Liquid show resilience, but Spirit spoil malbsMd's debut
Liquid drew Spirit in their first match of BLAST Open Rotterdam, making Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa's debut a commendable but uphill battle against the #8 VRS-ranked team.
Spirit would take the pistol on Mirage, with doubles from Myroslav "zont1x" Plakhotia and Danil "donk" Kryshkovets putting them up 4-1. malbsMd netted his first two frags of the match in round five, alongside a 3K from Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski. However, Dmitriy "sh1ro" Sokolov's AWP was highly effective early on, while Liquid’s Roland "ultimate" Tomkowiak struggled to get on the board with rifles in hand. donk and Andrey "tN1R" Tatarinovich ultimately led Spirit to a 9-3 half with 15 and 12 frags, respectively.
On their CT side, Liquid just barely gave up the pistol round, but another EliGE 3K in round 15 led them to six. Although, a quad kill from donk halted the comeback attempt and put Spirit on matchpoint. Keith "NAF" Markovic retaliated with a FAMAS 3K, but Spirit were able to close 13-8 despite the improved play from Liquid.
Spirit took their third pistol round of the day to open Ancient, and the scoreboard again saw 4-1. Liquid would surge for three straight rounds to tie the game, prompting a Spirit timeout. It was ultimate to secure a clutch win with the AWP and give Liquid the lead, before immediately extending that lead with another AWP 3K. donk, who had been held to single digits thus far, responded with an ace as the half headed to 6-6.
The fourth pistol round of the match narrowly went to Spirit, giving them a 4-0 advantage in that department. Their defense seemed nearly impenetrable as donk barrelled towards 28 kills. ultimate continued to be a thorn in their side, however, and Liquid managed eight rounds thanks to a fiery bomb plant commitment from malbsMd. A 1v2 from EliGE meant a realistic comeback was still on the table. However, a 1v2 from Boris "magixx" Vorobyev put Spirit on match point. Liquid were almost able to push for overtime, but it just wasn't meant to be.
SpiritLiquid| Spirit |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets |
55 - 31 | +24 | 115.2 | 80.0% | 1.79 |
| Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev |
30 - 31 | -1 | 76.4 | 75.6% | 1.10 |
 Andrey 'tN1R' Tatarinovich |
33 - 29 | +4 | 80.5 | 73.3% | 1.08 |
| Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov |
28 - 25 | +3 | 65.4 | 75.6% | 0.92 |
 Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia |
25 - 31 | -6 | 57.9 | 68.9% | 0.80 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
30 - 32 | -2 | 82.8 | 71.1% | 1.20 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
33 - 31 | +2 | 72.9 | 80.0% | 1.07 |
 Roland 'ultimate' Tomkowiak |
34 - 34 | +0 | 72.5 | 64.4% | 0.98 |
 Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa |
25 - 33 | -8 | 64.7 | 66.7% | 0.90 |
| Kamil 'siuhy' Szkaradek |
24 - 41 | -17 | 71.3 | 62.2% | 0.79 |
Liquid must now defeat NIP in the lower bracket, and it won't be easy. If they can build on their performance against Spirit today, it will be possible.
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