EG defeat Liquid in BLAST Premier Spring Finals; to face MIBR in upper finals

Evil Geniuses made up for a slow start on Nuke against Liquid by picking up one-sided victories on Dust2 (16-8) and Inferno (16-6) to advance to the upper bracket final of the BLAST Premier Spring Americas Finals.

Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz's men went up against Liquid in the second upper bracket semi-final of the BLAST Premier Spring Finals, looking to finally score a series victory against their North American rivals after falling to them in their past six best-of-three match-ups.

It seemed that a win would not be in the cards for EG as Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski came out of the gates firing on all cylinders to help his side secure a relatively easy victory on Nuke, but a dominant Dust2 derby saw EG reply in swift fashion to even the series score. The decider map, Inferno, was far more one-sided as the Evil Geniuses gave Liquid few chances to get on the board, making up for a lacklustre beginning by giving up only one round in a streak of seventeen to secure victory.

EG picked Nuke to start the series, a map on which their roster held a 1-3 record against their North American counterparts due to a number of close shaves. This time around, the scoreline was rather lopsided as stellar individual showings from EliGE and Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella kept Liquid in control for much of the first half, with Evil Geniuses finding limited success on the lower bombsite to muster four rounds by the break.

A brief moment of respite was offered to EG as they secured the second pistol round, but hope quickly dwindled as a force-buy from Liquid swung momentum back in the favour of Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip and company. Although a Deagle triple kill from Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold allowed Evil Geniuses to respond in the ensuing round, Liquid's relentless rifling once again turned the tides, with the North American roster only conceding one additional round to EG before taking the map, 16-7.

Three frags from Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic kept Liquid ahead as Dust2 got underway, with Stewie2K adding multi-kills of his own to help his team up to a three-round head start. EG began to claw back, the AWP and Scout of Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov combining with the rifle of Ethan to help their team to seven rounds while Liquid only managed to add two thanks to a pair of 1vs2 clutches from NAF. However, a short back-and-forth at the end of the half allowed Liquid to add another two rounds to their count, leaving EG to edge out an 8-7 lead as the sides swapped over.

The second half unfolded in an entirely different fashion, kicking off with a triple kill from Ethan to give EG economic control. From there, the Evil Geniuses riflers combined with the AWP of CeRq to shut down Liquid's efforts to enter bombsites, seeing them take six rounds in a row to sit upon a 14-7 lead. Three frags from Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken helped Liquid recover a 3vs5 situation to get their first T round on the board, but a 1vs3 clutch on the B site from Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik in the following round quickly put EG upon match point, with the team closing out the map immediately after.

A triple kill in apartments from the Glock of Twistzz allowed Liquid another early lead on Inferno, taking five straight before Evil Geniuses were able to respond. From there though, Liquid rapidly lost their lustre, managing to only pick up one more round as EG cruised to a 16-6 victory off the back of strong showings from CeRq and Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte.