Liquid take down MIBR in ESL One: Road to Rio

Liquid edged out MIBR on Dust2 (16-12) and Inferno (16-13) to go 2-0 in the North American division of ESL One: Road to Rio.

Liquid once again bested MIBR in a best-of-three series, this time in Group B of the North America ESL One: Road to Rio division, with the Brazilians yet to notch a map over the North Americans in three attempts since adding Ignacio "⁠meyern⁠" Meyer to the roster.

This time around, MIBR struggled to mute outstanding individual performances from Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski and Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic on Dust2 and Inferno, respectively, as the two players spearheaded Liquid to a 2-0 victory.

MIBR opened up their map pick of Dust2 with a pistol victory on the CT side, but Liquid responded with upgraded pistols to take an early 3-1 advantage. A double AWP setup from Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo and Vito "⁠kNgV-⁠" Giuseppe created temporary problems for Liquid, who struggled to find an answer as MIBR reclaimed the lead. A NAF 1v3 levelled the score, with the North American squad winning four of the following five rounds to tally their T side score to eight. However, MIBR ground out the remaining two rounds to head into halftime hot on Liquid’s heels.

An EliGE 1v2 clutch and the subsequent round extended Liquid’s advantage, but a MIBR MAC-10 force buy kicked off a string of four rounds for the Brazilians, who took a 11-10 lead. With proceedings looking gloomy, EliGE stepped up to post numerous multi-kill rounds and launch Liquid to a 16-12 victory, capping off his performance with a 31-17 KDD and 109 ADR.

Liquid came storming out of the gates on Inferno with a 5-0 lead on the Terrorist side before MIBR could post their first round. A FalleN 1v2 doubled the Brazilians' scoreline, but an unlikely 2v5 conversion swung the momentum back in favour of the North American squad. A phenomenal 1v4 clutch from NAF continued to pad his side’s lead as Liquid blazed to a 9-2 advantage. However, MIBR tightened up their defence in the final four rounds to narrow the score difference to 6-9 at the halfway mark.

With defeat on the horizon, MIBR continued to build on their late momentum from the closing stage of the first half, with the team firing on all cylinders to claim a 13-10 lead and edge towards tying the series. Liquid refused to let a third map come to fruition, however, recomposing to secure six consecutive rounds to overcome the Brazilians.