G2 stumble to give new look Liquid a thrilling win
A new look Liquid under new in-game leader YEKINDAR kicked off things in the perfect way as they took down G2 2-1 in a back-and-forth series in the BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2023.
The opening map was Liquid's pick of Ancient with G2 starting on the CT side. A m0NESY and huNter- double saw G2 turn around a 3v5 for them to take the opening pistol before taking the conversions against the eco and force buy to go 3-0 up. Liquid's first round came off the back of a B execute along with a Rainwaker double. Three back-to-back B hits saw Liquid tie the game at 3-3. Five straight rounds saw Liquid take a 5-3 lead before m0NESY and NiKo shut down a B hit to give G2 their fourth. NiKo's 1v1 AWP clutch against oSee saw G2 tie up the game at 6-6 but it was Liquid who ended the half with a 8-7 lead as jks' triple in the final round of the first half made sure G2 weren't too far behind.
Source: BLAST
Liquid started the second half with a team ace to pick up the second pistol and converted against the eco and against the first gun round to go 11-7 up in no time. A Rainwaker triple shut down a quick A hit from G2 and put Liquid on 12. A HooXi double-opener saw G2 take their first T round. G2 put together a couple of rounds but a Patsi double helped Liquid secure map point and dual double kills from Patsi and YEKINDAR saw Liquid close the opening map at 16-9 with Liquid coming in with a strong team performance as Patsi led with 20 kills from the front.
The second map was G2's pick of Mirage as YEKINDAR and his boys kicked things off on the CT side. A Patsi triple gave Liquid the opening pistol and another triple from Patsi saw Liquid go 2-0. G2 picked up their first round once the guns were out with huNter- coming in with an impactful triple kill. Liquid went on a three-round streak to go 5-1 up but G2 put up their second on the back of upgraded pistols. oSee's triple saw Liquid secure their seventh. A NiKo 1v4 saw G2 put up their fourth and a couple of multi-kill rounds from jks helped G2 ended the first half with a 7-8 deficit.
Liquid picked up the second pistol but a jks triple on a force buy saw G2 respond right away. A m0NESY and huNter- full house saw G2 put up double digits before a YEKINDAR double opener saw Liquid tie the game at 10-10. oSee and Patsi kept Liquid in the game with a 2v4 as the teams kept trading rounds. HooXi's ninja defuse helped G2 steal a round away as he G2 captain clutched out a 1v3 to tie the game at 13-13. A NiKo quad kill saw G2 put up 14 but Liquid once again traded rounds and took the game all the way. m0NESY and huNter- pulled G2 to overtime as the duo came in with crucial kills in the final round of the map in regulation.
Source: BLAST
Liquid picked up the first round in overtime but it was G2 who ended with a 17-16 lead with NiKo coming in with crucial impact in both the round wins. NAF's 1v1 against huNter- gave Liquid the first round of the second half of OT 1. G2 eventually closed the game at 19-17 as NiKo stepped up for G2, ending Mirage with 37 kills.
The decider was on Vertigo with G2 on the CT side to kick things off. G2 picked up the pistol and a huNter- quad against the force buy saw G2 go 2-0 up. G2 were up 5-0 in no time before Patsi' galil gave Liquid their first round thanks to a triple kill on ramp. Liquid put two rounds together thanks to a NAF and oSee 1v1 in consecutive rounds as they got the score to 7-4. Liquid clawed back a handful of round to end the first half at 7-8 as G2 fumbled two back-to-back rounds, giving up the man advantage.
A quad-kill from NAF saw Liquid pick up the second pistol to tie the game but NiKo made sure G2 picked up the force buy. m0NESY's triple put G2 on double digits. Liquid pulled five rounds in a row to tie the game at 14-14 and an oSee double put Liquid on map and series point. YEKINDAR's double eventually secured the map for Liquid at 16-14. It was Liquid's longest standing member NAF who ended Vertigo on top of the scoreboard with 27 kills and also ended the series with 70 kills.
G2Liquid| G2 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač |
77 - 65 | +12 | 93.1 | 70.3% | 1.27 |
 Justin 'jks' Savage |
61 - 58 | +3 | 77.4 | 70.3% | 1.02 |
 Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov |
65 - 65 | +0 | 71.7 | 65.9% | 0.98 |
| Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač |
48 - 65 | -17 | 63.5 | 64.8% | 0.85 |
 Rasmus 'HooXi' Nielsen |
38 - 63 | -25 | 46.0 | 60.4% | 0.64 |
| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
70 - 54 | +16 | 75.2 | 79.1% | 1.20 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
67 - 57 | +10 | 79.4 | 68.1% | 1.14 |
| Robert 'Patsi' Isyanov |
65 - 64 | +1 | 81.3 | 68.1% | 1.12 |
 Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
59 - 52 | +7 | 67.3 | 72.5% | 1.07 |
 Aleks 'Rainwaker' Petrov |
55 - 63 | -8 | 75.3 | 72.5% | 1.04 |
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