Passion UA and Liquid exit international LANs with losses to B8, MongolZ
Passion UA and Liquid both faced defeat at their respective international LAN events today, with Passion UA suffering a disappointing early exit from StarLadder StarSeries Fall in Budapest, while Liquid did well to claim top-four finish at FISSURE Playground #2 in Belgrade.
Liquid cut the more impressive form in their recent international tour making their way into playoffs as FISSURE Playground #2 with notable wins over HEROIC and FaZe. Likewise, they did well to make the semifinals after a 2-0 win over Aurora. However, in the semifinals they found a tough customer in the form of The MongolZ, with the top team dominating Liquid on their map pick, Dust2, 13-3. However, Liquid and especially Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken impressed on Mirage by winning their opponent's map pick in an equally one-sided fashion with a 13-5 scoreline.
With the series tied up, it was unfortunate that The MongolZ came into Ancient with a dominant 9-3 CT-side, as it gave Liquid few chances to get back in the game before The MongolZ won the map 13-5, thus making their way into another finals.
The MongolZLiquid| The MongolZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ayush 'mzinho' Batbold |
52 - 31 | +21 | 106.3 | 76.9% | 1.56 |
| Garidmagnai 'bLitz' Byambasuren |
37 - 38 | -1 | 87.8 | 78.8% | 1.26 |
| Usukhbayar '910' Banzragch |
37 - 31 | +6 | 64.9 | 86.5% | 1.18 |
| Azbayar 'Senzu' Munkhbold |
37 - 33 | +4 | 71.4 | 69.2% | 1.09 |
| Sodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold |
31 - 37 | -6 | 66.9 | 71.2% | 0.85 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
38 - 36 | +2 | 85.4 | 71.2% | 1.19 |
| Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
37 - 39 | -2 | 82.0 | 69.2% | 1.07 |
 Guy 'NertZ' Iluz |
39 - 39 | +0 | 71.1 | 67.3% | 0.93 |
 Roland 'ultimate' Tomkowiak |
32 - 40 | -8 | 73.1 | 65.4% | 0.87 |
| Kamil 'siuhy' Szkaradek |
24 - 41 | -17 | 56.9 | 57.7% | 0.74 |
Meanwhile in Budapest, Passion UA gave fans much less to write home about outside of a win over Gentle Mates as their next match was a fairly uneventful loss to the NAVI. With this, the team were thrown into the lower bracket where Passion UA had to face B8 for survival in Hungary.
Unfortunately for Passion UA, the series did not start on a strong footing as the opening map, Train, went the way of B8 after the Ukrainian squad ended their CT-side with an insurmountable 10-2 lead. Despite an attempted comeback on their own CT-side, Passion UA were unable to climb over this massive lead, with B8 taking the map 13-8.
Moving onto Dust2, the first half was far closer for Passion UA thanks to eleven kills and a 1.77 rating from Nick "nicx" Lee, however a lagging performance from the rest of the team allowed B8 to steal the half 7-5. After switching sides, nicx's level of production greatly slowed down while B8's Artem "kensizor" Kapran rampaged with 18 kills, being a key factor in B8 being able to narrowly take Dust2 13-11 to send Passion UA packing.
B8Passion UA| B8 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Artem 'kensizor' Kapran |
50 - 34 | +16 | 106.8 | 73.3% | 1.58 |
| Alexey 'alex666' Yarmoshchuk |
29 - 27 | +2 | 74.2 | 80.0% | 1.24 |
| Andrii 'npl' Kukharskyi |
32 - 26 | +6 | 82.1 | 71.1% | 1.15 |
| Dmytro 'esenthial' Tsvir |
22 - 28 | -6 | 58.1 | 80.0% | 0.95 |
| Daniil 'headtr1ck' Valitov |
26 - 28 | -2 | 63.1 | 73.3% | 0.85 |
| Passion UA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nick 'nicx' Lee |
29 - 29 | +0 | 75.4 | 71.1% | 1.15 |
 Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
30 - 34 | -4 | 67.5 | 71.1% | 1.04 |
| Michael 'Grim' Wince |
31 - 35 | -4 | 92.0 | 75.6% | 1.03 |
| Vladyslav 'Kvem' Korol |
26 - 33 | -7 | 62.0 | 66.7% | 0.87 |
 Håkon 'hallzerk' Fjærli |
26 - 30 | -4 | 60.9 | 60.0% | 0.83 |
With the two squads exiting their respective events, Passion UA will be back in action on September 25th in DraculaN #2 while Liquid will head to the Birch Cup 2025 on September 27th.
