | +21 | 88.4 | 76.7% | 1.43 |
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
52 - 33 | +19 | 87.3 | 75.0% | 1.38 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
42 - 36 | +6 | 78.0 | 80.0% | 1.18 |
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
39 - 37 | +2 | 74.7 | 68.3% | 1.11 |
 Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
36 - 34 | +2 | 66.8 | 66.7% | 0.99 |
The Grand Final now features Liquid and Astralis meeting for a title for the fourth time, the previous being ESL and ECS Finals as well as the ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018. The game is scheduled to kick off at 3PM EST.
