OG's individuals shine as they defeat Liquid 2-0

Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković, Adam "⁠NEOFRAG⁠" Zouhar and Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov overpowered their NA counterparts.

OG took a solid 2-0 victory over Liquid to open their BLAST Premier Spring Groups campaign, crushing the North American side 16-6 on Ancient before squeaking a 22-20 victory on Nuke.

OG's Casper "⁠ruggah⁠" Due spoke in a mid-series interview about how nexa had been moved to more controlling positions during their off-season practice, and the change seemed to bear fruit in their first game of the season as the Serbian was in superlative form.

He was not the only individual on fire for OG, with degster and NEOFRAG also fragging out. NEOFRAG stated in a pre-game interview that OG had been averaging 100 in-game hours per week since World Finals last year, and it seems this time has been well spent.

Liquid took a risk in the veto by going for Nuke as their pick, a map the team hasn't played since 2021 but they presumably worked on in the player break. The concept was understandable, as OG did at times look uncomfortable in mid and late-round situations on a map they also hadn't played for nearly a year, but it did not ultimately pay off. It will be interesting to see if Liquid persist with this apparent attempt to play all seven maps in the pool.

The series kicked off on Ancient, with OG starting their map pick on the CT side, and they battled to a 3-0 lead early doors. A Tec-9 force from Liquid gave way to the North American side levelling up the score and this back-and-forth exchange continued for the early stages of the half, with both teams squandering opportunities to take control of the economy and build up a lead. Eventually OG settled on their defence and found the answer to Liquid's low-economy B hits, with nexa in particular standing tall to provide the firepower needed, driving his team to a 10-5 advantage at halftime.

A pacy doughnut rush was converted by nexa in the clutch to put his squad firmly in the driver's seat at the start of their T side, and Liquid couldn't find the stalwart defence necessary to repel OG. OG did require a stellar 1v2 clutch from degster to keep the ball rolling, but ultimately they strolled to a comfortable 16-6 victory to open the series.

Nuke began with Liquid on the T side, and they opened their offense with a successful rush of the upper site, only to squander the second round after finding two opening kills in lower tunnels. nexa once again provided some defensive muscle to help get his team to 3-1, but Liquid pulled out another successful upper rush to swing the momentum back in their favour. Much like the early stages of Ancient a back-and-forth battle ensued, degster often finding huge impact with the AWP only for OG to waste the opportunities with shoddy mid and late-round rotations. Eventually OG's individuals took over, with nexa and NEOFRAG finding key contributions, to ensure a 9-6 lead going into the second period.

Liquid's CT side started with confidence, the North American side swatting aside an upper hit on the pistol and converting that to a 10-9 scoreline. OG were able to find traction and kills early in rounds, but much like the first half their mid-late round play let them down. Just as it seemed Liquid would run away with things Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm fluffed his lines in a late-round clutch scenario, dying when OG had no time to put the bomb down to let his opponents back into the game. Rounds were traded in the dying stages as OG's improved T side was finally converting their openings, and the game eventually went to overtime.

OG carried their offensive improvement into OT, picking up the first two rounds and only missing out on the final one to a last-second defuse. They found their efforts answered in kind by Liquid, the NA side putting together some excellent late-round rotations to manipulate the defence, but NEOFRAG crushed a play through secret in the final round to take the game to a second OT.

CT-side aggression was the name of the game for OG in the second OT, with Liquid repelling it at the first time of asking only for OG to succeed with their next two attempts. By this point the map had devolved into a fiesty affair, rounds coming down to individual duels more than anything else, and it was OG who managed to come out on top on their offense, closing the map out 22-20.

OG move on to face FaZe in the upper final on Sunday at 15:00 , whilst Liquid head to the lower final to face Complexity on the same day at 18:30 .