Passion UA fall short, surrender final Major spot to Liquid

In losing the Urban Riga Open Season 4 championship, Passion UA have almost certainly ceded the final Americas Major invite to Liquid, whose return to the region seems to have narrowly resulted in a trip to IEM Cologne.

Also read: NRG completely stomped by FUT in Bucharest

Sangal’s map pick of Inferno saw Passion UA win both pistol rounds to start the Grand Final. Despite a seven-round win streak in the first half and a 26-kill output from Timur "clax" Sabirov, Sangal faltered in the face of Passion UA’s second half attack.

The teams would inevitably trade map picks, with Passion UA falling 2-10 early on their choice of Anubis. While their T side faired much better than their defense, it was too late to stop Sangal from tying the series with a 13-9 victory.

Sangal’s players (especially Owen "smooya" Butterfield) became vocal during the decider, fully knowing they could play spoiler to their opponent’s Major hopes. They’d go on another seven-round heater while completely ignoring the advantage Passion UA should have claimed by taking the opening pistol.

Down 3-9, Passion UA would need an impeccable defensive half to recover their chances of making Cologne. It was a valiant effort, but not enough to save those aspirations.

Urban Riga Open Season 4

Bo3

Sangal

2 - 1

Passion UA

All maps

Sangal	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 3.0
Timur 'clax' Sabirov	62 - 41	+21	100.2	80.9%	1.57
Owen 'smooya' Butterfield	56 - 44	+12	81.3	75.0%	1.17
Luca 'pr1metapz' Voigt	44 - 42	+2	64.9	77.9%	1.05
Robert 'Patsi' Isyanov	46 - 47	-1	69.3	73.5%	1.03
Cai 'CYPHER' Watson	28 - 53	-25	55.0	63.2%	0.67

Passion UA	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 3.0
Azbayar 'Senzu' Munkhbold	49 - 49	+0	83.8	70.6%	1.09
Santino 'try' Rigal	51 - 49	+2	70.1	69.1%	1.02
Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou	40 - 49	-9	71.3	79.4%	1.01
Vladyslav 'Kvem' Korol	46 - 45	+1	70.4	70.6%	0.98
Nick 'nicx' Lee	38 - 45	-7	65.0	69.1%	0.89