Liquid resiliently come back to conquer NAVI
The veto for this series left the analyst desk scratching their heads, with an unexpected Ancient pick being the destination for this BO1. Opening up on the T-side, Liquid ran straight into the meat grinder on the B site, with the CIS side cleaning up their anti-eco with minimal fuss. Despite losing two picks at the start of the first gun round, Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski would punish a missed AWP shot from his former teammate s1mple to open up the A site and secure Liquid's first round. NAVI went on to secure several rounds in a row before Nick "nitr0" Cannella called a fast B rush out of spawn in an attempt to stop the spiral and make it 5-3 to NAVI. Andrii "B1ad3" Horodenskyi's preparation was evident, however, with NAVI shutting out the NA side multiple times to secure a 12-3 lead.
Whatever chance of a comeback there was going to be for Liquid, it had to start with a pistol-round win. A pistol-round win is exactly what was delivered, albeit in a close fashion as the Latvian import Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis closed out the 1v1 to keep Liquid's hopes alive. Liquid secured the victory against unarmored pistols, although they did concede the bomb plant. Liquid's defensive side showed much more promise, with EliGE finding multi-kills several rounds in a row to bring the score line back to 12-9 in NAVI's favor. NAVI eventually did find their first T-side round after Liquid's six-round streak, making their way into the A-site and forcing Joshua "oSee" Ohm to save the AWP. NAVI could not find an answer to foil their American foes, as Liquid tied the game up at 13-13. NAVI eventually repelled the retake on the B-site to give them their second T round. An intense retake resulted in a last-second defuse for Liquid tying the game up yet again before a shut out defense put the North Americans on match point. NAVI's fate was sealed with their economy broken, as EliGE and co. shut them down 16-14 to move on to the 2-1 game.
Natus VincereLiquid| Natus Vincere |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov |
24 - 20 | +4 | 76.2 | 66.7% | 1.13 |
 Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhev |
21 - 20 | +1 | 82.7 | 66.7% | 1.09 |
| Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev |
22 - 17 | +5 | 74.1 | 63.3% | 1.08 |
| Ilya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy |
14 - 19 | -5 | 62.4 | 70.0% | 0.84 |
| Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy |
13 - 21 | -8 | 53.9 | 56.7% | 0.77 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
26 - 19 | +7 | 101.8 | 80.0% | 1.43 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
24 - 16 | +8 | 87.7 | 73.3% | 1.25 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
18 - 21 | -3 | 66.6 | 63.3% | 0.95 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
15 - 19 | -4 | 42.0 | 63.3% | 0.79 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
14 - 19 | -5 | 52.2 | 56.7% | 0.76 |
