Liquid advance to ESL Pro League NA grand final over Evil Geniuses

Liquid came out on top two close maps against Evil Geniuses in the upper bracket final of ESL Pro League Season 11 North America, clinching a spot in the grand final.

Having beaten Evil Geniuses once before in the group stage in a closely-contested series a week ago, Liquid confirmed their dominance over their regional rivals with their seventh consecutive series victory against the former NRG core dating back to late 2018.

EG have thus fallen to the consolidation final, in which they will take on FURIA on Saturday at 22:00 in a showdown for the second grand final spot.

A strong start on the offensive side of Nuke saw Evil Geniuses capitalize on Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold's 1v2 clutch in the pistol round, as despite an anti-halfbuy loss in the fifth round the Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz-led squad dominated with a 7-1 scoreline.

Liquid managed to recover, however, adding five more rounds to their tally by the end of the half before also securing the second pistol round, with which they went on to pick up their first lead at 12-11. An unlikely pistol buy win then propelled EG within two rounds of victory, but that was ultimately snatched away by their opponents after Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella's team defended four in a row.

Dust2 went in a very similar fashion, except with roles reversed. It was Liquid on the CT side who got off to an amazing start despite losing a second-round antiforcebuy, but despite being down 2-9 Evil Geniuses found an avenue back into the game on the back of Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov's 1v2 clutch.

5-10 at halftime, EG brought the map to nearly even keel when they got on the defense, but they couldn't finish off the job, in the end. At 13-12, Liquid finally found a way through, bringing down their North American rivals 16-12, 2-0.