North start EPICENTER run with victory over Liquid

North started the match on Inferno with a B rush, planting the bomb while Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski dropped back to wait for his teammates to come, which turned out to be the right decision as Liquid overran the Danish side for an almost flawless retake. An ace by EliGE on the first gun round kept Liquid in the lead, forcing North into another forcebuy on the fourth round.

North were able to win a round after bombing the B site, but Liquid quickly regained control of the half, as Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken clutched out a 1vs2 on the B site to defuse the bomb and keep the North American side in the lead. Liquid held the reins of the half, allowing North but two more rounds before the half with a 12-3 partial.

The second half of the map started with North winning a crucial pistol round to stay alive in the first map. Having won the pistol round the Danes started to mount the comeback, winning anti-ecos and gun rounds alike to get up to 9-13, and triggering Wilton "⁠zews⁠" Prado to call a timeout. Unable to find solutions on the terrorist side, Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke & co. brought it back to a tie as the aforementioned won a 1vs1 afterplant against Twistzz.

Opening frags by Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella and Twistzz on A finally gave Liquid an opening, allowing the North Americans to not concede the lead just yet. Another fast round opened by nitr0 on A long gave Liquid another bomb plant and a two round lead heading into the final stretch of Inferno. Having figured North out, Liquid won a third in a row, once again winning the duels around the A site. After losing two, on the thirtieth round of the map and with not much of a buy, a heroic round by EliGE with a quad kill gave his team the match.

k0nfig & co. kick off their title defense with a victory

The second map, Mirage, saw North come out swinging on the terrorist side, taking the pistol round and both anti-ecos, as well as the first gun round as Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen called a fast B play that Liquid were unable to contest with limited equipment. Quickly, North’s momentum started to snowball until they got seven rounds in a row.

Liquid were finally able to stop the Danes for a 1-7 score, and were able to nullify an A execute to follow it up. North quickly flexed their muscle, though, and extended their lead while forcing their rivals to play with pistols, eventually taking the half 12-3.

A triple by EliGE in the pistol round pushed his team through the pistol round, keeping the North American side alive and in the game after they were able to win the following couple rounds. Liquid gave up one round, putting North at 13, but immediately reset the CTs to keep their comeback options alive.

North got to within one of match point after stopping a slow mid control round by Liquid, but the North Americans reset the Danes after nitr0 and Twistzz won a 2vs1 against Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså in an afterplant situation. After the eco, though, René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg and valde stopped Liquid on their tracks going B to get on match point. WIth the economic advantage, North won the last round to push it to the third map.

Liquid kept it shoulder to shoulder with North until the end of the last map

The third map, Cobblestone, started with a terrorist-sided North taking the pistol round. After the anti-ecos, it was Liquid who cleaned up in large part with a triple by Josh "⁠jdm64⁠" Marzano. A triple by Twistzz in drop made it even closer, as the scoreboard showed 2-3 and North were forced into an eco. A two on two after plant resolved by two awp kills by jdm64 got Liquid the lead for the first time in the match, 4-3, a lead extended after the North Americans eco-bashed North.

The match quickly evened out, as after ten rounds the score was even, with North regaining the lead against a pistol-laden Liquid. The North Americans brought it back to a 6-6 with a buy, sending North on a pistol and armor buy, but the Danes kept the lead with a quick play down mid and A long that saw both MSL and Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup with doubles.

With 9-6 in favor of North after a back-and-forth half, EliGE was able to win a 1vs2 afterplant on A with the bomb planted which his team capitalized on to get the tie back on the scoreboard after winning the two anti-ecos. Liquid kept the momentum in the gun round, taking the B site and winning the round to regain the lead, 10-9.

Both teams kept it close, trading rounds, but North were able to pull away late in the second half to pull a two round lead, 13-11, and stopping Liquid’s slow A push they got the fourteenth and kept Liquid’s economy hurting. Finally, it was North that prevailed taking their opener, 16-11.

EPICENTER 2017Best of 3

North

Matchpage

2

1

24th October 2017

Liquid

14

Inferno

16

16

Mirage

11

16

Cobblestone

11

North	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Kristian 'k0nfig' Wieneckek0nfig	73 - 53	+20	86.0	70.2%	1.25
Mathias 'MSL' LauridsenMSL	58 - 60	-2	80.2	75.0%	1.14
Philip 'aizy' Aistrupaizy	56 - 52	+4	81.8	69.0%	1.11
René 'cajunb' Borgcajunb	59 - 52	+7	69.8	65.5%	1.04
Valdemar 'valde' Bjørn Vangsåvalde	42 - 56	-14	54.4	70.2%	0.87

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	69 - 60	+9	89.9	61.9%	1.20
Russel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenTwistzz	56 - 53	+3	72.0	64.3%	1.02
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguzstanislaw	54 - 62	-8	71.4	72.6%	0.95
Josh 'jdm64' Marzanojdm64	46 - 55	-9	57.9	70.2%	0.95
Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0	48 - 59	-11	67.2	61.9%	0.87