Liquid qualify for ECS Season 8 Finals

Liquid have earned a spot at the ECS Season 8 Finals following a 2-1 victory over ATK in the grand finals of Week 4.

Liquid overcame INTZ and ex-Singularity with little difficulty in their first two matchups, while their grand final opponents, ATK, had to battle past eUnited and Complexity. Due to personal reasons, Liquid were left without in-game leader Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella in the grand final, fielding coach Eric "⁠adreN⁠" Hoag in his stead as their pick of Dust2 got underway.

After evenly splitting the first six rounds between them and their opponents, ATK took commanding control on the offense as they only concede two additional rounds for a 10-5 lead at the half. Three of the first four following the side swap had ATK up to a 13-6 scoreline before Liquid could respond, where multi-kills from Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip and Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic helped to crush ATK's defense as Liquid took eight rounds in a row to narrowly pull ahead. ATK were able to put a halt to Liquid's streak to force overtime, where a lockout in the first half eventually led to a 19-17 victory for Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou's side.

A strong performance from Twistzz made up for nitr0's absence

A similar scenario unfolded at the start of Inferno, with Liquid initially maintaining control at 5-2; however, the majority of the remaining rounds in the half belonged to ATK, seeing them pull ahead 9-6. Although ATK were able to respond to Liquid's pistol round win with a force-buy to initially maintain control, Liquid had a clear idea of ATK's T-side playbook as Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken helped to shut down the offense and take the map 16-12.

The first half of the Overpass decider was a close affair, seeing the two teams fighting tooth-and-nail while suffering losses on numerous occasions to pistols. Liquid managed to rally back from an early 2-5 deficit to win five rounds in a row, but it was ATK who secured a one-round lead as they swapped to the offense. A CZ-75 triple kill from Twistzz allowed Liquid to answer ATK's pistol win with a force-buy, giving Liquid the chance to gain the lead. Aran "⁠Sonic⁠" Groesbeek picked up four frags on an eco round to keep his team in the running, but ATK were only able to add one more round to their tally before conceding the map 16-11.

ECS Season 8 North America Week 4Best of 3

Liquid

Matchpage

2

1

24th October 2019

ATK

17

Dust2

19

16

Inferno

12

16

Overpass

11

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Russel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenTwistzz	74 - 53	+21	86.6	76.9%	1.29
Jake 'Stewie2K' YipStewie2K	63 - 60	+3	82.1	71.4%	1.14
Keith 'NAF' MarkovicNAF	54 - 55	-1	64.7	67.0%	0.98
Eric 'adreN' HoagadreN	50 - 51	-1	62.6	72.5%	0.98
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	54 - 60	-6	66.5	63.7%	0.95

ATK	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Josh 'oSee' OhmoSee	69 - 57	+12	83.1	73.6%	1.20
Aran 'Sonic' GroesbeekSonic	60 - 59	+1	72.4	67.0%	1.02
Ricky 'floppy' Kemeryfloppy	52 - 57	-5	59.5	74.7%	0.95
Johnny 'JT' TheodosiouJT	47 - 60	-13	62.6	67.0%	0.88
Ian 'motm' Hardymotm	50 - 62	-12	63.2	63.7%	0.85

With their victory, Liquid have become the sixth team to join the team list for the $500,000 LAN finals, set to run from November 28 to December 1. The final two spots will be decided by the Week 5 winners from each region, with matchups set to play out from October 28-31.

The team list for the ECS Season 8 Finals currently looks as follows:

AVANGAR
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Astralis
Week #5 winner

Sharks
Evil Geniuses
Liquid
Week #5 winner