Liquid advance to semifinals; NRG eliminate FaZe in New York
The second day of ESL One New York has come to a close, seeing FaZe drop out of the running after being eliminated by NRG in two maps. Liquid also took down G2 with a 2-0 win of their own, securing themselves a slot in the semifinals on Saturday in front of their home crowd.
NRG's pick of Inferno was up first in their matchup, with the North American side working their way up to a 5-0 lead. FaZe managed to even the score with 5 straight rounds of their own, but NRG managed to edge out the lead at the end of the half with an 8-7 scoreline.
The second half saw FaZe uncontested once again for a five-round streak, but Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte and Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov were able to step up in a terse battle towards the latter stages of the map. Although FaZe attained match point first at 15-12, NRG clawed back to take the first map of the series to overtime.
It was here that Damian "daps" Steele and co. took firm control of the precedings, grabbing two rounds in each overtime half to narrowly edge out their own map pick 19-17.
Mirage seemed set for another back-and-forth brawl after FaZe managed a second round force-buy win to regain control of the economy early on. Down 3-1, NRG took three rounds to narrowly regain the lead, but FaZe found 2 rounds of their own off the back of a 1vs3 clutch by Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács. Once again NRG pushed back, but this time they took firm control as a six-round streak granted them a 10-5 half moving onto their T side.
Nikola "NiKo" Kovač kept FaZe in the game as three kills on the second pistol round allowed the Europeans to narrow their deficit to 8-10, but once NRG's economy stabilized they conceded just one final round before closing out the map 16-9 and eliminating the reigning ESL One New York champions from the competition.
FaZeNRG| FaZe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács |
35 - 34 | +1 | 60.7 | 63.9% | 0.95 |
 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač |
40 - 46 | -6 | 80.1 | 63.9% | 0.94 |
 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard |
36 - 39 | -3 | 65.7 | 65.6% | 0.90 |
 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen |
32 - 45 | -13 | 60.9 | 62.3% | 0.85 |
 Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer |
30 - 43 | -13 | 54.0 | 65.6% | 0.78 |
| NRG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte |
52 - 37 | +15 | 89.8 | 73.8% | 1.34 |
| Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold |
42 - 35 | +7 | 77.3 | 75.4% | 1.17 |
 Damian 'daps' Steele |
36 - 30 | +6 | 64.3 | 78.7% | 1.10 |
 Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov |
39 - 33 | +6 | 59.7 | 77.0% | 1.08 |
| Jacob 'FugLy' Medina |
38 - 38 | +0 | 70.2 | 65.6% | 1.02 |
It was a far more one-sided affair for Liquid as they demolished G2 on the French team's pick of Cache, giving up only 2 rounds on their T side as Keith "NAF" Markovic helped to plow the way to a 13-2 half. G2 took a trio of rounds off the back of a the second pistol round, but Liquid brought the first map to a swift close 16-5 to take the series to Inferno.
The North Americans found themselves down 0-4 to kick off Inferno, eventually managing 2 rounds only for G2 to further extend their lead to 7-2. The final six rounds of the half were evenly split between the two sides, with both teams picking up a clutch win to end the half at 10-5 in G2's favor.
The Frenchmen seemed set to take the series to a third map as they took their third pistol round of the series, but Epitacio "TACO" de Melo and Nick "nitr0" Cannella were able to reply back in the ensuing round to regain control for their side. An additional six rounds in a row allowed Liquid to take the lead 12-11 before G2 put two more rounds on the board, but NAF continued his good form with a 4-kill round to take the series for his team 2-0.
G2Liquid| G2 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Richard 'shox' Papillon |
37 - 39 | -2 | 71.4 | 62.0% | 0.94 |
| Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub |
34 - 38 | -4 | 65.1 | 68.0% | 0.91 |
| Alexandre 'bodyy' Pianaro |
26 - 39 | -13 | 65.7 | 60.0% | 0.81 |
| Edouard 'SmithZz' Dubourdeaux |
24 - 41 | -17 | 57.7 | 48.0% | 0.67 |
 Kévin 'Ex6TenZ' Droolans |
18 - 40 | -22 | 53.8 | 64.0% | 0.66 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
52 - 27 | +25 | 109.7 | 82.0% | 1.69 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
40 - 28 | +12 | 79.0 | 76.0% | 1.35 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
40 - 29 | +11 | 83.8 | 84.0% | 1.27 |
 Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo |
35 - 28 | +7 | 74.3 | 80.0% | 1.25 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
29 - 28 | +1 | 66.8 | 72.0% | 1.00 |
The final two group decider matches are set to play out tomorrow, with the semifinals set to kick off in the Barclays Center on Saturday. The schedule for tomorrow looks as follows:
| Friday, September 28th | ||
| 11:00 AM |  Na`Vi vs.  Gambit |
BO3 |
| ~2:30 PM | NRG vs. G2 |
BO3 |
