Liquid knock out MIBR to set up quarter-final meeting with Astralis

Liquid have knocked out MIBR following a 2-0 win in Group B's lower bracket final (Mirage 16-13, Dust2 16-9) to advance to the quarter-finals, where they will meet Astralis.

Having defeated HellRaisers and North in close series earlier in the day, Liquid and MIBR were set to face each other for a spot in the playoffs in Group B's lower bracket final.

The Brazilians picked Mirage and got off to a good start on the CT side with a pistol round win, while a 1v3 clutch from Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David pushed them to a 3-0 lead. With just a pistol buy, Liquid quickly equalized things and began to gain control of the half, only giving up three more en route to a 9-6 halftime score.

Twistzz's lightning-fast 1v4 on Dust2 set up Liquid for the win

MIBR clawed back to even ground after taking the economic advantage in an early back-and-forth forcebuy battle, but a 1v2 clutch from Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic, who caught the bomb in B apartments in the last 15 seconds, saw Liquid pull away again. Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo's great play in the last few rounds of the match made the opening map nearly go the full distance, but the North American team eventually sealed the deal at 16-13 with a couple of convincing defenses on each site.

Moving on to Dust2, the two teams fought tooth-and-nail in the first half, with MIBR's second-round forcebuy win helping them gain the edge early on an eventually get away with a one-round lead before switching to the defense despite Liquid at one point looking like the stronger side in full weapon rounds, as they took advantage of rotations with timely B executes.

Once on the Terrorist side, Liquid set up a dominant finish to the series on the back of a pistol round victory and two individual plays, including a flashy 1v4 clutch from Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken and Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip's quad-kill and 1v2 on the B bombsite. MIBR could only find one round on the defense, courtesy of Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo's ace with the AWP, as the North Americans cruised to a 16-9, 2-0 victory.

ESL Pro League Season 9 FinalsBest of 3

MIBR

Matchpage

0

2

20th June 2019

Liquid

13

Mirage

16

9

Dust2

16

MIBR	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFalleN	34 - 33	+1	65.0	70.4%	1.04
Epitacio 'TACO' de MeloTACO	32 - 37	-5	68.1	66.7%	0.95
Marcelo 'coldzera' Davidcoldzera	37 - 40	-3	75.0	61.1%	0.94
Fernando 'fer' Alvarengafer	27 - 40	-13	57.7	66.7%	0.85
João 'felps' Vasconcellosfelps	26 - 36	-10	61.5	61.1%	0.79

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	53 - 29	+24	107.5	83.3%	1.61
Jake 'Stewie2K' YipStewie2K	40 - 28	+12	70.9	70.4%	1.17
Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0	37 - 33	+4	75.2	79.6%	1.11
Keith 'NAF' MarkovicNAF	32 - 33	-1	68.2	68.5%	1.01
Russel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenTwistzz	24 - 33	-9	60.2	68.5%	0.92