Liquid take down fnatic to join Astralis in ECS grand final

1-12-2019 03:41

Liquid have joined Astralis in the grand final of ECS Season 8 Finals after taking down fnatic 2-1 (Overpass 6-16, Inferno 16-6, Mirage 16-10).

The feat sees Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella's squad secure their first grand final appearance since IEM Chicago in an otherwise underwhelming second part of the 2019 season, setting up a deciding matchup against Astralis, which has been detrimental to them for the past three months.

fnatic were looking to send a strong message early as they opted for aggression as CT in the opening pistol, which awarded them a clean round and kickstarted a massive run that lasted nine rounds in total, with Liquid unable to find answers to the stifling defense.

Individual plays from Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski (a quad-kill) and Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic (a 1v3 clutch) bailed the North American side out towards the end of the half, as they stabilized to end up with five in total. It was all in vain, however, as the Swedes rallied to a 16-6 win on the back of another great start in the second half.

Liquid will play their first grand final since IEM Chicago in July

Inferno was next with roles almost reversed, as Liquid got off to a fruitful start on the defense, letting go of only two out of the first 11 rounds. Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell's triple and a 1v1 clutch helped the Swedish team get back on their feet with three out of the last four, but just like fnatic did on the opening map, nitr0's team grabbed five in a row at the beginning of the second half to reach map point and soon secure a comfortable 16-6 win to equalize the series.

A back-and-forth battle on Mirage ensued when fnatic got off the line on the back of Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist and Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim combining for five kills in the pistol round before Liquid took over in the first gunrounds, winning several disadvantageous situations for a 5-2 lead. A 1v3 from JW with just a pistol shifted the momentum back in the favor of fnatic, who ended up switching over to the offense at 8-7.

When Liquid got onto the CT side, they took matters into their own hands, with a forcebuy victory at 10-9 giving them the economic edge to close out the series comfortably at 16-10, 2-1.

ECS Season 8 FinalsBest of 3

Liquid

Matchpage

1st December 2019

fnatic

Overpass

Inferno

Mirage

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Keith 'NAF' Markovic NAF	53 - 38	+15	89.8	68.6%	1.26
Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski EliGE	53 - 43	+10	85.2	74.3%	1.23
Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken Twistzz	47 - 43	+4	70.4	71.4%	1.07
Nick 'nitr0' Cannella nitr0	36 - 42	-6	57.2	67.1%	0.87
Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip Stewie2K	40 - 53	-13	60.5	58.6%	0.81

fnatic	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist flusha	48 - 44	+4	80.5	67.1%	1.10
Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson KRIMZ	44 - 41	+3	75.9	72.9%	1.08
Jesper 'JW' Wecksell JW	52 - 47	+5	71.0	62.9%	1.01
Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin Brollan	41 - 48	-7	68.1	64.3%	0.95
Maikil 'Golden' Selim Golden	34 - 49	-15	57.6	67.1%	0.83

RIP to fnatic, well played. Astralis is gonna destroy liquid tomorrow!

2019-12-01 03:42

9 replies

Liquid played very solid today. hats off to fnatic. the kind of CS match i will watch all day long

2019-12-01 03:43

1 reply

I see what you did there

2019-12-01 13:17

Badly played, they should have won

2 replies

Unluko but whatever

2019-12-01 03:45

Makes it easier for Astralis to take it tomorrow. EZ 32-0

2019-12-01 04:36

Let’s go Astralius Maximus!

2019-12-01 03:51

"just random when see it" kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

2019-12-01 07:35

i see you have it too now..

2019-12-01 10:52

2019-12-01 03:41

Setting up great for the finals! 😎

LETS GO LIQUID

wtf Edit: #letsgoliquid Maybe we are relevant again?

11 replies

WE BACK

5 replies

YES! INSANE

3 replies

WE HAWT BB

2019-12-01 04:58

LIQUID 16-0

2019-12-01 08:26

One match final? NA logic.

2019-12-01 12:47

@ won 2 matches

2019-12-01 11:07

lets wait for all the plastic eg fans to change their flairs back to liquid mens)))

2019-12-01 04:01

4 replies

You meant Egroupstageexiteveryfuckingtournament

2019-12-01 09:37

Eg group stage exit every fucking tournament

2019-12-01 11:35

ExitGroups lol funny shit fuck we are pretty mean tho mens

2019-12-01 13:57

Lmfao XD

2019-12-01 13:01

this final would be a wet dream 6 months ago still kinda is tbh

Hahahahahahahaha

2019-12-01 08:22

lucky liquid

name checks out

Those 3 maps werent even close. Closest map was 16-10

2019-12-01 11:36

EZ and expected. Astralis will still probably win final though.

quick boring 2-0 from astralis

8 replies

2019-12-01 03:44

7 replies

Checks

2019-12-01 04:00

6 replies

didnt

2019-12-01 04:05

lmao wtf it sent 6 times???

2019-12-01 04:06

Lmao

2019-12-01 10:50

EliGe beast NAF animal Liquid should fix their map pool, pretty sure Astralis will pick Overpass or Vertigo and rekt them

This is true mens)))) We will see though!

Agree, Liquid need to pick it up on overpass, but i dont think they have played vertigo recently so maybe they have some tricks up their sleeve.

Agree. I think they have good chances on Inferno and Mirage if Astralis does not completely antistrat them, but Train is their permaban and I do not see them do much on Overpass and Nuke tbh. So its mostly about Vertigo or maybe Nuke imo.

2019-12-01 03:57

liquid prob is saving vertigo for the final

2019-12-01 05:59

Alright nice, time for Liquid to get 2-0d in the finals.

I agree, but I hope you're wrong

2019-12-01 03:47

No. 17 :,(

LETS GO LIQUID!!!!

Congratulations to Astralis for winning the ECS Season 8 Finals.

Flag not found

2019-12-01 04:11

Liquid will win Astralis this time

2019-12-01 03:46

agreed

2019-12-01 03:52

Liquid stun Astralis with a Train pick

2019-12-01 03:50

Imagine lmao

2019-12-01 03:53

Liquid were waiting for this very moment.

2019-12-01 03:56

Lol. If this happens I will eat my shoe :D Its their permaban for like...forever? ;)

2019-12-01 03:58

At the same time astralis pick mirage and boom Anime style plot twist

2019-12-01 08:39

And 3rd map is Cache which stuns everyone as it's not in the map pool ;D

2019-12-01 15:17

I knew it would be close but i didn't think it would be 3 maps. fnatics overpass was nuts.

Yeah I've seen a lot of Overpass but their approach was really unique on different positions. Nice to see that even after a few years still new strats and tactics get found out

Oh s*it, here we go again. lol

Classic grandfinal, expect the expected!

Kinda sucks for fnatic since they looked so strong on overpass. Can't wait for another Astralis v liquid final in which liquid crap themselves and get destroyed.

same goes to c9

2019-12-01 05:24

Lawl so savage stewie2k right there hello

2019-12-01 08:47

I never said c9 is good. I simply commented on the fact that liquid craps the bed every time they play astralis.

2019-12-01 22:19

n im simply commentating that c9 cant even reach the bed

2019-12-09 18:54

ggwp!

2019-12-01 04:12

if mibr are back....where are they...

2019-12-01 04:16

404 not found

2019-12-01 07:49

The top 4 is pretty much accurate at the moment lol

2019-12-01 04:57

Liquid finally back with decent jersey, not these stupid avengers gimmick ones = insta final

2019-12-01 06:23

IMAGINE CHOKING AGAINST BIGGEST CHOKERS IN CS HISTORY AXAXAXAXAXAXA

2019-12-01 07:36

2019-12-01 07:44

Just give the trophy to astralis

2019-12-01 07:50

NAF rules and Stewie is always sinking Liquid. Shout out to fnatic too, its players' stats, especially Brollan's, don't match their actual performance. Anyways, probably easy 4 Astralis again today

2019-12-01 10:05

Rip Fnatic, fluke Krieg team

2019-12-01 10:28

This was supposed to be the grand final, both teams played amazing CS! After all its the two best teams to ever touch CS:GO, 2013 ~> 2017 era vs 2018 to never ending era . Tomorrow will be one easy grand final for american counter-strike, let's get trophy number 8! #Let'sGoLiquid #NAisTop1 #NACS>EUCS #TwistzzTop1Player #EligeTop2Player

I hope Liquid Can surprise and take a Map, however, seemingly Astralis have had Liquids number ... It Will be interesting to see if Liquid Can keep their cool and stay competitive. But I’m glad to see that “The old” Liquid (from mid 2019) seems back ..., but I Think Astralis wins 2-0, one map being close ... Either Way this Grand Final Match up has been long in The proces, two Best teams of 2019 by far ... Forget EG, Fnatic, NiP etc ... This is The rivalry that makes CSGO fun to watch !

2019-12-01 11:37

I think liquid can go with this one - if astralis dosnt play their a or b game :) liquid is actually preatty good these days

2019-12-01 12:11

Top 3 in cs go history: 1)SK/LG 2)Liquid 3) Astralis

2019-12-01 13:21

#1 Astralis #2 fnatic #3 NiP #4 LG/SK #5 Liquid

2019-12-01 13:46

Dont know SK/LG : ) but Liquid, have they been good in the past or? Have only followed cs:go the past 3 years

2019-12-01 13:56

They were a threat in 2017 but they couldn't beat SK or Faze consistently until NAF came in and Twistzz got some hair on his chest. And then the Astralis era started and ended. Then Stewie came in and they finally started taking home trophies. Now is really their time but if they want the same kind of clout Astralis has they are going to have to beat them and do it in high pressure stage situations. 2020 is going to be a make or break year for Liquid.

2019-12-01 19:01