Liquid cruise past BIG in ELEAGUE Major Boston opener
The third group stage match of the New Legends stage of the Major saw Liquid facing the German side of BIG on Inferno.
An A site stack in the opening pistol round had Liquid immediately reading BIG's playbook, allowing the North Americans to get off on the right foot. Fielding their coach Wilton "zews" Prado in place of Lucas "steel" Lopes due to roster lock rules, Liquid would take every advantage they could.
With the pistol round secured, zews and co. swiftly moved up to six rounds with a crushing defense, at which point the Germans were finally able to break through with a quick A site take with pistols. An immediate reset followed as Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski shut down BIG's B site execute by finding three frags, and Liquid followed through by cleaning up against the ensuing force-buy.
From here it was smooth sailing for the North Americans as they had three players annihilating their opposition, with EliGE, Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken, and Josh "jdm64" Marzano each having their way with the Germans.
It wasn't until Liquid attained 11 rounds that BIG finally acquired their second, with Nikola "LEGIJA" Ninić clutching out a one-on-two for his side. This gave BIG the opening they needed as they utilized their round win to make a comeback in the half, bringing the match to an 11-4 scoreline.
A quadruple kill round from zews in the second pistol round ensured that Liquid could continue dominating the match, and that's exactly what they did. With the two anti-ecos out of the way, Liquid sat just two rounds shy of a victory in their first match. With jdm, Twistzz, and EliGE continuing to demolish, Liquid had little difficulty in picking up the final two rounds to claim their first victory in this round of the Major.
BIGLiquid| BIG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz |
14 - 19 | -5 | 72.8 | 57.1% | 0.93 |
| Kevin 'keev' Bartholomäus |
10 - 18 | -8 | 55.7 | 47.6% | 0.61 |
| Nikola 'LEGIJA' Ninić |
9 - 18 | -9 | 49.2 | 42.9% | 0.58 |
| Fatih 'gob b' Dayik |
5 - 18 | -13 | 38.1 | 42.9% | 0.41 |
| Johannes 'nex' Maget |
6 - 19 | -13 | 43.7 | 23.8% | 0.39 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
22 - 7 | +15 | 123.8 | 85.7% | 1.96 |
 Josh 'jdm64' Marzano |
22 - 7 | +15 | 95.9 | 90.5% | 1.74 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
22 - 10 | +12 | 108.1 | 85.7% | 1.59 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
12 - 9 | +3 | 67.0 | 90.5% | 1.23 |
 Wilton 'zews' Prado |
14 - 11 | +3 | 63.0 | 81.0% | 1.16 |
Liquid look to make it further in the Major despite fielding zews as a stand-in, and with this initial victory, give themselves the best opportunity they can. BIG hope to hold on to their status as Major legends, but a 0-1 start will make it diffcult going forward.
FaZe are next up to bat as they face fnatic in their opening match, with Cloud9 taking on G2 later in the day.
