Liquid book themselves a spot at the ECS Season 8 Finals after a 2-1 victory against ATK in the finals of Week 4.
Liquid had a rough start against INTZ and ex-Singularity with little difficulty in their first two matchups, while their grand final opponents, ATK, faced the likes of eUnited and Complexity. Liquid were without their IGL Nick “nitr0” Cannella as he was out due to personal reasons in the grand final, with coach Eric “adreN” Hoag standing in their pick of Dust2.
After swaying the momentum both ways ATK caught control on the offense as they secure a 10-5 lead at the half. 3 rounds on the second half were secured by ATK to 13-6 scoreline before Liquid went back on the board, Jake “Stewie2K” Yip and Keith “NAF” Markovic’s multi-kill rounds helped to crush ATK’s defense as Liquid went up to eight rounds in a row. ATK stopped Liquid’s streak to force overtime eventually led to a 19-17 victory for ATK.
Starting of Inferno, Liquid were in control at 5-2 before ATK took charge and pulled 9-6 in the first half. Despite ATK responding to Liquid’s pistol round win with a force-buy to initially gain control, Liquid read ATK’s T-side playbook in its entirety as Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken fine performance helped to shut them down and take the map 16-12.
Overpass was the deciding map, two teams fighting for a grand final spot pushed each other to the end of their limits. Liquid managed to get back from an early 2-5 deficit to win five rounds in a row, but ATK who secured a one-round lead as they went to the offense. A CZ-75 triple kill from Twistzz answered ATK’s pistol win with a force-buy, giving Liquid the chance to gain the lead. Aran “Sonic” Groesbeek picked up four frags on an eco round to keep the hope alive for his team in the running, but ATK were only able to add one more round to their tally before conceding the map 16-11.
