nV overcome Liquid in marathon

A classic map for both teams was promising to provide for a close game, the Frenchmen kicking off with a boost for their T-side as Vincent "⁠Happy⁠" Schopenhauer clutched out a 1v2 with sharp headshots to start with a 4-0 lead before Liquid defended the B-site mainly with upgraded pistols and stabilized the tempo and could equalize to a 4-4 scoreline.

In true Envy fashion the French team put the pedal to the metal with their trademark force buy pistols and retaking a 3v4 after plant situation with two AWP's was too much to ask from the North American side.

Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt and co. took another streak of three rounds, trading a single round with Liquid before trashing the CT-economy again. Their sub-par buy in the 15th round turned out to be adequate though to end the half 6-9 for Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski's team.

Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub shut down the B push with laser-like precision headshots to push their lead to 12-6 and it required a massive quad kill from EliGE to grab the first gun round for Liquid, but they were hit by the reset of money immediately, the Frenchmen now just three rounds short of closing out the map.

A hail-mary buy powered by Tec-9's managed to keep Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin's team in the match as they faced match point, and in the 25th round all hope seemed lost, but miraculously Josh "⁠jdm64⁠" Marzano pulled off a ace clutch with the big green gun, retaking towards a dropped bomb in mid, the Frenchmen pushing him impatiently with poor timing.

The theory of tilt was surely in question for the former Major champions as the deficit was shrinking to 13-15 for Liquid before the full buy could be mustered again for the Boys in Blues and they were trucked by a trio of entries from Null element and the former Starcraft pro clutched out the after plant as well in the 30th round to draw for overtime.

There was no swap of CT and T sides initially, so the warmed-up North Americans were looking to continue their offense, but Christophe "⁠SIXER⁠" Xia did what he could to restore the morale for his team, as he nailed a 1v3 clutch with excellent timing. He almost did the same two rounds later, but his position was triangulated.

A flawless A defense set up "⁠⁠" for match point as CT's, but a strong performing NBK- lead the way with his triple kill on to the B site and kept their composure to equalize and extend the game at 18-18 for another round of overtime.

Envy took two T rounds and the first round as CT to regain match point, but the North American side continously played the trading game to take over the bomb sites and pushed the game to a third overtime and it that exchange Happy managed to get the read on Liquid's strats as he picked up the secondary AWP to help the Frenchmen take all three CT rounds and closed out immediately 25-21 with the first T round.

ELEAGUE Major 2017Best of 1

Liquid

Matchpage

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22nd January 2017

Envy

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25

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	48 - 33	+15	111.1	73.9%	1.54
Jacob 'Pimp' WinnechePimp	33 - 32	+1	68.2	71.7%	1.04
Spencer 'Hiko' MartinHiko	26 - 34	-8	79.5	78.3%	0.96
Josh 'jdm64' Marzanojdm64	26 - 34	-8	56.5	60.9%	0.83
Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0	24 - 39	-15	65.3	63.0%	0.81

Envy	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittNBK-	42 - 31	+11	97.3	82.6%	1.44
Kenny 'kennyS' SchrubkennyS	37 - 31	+6	74.1	87.0%	1.27
Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireapEX	36 - 29	+7	87.1	76.1%	1.26
Christophe 'SIXER' XiaSIXER	32 - 35	-3	78.4	67.4%	1.04
Vincent 'Happy' SchopenhauerHappy	25 - 32	-7	64.7	69.6%	0.81

The next match will be between Astralis and GODSENT.