Liquid dispatch of OG to make grand final in Abu Dhabi

Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski had a brilliant performance and was a thorn in OG's side all through the series.

Liquid defeated OG in the first semi-final match of the BLAST Premier World Final, beating the European combine with a 2-1 scoreline. They lost the first map of Overpass (16-12) before coming back on Inferno (16-10) and Anubis (16-7). Liquid are now on a collision course with the winner of the match between FaZe and G2, in the grand final of the $1,000,000 event happening on Sunday at 11:00 .

Liquid qualify for their second grand final of 2022 with the victory, and now have a chance to win their first LAN trophy since 2019 when they won IEM Chicago. OG will be pleased with their overall performance at the event despite the loss. The European combine will hope that their improved form in the last event of the year is not a blip but a sign of things to come in 2023.

The veto was an interesting one, as both teams share their permaban in Vertigo. Liquid decided to bite the bullet and ban the map in the first rotation, allowing OG to ban out Mirage which proved to be a weakness for the European combine in recent times, while Liquid average a 90% win rate on the map. That forced the North Americans into an Overpass pick, something that failed to work out for Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella and company.

Overpass began with nitr0 clutching a 1vs2 in the pistol round, but Liquid's lead didn't last long. OG fought back immediately by winning a force buy and started to run away at the start of their defensive half. Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov and Adam "⁠NEOFRAG⁠" Zouhar both found impact on the A site, allowing the European combine to make several stacks on the B site that enabled them to keep an upper hand in the economy. Liquid were unable to break through the OG defense and found just two opening kills in the half, going into the interval with a 4-11 deficit.

EliGE rained terror with his P2000 to secure the second pistol round for the North Americans, who strung together five rounds at the start of their defensive half. OG struggled to find inroads into the defense, with their one successful round being a slow creep into the B site. With the deficit down to just one, OG returned to the B site and finally strung together two rounds, bringing Liquid's economy to the breaking point at 14-11. Liquid kept themselves in the map for one more round, but an effective fake by Maciej "⁠F1KU⁠" Miklas shifted the defense just enough for Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis to run out of time for the defuse after killing the final Terrorist player to move the series to Inferno.

Liquid started their defense with a pistol round and conversion, with OG keeping the scores close by winning a contact play in the third round. That got OG the upper hand in the early game and allowed them to take an early lead. Liquid put up a buy together soon enough and retook the lead, finding themselves four rounds up in no time. With the OG T side looking out of ideas, degster stepped up with a triple to convert a 3vs5 situation to give his team a new lease of life, as they went into the defense just three rounds behind.

OG won their first pistol round of the series to start off their defense but failed to find much success in gun rounds. Liquid looked dominant all through the half, with YEKINDAR winning a 1vs1 clutch on just three HP. Liquid limited OG to just two rounds after their pistol win, forcing the decider of Anubis.

Liquid started Anubis dominantly, winning the pistol and converting it to a 6-0 lead without breaking a sweat. OG then started to attack the B site, first forcing Liquid into a save before degster clutched out an amazing 1vs4. Liquid showed resilience to not let that round break their mentality, as Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic won a clutch of his own to return the North Americans to winning ways. They won all but two rounds after that to go into the offense 11-4 up.

OG gave themselves a chance by winning the pistol round but won the next two rounds by the skin of their teeth — one just against Glocks. That cost them when they lost the first round of the half, going down 7-11 with a completely broken economy. Liquid took full advantage of that and won every round since that moment, ending up 16-7 winners and booking their spot in Sunday's grand final against either FaZe or G2.