#Liquid defeated #NatusVincere 2-1 in the Group B upper bracket final to advance to the #BLASTPremierFallFinal semi-finals. Despite losing #NAVI's pick of Dust2, the North American team won the game after winning on Inferno (16-14) and Mirage (16-7). (12-16).
Neither team gets eliminated from the tournament because the matchup only determines the playoff seeding. The winner of Heroic and G2 will now play Liquid on Saturday at 15:30. The quarterfinal matchup between Natus Vincere and Ninjas in Pyjamas will take place on Friday at 19:00. Natus Vincere's roster's future is uncertain after such a devastating loss.
The Match Recap
Denis #electroNic Sharipov won a 1vs2 clutch in the pistol to start the match, but Liquid immediately hit back with a forcebuy made possible by the bomb plant from the previous round. Force-buy battles followed, with Natus Vincere winning and quickly gaining a 4-1 advantage.
The Ukrainian team only had one other run of success before Liquid started to make up ground and quickly tied the game at 5-5. Niklas #nitr0 Cannella had an excellent first half, giving his side a vital quad-kill to give them their first lead and then triumphing in a 1vs2 clutch with outstanding spray control.
Keith #NAF Markovic also had a standout moment when he won a tight 1v3 clutch to cap off his ace and make the score 9-6 in favor of the North Americans at the half.
Although Liquid struggled in their defensive half, they proceeded to dominate in the second half pistol. After the gun round, Natus Vincere made a comeback and eventually tied the game at 11 apiece. The game went back and forth, with neither team in charge as they traded rounds and eventually drew even once more at 14-14.
Once more, it was nitr0 who came through with two essential multi-kills on the B site, helping his team over the finish line with a 16-14 victory and racking up 31 kills in the process.
The following match was against the departing Dust2, where Natus Vincere came out firing and put together a commanding attacking half. Before Liquid won their first round, they won seven straight, but their comeback fizzled very quickly. Only three rounds were completed by the North Americans before Natus Vincere resumed their unrelenting dominance and ended the first half with a 12-3 victory.
Natus Vincere won the second-half pistol, and it appeared that they would win easily, but Liquid refused to give up. They achieved double digits and closed the gap on their opponents by four rounds, demonstrating how much stronger their offensive half was. Valeriy #b1t Vakhovskiy's triple with an MP9 helped Natus Vincere finish the game, sending the series to Mirage for the decider despite the team's lack of inspiration and struggles to halt Liquid's offense.
The Mirage
Liquid had another outstanding T-side effort to kick off Mirage. They got off to a rough start, winning the pistol only for Natus Vincere to come back and square the game at 2-2. At that point, Liquid snatched a round with an eco from Oleksandr #s1mple Kostyliev ran out of time to disarm the device after failing to locate it in the smoke. After losing just two more games in the first half thanks to the round, the North Americans led 11-4 at the break. On his way to 14 kills at the half, nitr0 had another outstanding game, winning a 1vs4 clutch.
When Liquid won a second pistol match, the North Americans were nine rounds behind, making Liquid's victory a formality. With a 1vs2 clutch, Simple only postponed the inevitable, but it wasn't enough. Liquid completed the necessary rounds and successfully finished the map, winning the series and securing a direct entry into the semifinals.
