Liquid send fnatic packing

The second elimination match at the ECS Season 3 Finals featured fnatic and Liquid who lost their opening matches to Cloud9 and Astralis, respectively. The best-of-three series kicked off on Mirage with Liquid on the CT-side.

The North American team won the pistol round with Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella’s smoke defuse but fnatic took the B-site in the following round to tie the game at 1-1. Liquid were able to stop fnatic in eight consecutive rounds as Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken put on an impressive performance (9-1). fnatic secured a round with a force buy and then Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell picked up an ace to get his team their third round (9-3). Liquid won the half 10-5.

nitr0 was the star of the second half pistol round, securing the round with two entry kills (10-5). fnatic won the first weapon rounds after losing the ecos but Liquid didn’t give the Swedes any breathing space and won the map 16-6.

Train started with fnatic on the T-side. Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson clutched a 1vs2 in the pistol round and the Swedish squad went on to win the anti-ecos. KRIMZ picked up two entry kills in the first weapon round and fnatic extended their lead to 4-0.

Liquid got on the board two rounds later with the double AWP setup of Josh "⁠jdm64⁠" Marzano and nitr0 Then, they performed a successful 3vs3 retake in the following round (5-2). fnatic responded with two rounds in a row to make it 7-2. Twistzz clutched a 1vs1 against Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman to get the quad kill and the round (7-3). Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski & company trailed 8-7 at halftime.

JW opened up the second half pistol round with two kills and fnatic won the first three rounds of the half. They were able to stop Liquid’s early third round buy and led 11-7. After losing another round, Liquid started a five round streak to tie the map at 12-12. fnatic answered with four consecutive rounds to win the map 16-12.

The CT-sided Liquid lost the pistol round on Inferno but their force buy worked in the following round (1-1). The North Americans also won the next weapon round to make it 4-1. Two rounds later, Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz got a triple kill to stop another buy round from fnatic (6-1). JW clutched a 1vs3 which was answered by nitr0's 1v1 in the following round, resetting fnatic's economy (8-2). fnatic won the last three rounds of the half to trail 10-5.

Liquid won the second half pistol round and didn't make any mistakes in the anti-ecos to lead 13-5. The North American squad took the B site in the first weapon round to make it 14-5 and they went on to win the match 16-5, and series 2-1. fnatic have been eliminated while Liquid will play against Astralis for a spot at the playoffs.

Next up in London, FaZe will take on G2 for a spot in the playoffs.