Liquid stun Heroic in new lineup's biggest scalp yet

The North American side moves on to the quarter-finals after sweeping one of the tournament's biggest favorites.

In the biggest victory the new lineup has claimed so far since it was put together at the beginning of the year, Liquid has brought down the world's fifth-best team, HEROIC, in a 2-0 sweep in the opening round of the playoffs at ESL Pro League Season 15 (Ancient 16-9, Vertigo 16-10).

Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella's squad are now set on a collision course with Ninjas in Pyjamas in the quarter-finals, scheduled for Thursday at 19:00 , and will look to continue their successful campaign at the event on the back of the confidence-boosting round of 12 victory.

The Swedes have not been able to bring in their newest addition, Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin, for the bracket stage due to roster rules. They will continue to play with their previous lineup featuring Love "⁠phzy⁠" Smidebrant in the bracket stage in Düsseldorf.

Liquid picked Ancient to kick off the series. It was a map the North American side hadn't been particularly keen on during their early days or in the ESL Pro League group stage, but it proved to work for them in the opening round of the playoffs against the Danes thanks to a dominant CT side showing.

HEROIC looked in control in the first half outside of a four-round streak from nitr0's team and got away with nine rounds, but when they switched over to the offense they found Liquid's defense difficult to break through. Two quad-kills from Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski helped his squad amass early momentum in the second half, and Liquid went on to close the map without letting the Danes have a say on the back of two retakes, 16-9.

The favorites' Terrorist side struggles continued on Vertigo despite it being a map Liquid had had yet to play in Germany and one on which HEROIC likely expected to punish the North American team. According to nitr0 before the map and coach Eric "⁠adreN⁠" Hoag after, Liquid had put a lot of work in on the map since they last played it in the RMR open qualifiers, and it showed as the in-game leader and EliGE had the A ramp area on lockdown for the entire first half.

After another landslide of a half worth 11 rounds for Liquid, HEROIC hit the first prerequisite for a comeback with a 3v5 pistol round retake on B and closed the gap to just two rounds thanks to good rotations in late-round scenarios. In the end, however, Liquid managed to outsmart the Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller-led team after securing early advantages and closed the match before it got too close for comfort at 16-10.