NRG conquer Astralis to claim Legends status; Liquid facing elimination
The third day of the New Legends stage of the StarLadder Berlin Major has come to an end, with many surprising results as Liquid continue to struggle while NRG have reached the peak of their form.
Day three started out with a upset loss for tournament favorites Liquid as they dropped their 1-1 match against AVANGAR. With the action taking place on Overpass, it looked to be smooth sailing for Liquid as they picked up a 9-6 T-side. However, things started to go awry for Keith "NAF" Markovic and co. as AVANGAR immediately closed the gap in the second half. Following this, Liquid looked a step behind as AVANGAR managed to go tit-for-tat and force overtime. Liquid initially stabilized in the first overtime, before collapsing against AVANGAR as the team pulled off a perfect run of rounds to take Overpass 22-18.
With this, tournament favorites and number one team in the world Liquid are one loss away from exiting the tournament early.
LiquidAVANGAR| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
31 - 32 | -1 | 103.6 | 70.0% | 1.28 |
 Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
28 - 27 | +1 | 75.3 | 77.5% | 1.08 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
29 - 26 | +3 | 71.3 | 67.5% | 1.06 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
25 - 26 | -1 | 58.9 | 77.5% | 0.91 |
| Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip |
19 - 33 | -14 | 56.5 | 77.5% | 0.74 |
| AVANGAR |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Dzhami 'Jame' Ali |
32 - 21 | +11 | 73.0 | 82.5% | 1.31 |
 Timur 'buster' Tulepov |
33 - 27 | +6 | 87.6 | 85.0% | 1.28 |
 Sanjar 'SANJI' Kuliev |
30 - 26 | +4 | 80.3 | 72.5% | 1.17 |
| Alexey 'Qikert' Golubev |
29 - 34 | -5 | 90.8 | 65.0% | 1.00 |
| Dauren 'AdreN' Kystaubayev |
19 - 24 | -5 | 52.0 | 60.0% | 0.82 |
Continuing on, another upsetting loss came in for the Americas as MIBR floundered against G2. The French out-fragged MIBR to win their T-side before taking the map 16-4.
This performance further illustrates the team's lack of firepower with Wilton "zews" Prado standing-in as he only managed to find six kills, though it is worth mentioning that a massive performance from Audric "JaCkz" Jug definitely didn't help MIBR from getting the ball rolling on Inferno.
MIBRG2| MIBR |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Lucas 'LUCAS1' Teles |
13 - 13 | +0 | 74.5 | 70.0% | 0.98 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
11 - 12 | -1 | 59.5 | 70.0% | 0.88 |
| Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga |
11 - 16 | -5 | 71.4 | 40.0% | 0.76 |
| Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
6 - 15 | -9 | 47.4 | 60.0% | 0.50 |
| Wilton 'zews' Prado |
6 - 16 | -10 | 40.0 | 45.0% | 0.37 |
| G2 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Audric 'JACKZ' Jug |
25 - 6 | +19 | 115.0 | 85.0% | 2.10 |
| Lucas 'Lucky' Chastang |
17 - 9 | +8 | 79.6 | 90.0% | 1.43 |
| Richard 'shox' Papillon |
12 - 11 | +1 | 79.0 | 70.0% | 1.21 |
| François 'AMANEK' Delaunay |
11 - 10 | +1 | 54.5 | 70.0% | 1.02 |
| Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub |
7 - 11 | -4 | 43.8 | 70.0% | 0.79 |
With their backs against the wall and facing elimination, Renegades finally found a win for North America today as they took down DreamEaters 2-0 on Mirage and Train. Starting on Mirage, Renegades got off to a strong start as they won seven out of the first nine rounds however their lead was greatly reduced as DreamEaters bounced back to whittle the round deficit to a single round. Luckily for Renegades, they quickly regained their composure on their CT-side as they mounted a strong defense, helping them to secure a 16-10 win.
Moving onto Train, Renegades continued to illustrate their skill as a team with Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad leading the way as the team secured a dominant 12-3 CT-side. Following this, Renegades managed to send DreamEaters packing in quick order as they secured Train 16-8.
RenegadesDreamEaters| Renegades |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jay 'Liazz' Tregillgas |
43 - 22 | +21 | 83.5 | 78.0% | 1.37 |
 Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad |
35 - 30 | +5 | 81.8 | 74.0% | 1.25 |
 Sean 'Gratisfaction' Kaiwai |
38 - 26 | +12 | 67.2 | 76.0% | 1.24 |
| Aaron 'AZR' Ward |
37 - 27 | +10 | 80.9 | 64.0% | 1.18 |
| Justin 'jks' Savage |
30 - 27 | +3 | 70.8 | 74.0% | 1.07 |
| DreamEaters |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Svyatoslav 'svyat' Dovbakh |
29 - 39 | -10 | 70.8 | 60.0% | 0.88 |
| Igor 'Forester' Bezotecheskiy |
29 - 38 | -9 | 60.3 | 64.0% | 0.78 |
| Vladislav 'Krad' Kravchenko |
27 - 35 | -8 | 61.2 | 52.0% | 0.77 |
| Anton 'speed4k' Titov |
24 - 38 | -14 | 60.2 | 56.0% | 0.74 |
| Semyon 'kinqie' Lisitsyn |
23 - 33 | -10 | 49.1 | 50.0% | 0.71 |
With NRG leading the charge for North America at the Major, they picked up a massive victory as they found a 2-0 victory against Astralis to make their way into the playoffs with a 3-0 record. Starting on Train, NRG engaged in a shock and awe campaign as they overran Astralis' defenses, starting the map up 6-0 before ending the half with a 10-5 lead.
Reigning Major champions Astralis were not ready to give up though as clutch-minister Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth lead the way for his squad as they won ten out the first eleven rounds in a row to outpace NRG and find map point. Now with their backs against the wall, NRG answered back, in a large part due to massive heroics from Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov, holding the line to narrowly force overtime.
In overtime, the two top teams managed to nearly play an entire game as neither team were able to find a decisive run of rounds to close Train out. After 59 rounds of play, tying it for the longest map in Majors history, CeRq and co. managed to close out Train and move onto Nuke with a 31-28 win.
After an incredibly action-packed matchup on Train, NRG made an even more poinent statement on Nuke as they proceeded to crush Astralis on what many consider their home turf. NRG were unstoppable as they claimed a 12-3 CT-side, only losing rounds due to a number of heroic clutches from Xyp9x, before closing out the map 16-4. During Nuke, Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz illustrated why he is considered one of the most mechanically skilled in-game leaders as he dominated on the server, racking up 25 kills alongside 126.4 ADR.
AstralisNRG| Astralis |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth |
56 - 55 | +1 | 77.0 | 65.8% | 1.10 |
| Emil 'Magisk' Reif |
49 - 61 | -12 | 72.8 | 60.8% | 0.90 |
| Nicolai 'device' Reedtz |
54 - 56 | -2 | 67.2 | 58.2% | 0.90 |
| Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander |
40 - 62 | -22 | 69.2 | 51.9% | 0.75 |
| Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen |
38 - 57 | -19 | 48.7 | 58.2% | 0.70 |
| NRG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz |
68 - 45 | +23 | 94.8 | 70.9% | 1.36 |
 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov |
66 - 46 | +20 | 77.8 | 78.5% | 1.27 |
| Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
56 - 45 | +11 | 80.4 | 72.2% | 1.18 |
| Tarik 'tarik' Celik |
55 - 52 | +3 | 76.4 | 63.3% | 1.04 |
| Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold |
46 - 51 | -5 | 63.2 | 73.4% | 0.92 |
Day four will see Liquid, Renegades, and MIBR fight for survival. The complete matchups, with times in EDT, are as follows:
| 1-2 Round | |||||||
|
|||||||
| 2-1 Round | |||||||
| G2 -vs- AVANGAR |
6:00 AM | ||||||
Vitality -vs-  mousesports |
9:15 AM | ||||||
Astralis -vs-  CR4ZY |
12:30 PM | ||||||
