Liquid defeat NAVI to secure semi-final spot in Abu Dhabi

Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy's men were eliminated in the first round of playoffs for the third event in a row.

Liquid secured a top-four spot at BLAST Premier World Final 2022 after a 2-1 victory against Natus Vincere, marking the second time the North Americans have won this matchup in the last month. The Ukrainian squad came into the tournament hoping to surprise their opponents with new setups and a sixth player, but failed to find success past the group stage.

Natus Vincere now enter the winter break with the lineup's future up in the air as the organization looks to decide on a permanent fifth player going into the new year. Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev and company have only secured one piece of silverware in 2022 from BLAST Spring Finals, a significant drop from the four LAN trophies they claimed in 2021.

Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella's squad will face OG in the first semi-final at the Etihad Arena on Saturday at 12:30 . The European mix has been the surprise package at this event despite the controversy surrounding their qualification, and now hope to secure their first LAN final appearance in 2022.

The series got started on Natus Vincere's pick of Overpass, and it was the Ukrainian squad to claim the early 4-1 advantage after converting a force buy thanks to a Five-SeveN quad-kill from Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev. Natus Vincere's streak was swiftly ended by Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis as the Latvian star opened up the B site with a hero AK on the sixth round, setting up the North American squad to take eight in a row.

Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski and YEKINDAR were the stars of the show, recording 1.61 and 1.54 ratings respectively while Liquid secured a 16-9 victory on their opponents' map pick. Natus Vincere looked incredibly disjointed throughout their offensive half and often lost rounds by running out of time or due to their inability to work around Liquid's utility.

Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic was Liquid's top performer at the World Final coming into this series, and he carried his good form into the T side of Ancient. The Canadian rifler topped the scoreboard during the offensive half, recording a 1.54 rating as Liquid easily conquered bombsites and forced Natus Vincere into saves on multiple occasions. Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov's men trailed 4-11 at halftime following a flat defensive performance.

Natus Vincere turned their fortunes around after the break on the back of Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy and Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy coming into their own on the offensive side. The rifle duo had a quiet series up to this point but started to find success on the offensive half of Ancient with clutches and important frags, powering the comeback from 4-13 all the way to 16-14.

The Ukrainian squad opened up the decider on Mirage by winning their fourth pistol round of the series to claim an early 2-0 advantage, but their offensive success was short-lived. Liquid quickly got their economy in shape and began to string together several CT rounds to overturn their deficit and claim a 10-5 lead before the break. Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm was fantastic to watch with the AWP on the A bombsite as he earned a 1.83 rating and a 19-7 K-D.

Liquid converted their halftime advantage into a victory this time around after a solid offensive performance from captain nitr0. The North American squad successfully closed the series on Mirage with a 16-9 scoreline despite electroNic and s1mple's heroics on the CT side.