Liquid to the major over HR

Liquid's road at the MLG Columbus 2016 Main Qualifier started with a double-overtime loss to HellRaisers on de_dust2. Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin and company went on to destroy YP to arrive at the decider match. HellRaisers, on the other hand, had a chance to qualify in an overtime match against MOUZ but Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač's team came up ahead.

The first map of the series was de_cache and Eric "⁠adreN⁠" Hoag defended the planted bomb in a 1v2 and got his T-sided team started. Liquid got on a roll with Hiko's strong performance and had a marvellous start (7-0). A 2v2 retake by HellRaisers on the B-site on the eight round marked their first round.

Losing the following round hurt the CIS-team's economy and Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk had a 0-12 K/D and a 0.06 rating (11-2). The American team ended the half 11-4 ahead and started their CT campaign on a good note, winning the pistol round. adreN and Hiko's back-to-back 1-on-2 clutches put their team on a map point. A triple-kill by Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella was a full stop and the Americans got a convincing victory on the first map.

The second map (de_overpass) seemed to be a replay of the first one as Hiko, on defense, opened up with three kills, including a knife kill but STYKO bounced back from his lackluster performance and clutched in a 1v3 situation to get the quad-kill.

After dropping five rounds, Liquid got back in it with Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev and adreN’s double-AWP setup (5-4). Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný and STYKO got four kills in consecutive rounds to extend their lead to 7-4. At halftime, the score was 9-6 in favor of Kyrylo "⁠ANGE1⁠" Karasiow and & company.

A 1-on-1 clutch by Hiko in the last seconds of the nineteenth round brought the score to 7-12 but HR answered immediately with one of their own. HellRaisers did not allow Liquid to execute their plan after a timeout and just rushed as CTs to stop the Terrorists on their tracks (14-7). They grabbed the map by getting the next two rounds and ensured a third map.

STYKO had another strong pistol round and HellRaisers secured the first three rounds of de_dust2. Liquid got on a hot streak and secured five rounds but couldn't get the sixth one in 2v1. The teams were exhanching rounds and the score was at 6-5 when oskar stepped up big time and had a 1v3 clutch.

HellRaisers could have gotten double-digits on their T-side but lost to nitr0 on a 1v1 (9-6). ANGE1 & co picked up their four consecutive pistol round and stretched the deficit to six just like in the second match (12-6). Despite coming on top of a 2v4 situation, Liquid lost in a 4v2 in the subsequent round and they called for a timeout.

The talk worked for the American squad who attained five rounds in a row with Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski's incredible 1v1 clutch. They tied it at 13-13, going down to the wire. After trading rounds once again, but Hiko's team got the last two rounds and secured a spot at the major.

MLG Columbus 2016 Main QualifierBest of 3

Liquid

Matchpage

2

1

27th February 2016

HellRaisers

16

Cache

4

7

Overpass

16

16

Dust2

14

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Spencer 'Hiko' MartinHiko	66 - 44	+22	94.0	76.7%	1.41
Eric 'adreN' HoagadreN	48 - 45	+3	65.5	71.2%	1.07
Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0	49 - 57	-8	81.8	78.1%	1.05
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	41 - 52	-11	68.1	65.8%	0.86
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	41 - 62	-21	63.5	60.3%	0.78

HellRaisers	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Tomáš 'oskar' Šťastnýoskar	61 - 42	+19	81.5	78.1%	1.37
Emil 'kUcheR' AkhundovkUcheR	59 - 49	+10	83.3	71.2%	1.15
Kyrylo 'ANGE1' KarasiowANGE1	52 - 55	-3	90.0	76.7%	1.13
Martin 'STYKO' StykSTYKO	55 - 52	+3	75.1	53.4%	0.98
Patrik 'Zero' ŽúdelZero	32 - 48	-16	52.1	72.6%	0.85

Major's updated team list is now following:

fnatic	Envy	Virtus.pro	Luminosity
Natus Vincere	FaZe	Ninjas in Pyjamas	Astralis
MOUZ	G2	Splyce	Gambit
Liquid	TBD	TBD	TBD

With that, the second day at MLG Columbus 2016 qualifier is completed and we will have three best-of-three series tomorrow to decide which teams will claim the last spots.

Follow HLTV.org writer BenjaCS on twitter.