Vitality maintain clean record; ENCE and Liquid trade maps

Vitality won two maps against Liquid, Nuke (16-3) and Mirage (16-12), keeping a 6-0 record. ENCE and Liquid then traded maps, Nuke (16-14) and Dust2 (3-16).

Vitality won the first round on the attacking side of Nuke, but a failed ramp rush gave Liquid the second round. An explosive play on A then got Vitality back on the lead in an early back-and-forth, but it was the French side that took control of the map immediately, winning five before Liquid could retaliate. With Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire on a tear scoring 22 frags and 129 ADR, Vitality closed the half out 12-3. A huge quad-kill in the pistol round by Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut all but closed the match out as his side reeled it in on Nuke, 16-3.

Vitality, once again on the attacking side, opened the scoreboard on Mirage. Liquid got on the board winning a barebones pistol buy, but were then set back again on the fourth. The North Americans were then unable to win two rounds in a row all half long, going down 4-11 at the half as ZywOo carried most of the weight. Liquid won the first three rounds of the second half, but visibly inferior, were ran over by Vitality once weapons were in play. Having made it to match point, Vitality gave up a few rounds, but were eventually able to close it out, 16-12, to keep a clean sheet in the tournament.

apEX had a great performance on Nuke

ENCE won the first pistol round on Nuke after a successful attack on the upper site. This time around, Liquid were able to turn the match around in the early rounds, winning the second and running away the same way Vitality had done against them in the last match. It wasn’t until the tenth round that ENCE were able to get back on the board, but were instantly set back the following round as Liquid flew around the map to an 11-4 half.

A 1vs2 clutch by Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen kept ENCE alive going into the second half. Despite giving up a couple rounds early into the gun rounds, the Finns were able to find their footing on the defending side, keeping Liquid at bay and bringing it close. As the late match approached, ENCE tied it up, as the North Americans could not find a way to break the Finnish side’s defenses. On match point, ENCE closed it out after Aleksib got a three opening kills.

The second map, Dust2, started out with ENCE taking control on the CT side, winning the pistol round and the anti-eco, but a 1vs2 clutch by Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic on B got Liquid in it early. It was the American team that came out on top after a few close rounds, taking the early lead. It wasn’t until the tenth round that ENCE were able to one by one take out all of the Liquid players, but it wasn’t going to change the half, as Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella and company closed it out 12-3.

ENCE tried to forcebuy after losing the second pistol round, but it didn't work out as Liquid banged out the last three rounds of the map, making it 16-3 in a 1-3 record for the day.

Group A

TEAM

M

P

Vitality

6

18

Liquid

6

9

NRG

4

6

ENCE

4

6

Renegades

4

3

Ghost

4

0

The schedule for the last six matches of the day is:

22:40 - NRG vs. ENCE
23:30 - ENCE vs. NRG
00:30 - NRG vs. Ghost
01:30 - Ghost vs. NRG
02:30 - Renegades vs. Ghost
03:30 - Ghost vs. Renegades