Liquid eliminate 00NATION in three-map marathon match

The Brazilian squad led by Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo exit the million-dollar competition without a win.

Liquid and 00NATION battled it out in the first set of IEM Cologne's Group B elimination matches. After three extremely hard-fought maps, Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella and company emerged victorious over their Brazilian counterparts, narrowly dropping Overpass 22-25 after triple OT before winning an extremely close Mirage 19-17 and taking Ancient 16-8 to end the series and cap off the reverse-sweep.

After reaching the main group stage of IEM Cologne through the Play-In, 00NATION's newly-fielded roster bow out of the tournament without picking up a single win, suffering a 0-2 defeat at the hands of world No. 1 FaZe and falling to Liquid in their gut-wrenchingly close lower bracket elimination series after giving it their all.

Overpass was a tightly-contested affair early on, both teams keeping it competitive with highlights of their own as the pair of Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis and Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski posted multi-kills to help Liquid, and a Santino "⁠try⁠" Rigal AWP double brought 00NATION back level after six rounds. After that, it was mostly Liquid for the remainder of the half, whose lockdown defense and superb individual play proved to be too much for 00NATION's offense as the North Americans entered the switch up 11-4.

00NATION kicked things up a notch in the second period, winning four of the first five rounds, including a full-eco, reducing Liquid's lead to four. EliGE pulled off a quad-kill and 1vs2 clutch in the 21st to stop 00NATION's momentum, but the Brazilians would continue their resurgence and eventually found themselves within a round of tying the game up once again.

Even though Liquid clinched map point at 15-13, 00NATION's run of momentum and stellar defense prevented the North Americans from taking home the win in regulation, forcing overtime. Three sets of extra time and countless frags later, 00NATION successfully secured the comeback over Liquid and took home Overpass, 25-22.

Similar to the first map, both 00NATION and Liquid kept things tight-knit as they reached a 7-7 stalemate at the end of 14 rounds, with Liquid being the ones to claim the 8-7 score and a slight advantage entering halftime. The first 15 rounds were definitely not void of any firepower, Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David dropping back-to-back triple-kills and EliGE picking up a quad along the way.

Even after swapping sides, neither of the pair could get a significant edge over the other, with any lead 00NATION's T side could gain immediately erased and matched by Liquid on the defense. The Brazilians took map point first at 15-13, but Liquid's defense stood strong with heroic performances from Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic and EliGE, forcing overtime on Mirage. In the end, Liquid converted overtime into a win on their map pick, setting up a decider on Ancient.

Keeping up with the theme of the first two maps, 00NATION and Liquid yet again trading blows and exchanging scoring runs, with Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm's AWPing proving to be impactful as the North Americans kept a tight grasp on their narrow single-round lead after nine. Consistently finding good looks while keeping 00NATION's attacks at bay, Liquid rallied behind their young AWPer and were able to pull ahead, reaching a double-digit score heading into the second period up 10-5.

It was full steam ahead for Liquid coming out of the break, staying consistent all throughout their T side and not allowing 00NATION to catch back up, going on to claim Ancient and the series to send the Brazilians home.