Liquid overcome ENCE to win DreamHack Masters Dallas; EliGE claims MVP
Liquid have lifted the DreamHack Masters Dallas trophy over ENCE following a close series against the Finnish team, taking home a 2-1 victory in the grand finals. Dallas is Liquid's second big trophy of the year, and edges them ever-closer to claiming the $1,000,000 Intel Grand Slam Season 2 prize.
Having only dropped a single map against FaZe over the course of the whole tournament, Liquid continued to show off their good form, opening up the series with an 8-7 T-side lead on Mirage. That lead was swiftly extended as Liquid took firm control on their defensive half, granting ENCE just a single round on the road to a 16-8 first map victory.
Moving onto their own map pick of Overpass, Liquid looked keen to finish the grand finals in quick order as they got off to a 6-3 start on the map; however, ENCE were able to steal away the lead as they won ten of the next eleven rounds for a 13-7 scoreline in their favor. Liquid showed resilience as they fought back to claim match point first, but ENCE managed to push the map into overtime before narrowly stealing away the victory 19-17 and forcing the series to a deciding map.
Liquid quickly shook off the upset on Overpass as Inferno got underway, managing to demolish ENCE's CT-side by running the scoreline up to 10-1. ENCE held fast to find the last four rounds, closing the gap to 10-5 at the end of the half.
Switching sides, ENCE continued to close the distance by winning the first three rounds, but were unable to take the lead as Liquid continued to remain ahead. A back-and-forth battle saw Liquid eventually gain control, putting a halt to a three-round streak by ENCE to take the map 16-13. Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski helped push Liquid over the edge with a 1.38 rating and 90.5 ADR on the final map.
LiquidENCE| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
74 - 54 | +20 | 82.3 | 78.7% | 1.24 |
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
73 - 52 | +21 | 80.2 | 67.4% | 1.22 |
| Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip |
61 - 56 | +5 | 80.8 | 65.2% | 1.12 |
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
45 - 55 | -10 | 69.0 | 73.0% | 0.99 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
49 - 61 | -12 | 59.7 | 60.7% | 0.82 |
| ENCE |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jere 'sergej' Salo |
65 - 59 | +6 | 82.1 | 70.8% | 1.14 |
| Aleksi 'allu' Jalli |
67 - 58 | +9 | 72.6 | 73.0% | 1.13 |
| Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen |
51 - 61 | -10 | 72.1 | 68.5% | 0.94 |
| Sami 'xseveN' Laasanen |
48 - 61 | -13 | 73.9 | 60.7% | 0.92 |
| Jani 'Aerial' Jussila |
46 - 63 | -17 | 54.2 | 65.2% | 0.82 |
Overall, the event proved to be a success for North America, as FURIA burst onto the main stage by picking up wins over NRG, Fnatic, and Vitality. As for Renegades, after initially appearing shaky, the return of Sean "Gratisfaction" Kaiwai seems to be working out as they bested Fnatic 2-1. NRG and Cloud9 both appeared flat at this event, with the former only managing a win over Cloud9 and the latter unable to win a single match.
The final standings of DreamHack Masters Dallas 2019 are as follows:
1. Liquid - $100,000 + Intel Grand Slam point
2. ENCE - $50,000
3-4. 
FURIA - $22,000
3-4. 
FaZe - $22,000
5-6. 
Vitality - $10,000
5-6. G2 - $10,000
7-8. 
North - $6,000
7-8. 
Renegades - $6,000
9-12. 
NiP - $4,000
9-12. 
Windigo - $4,000
9-12. Fnatic - $4,000
9-12. NRG - $4,000
13-16. 
Lucid Dream - $3,000
13-16. 
TYLOO - $3,000
13-16. 
Isurus - $3,000
13-16. Cloud9 - $3,000
Following the conclusion of the event, HLTV named EliGE the HLTV x betway MVP of the tournament, granting the player the first big event MVP title of his career.
In a little over two weeks, Liquid will be looking to pick up their third Intel Grand Slam victory at the EPL Season 9 finals in Montpellier, France, where they'll once again face off against their 2018 rivals from Astralis.
