Liquid crush old rivals to make EPL playoffs
In a retreading of one of CS:GO's biggest modern rivalries, Liquid have taken down Astralis 2-0 to make their way into ESL Pro League Season 17 playoffs. Taking the fight to the Danes on Nuke and Mirage, Liquid looked deadly as they waved goodbye to their old rivals.
Starting on Nuke, Astralis' map pick, the Danes won their opening T-side pistol and the following two rounds before Liquid took control of the half by winning seven out of the next eight rounds, thanks in part to a steely defense from Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski. Astralis claimed the next three rounds to close the distance a fair bit, but Liquid would take the half 8-7. After switching sides, Liquid were utterly dominant on Astralis' perennial map, smashing Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander's CT-side, only conceding a single round before taking Nuke 16-8.
Moving onto Liquid's map pick of Mirage, Astralis seemed to have finally come online on their CT-side as they won the opening pistol round before climbing up a 7-0 lead. However, Liquid would eventually stop the bleeding and claw together five rounds to trail 10-5 at halftime. Moving onto their CT-side, Liquid had a chance to give Astralis a taste of their own medicine as, despite losing the opening pistol round, they proceeded to win the next ten rounds in a row to find match point. After that, in spite of Astralis picking up one more round thanks to Nicolai "device" Reedtz, it was too little too late as Liquid won outright 16-12.
LiquidAstralis| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
42 - 31 | +11 | 82.2 | 84.6% | 1.27 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
42 - 33 | +9 | 81.6 | 76.9% | 1.27 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
31 - 23 | +8 | 61.7 | 76.9% | 1.12 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
35 - 26 | +9 | 72.3 | 73.1% | 1.12 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
31 - 32 | -1 | 70.4 | 78.8% | 1.08 |
| Astralis |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer |
29 - 36 | -7 | 79.1 | 65.4% | 0.99 |
| Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander |
33 - 37 | -4 | 73.8 | 67.3% | 0.99 |
| Nicolai 'device' Reedtz |
31 - 36 | -5 | 65.1 | 61.5% | 0.94 |
| Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth |
28 - 36 | -8 | 53.6 | 63.5% | 0.77 |
| Christian 'Buzz' Andersen |
21 - 36 | -15 | 44.2 | 57.7% | 0.61 |
Liquid will now move onto EPL S17 playoffs, which is set to start on March 21st.
