Apeks eliminate Liquid to secure semi-final berth

19-5-2023 20:42

Apeks continue their crusade in Paris and are set to face off against Vitality on Saturday.

Apeks became BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 semi-finalists after besting Liquid in a two-map series. They comfortably won their pick of Ancient (16-10) before getting the job done on Overpass (16-12), with Tim "⁠nawwk⁠" Jonasson providing two crucial clutches to send his team to the Major semi-final.

Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad, who had a quiet game but showed up when it mattered, gave a post-match interview on stage. "It's been a while, I never expected to be in a semi-final again," he began to touch on returning to a Major for the first time since 2019. "We have been working our asses off and it pays off, I'm just super fucking proud."

On the game against the North Americans, he wanted to thank the whole team who prepared the quintet about every possibility. "We knew what was coming, so a big shoutout to our team, we had really good reads about what they were doing."

kyxsan led by example with a 1.34 rating

For Liquid, this is the end of an incredibly hot-and-cold Major. They fought back from 0-2 in the Challengers Stage and found form at the last possible moment to eventually secure a playoff berth, but fell short in the Accor Arena against an underdog in Apeks.

"This was an awesome Major, a crazy stage, and it sucks to not go any further," said Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski straight after elimination. "CS is always gonna be here, we're gonna be here for the next Major and hopefully be back on the stage."

The match between Apeks and Liquid started on Ancient, where the European combine previously won this matchup in the Challengers Stage. This time they were even more dominant, winning 16-10 after a dominant 11-4 offensive half.

Overpass was a much closer affair, and Apeks first needed Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski to carry them through the CT half with 21 kills and a 2-04 rating — an incredible feat considering the Macedonian is the IGL of the team. Once on the T side, it was nawwk's time to shine with two clutches that set their victory in stone and move them on to the semifinal, where they will face Vitality.

BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023Best of 3

Liquid

Matchpage

19th May 2023

Apeks

Ancient

Overpass

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis YEKINDAR	41 - 39	+2	83.1	71.7%	1.19
Keith 'NAF' Markovic NAF	35 - 36	-1	75.3	75.5%	1.05
Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski EliGE	32 - 36	-4	68.2	73.6%	1.00
Nick 'nitr0' Cannella nitr0	27 - 38	-11	63.7	71.7%	0.86
Josh 'oSee' Ohm oSee	31 - 33	-2	53.7	71.7%	0.84

Apeks	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski kyxsan	49 - 34	+15	88.4	81.1%	1.34
Tim 'nawwk' Jonasson nawwk	39 - 24	+15	67.8	81.1%	1.30
Martin 'STYKO' Styk STYKO	37 - 36	+1	88.3	67.9%	1.02
Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad jkaem	33 - 36	-3	68.6	67.9%	1.01
Justinas 'jL' Lekavicius jL	23 - 37	-14	57.7	75.5%	0.87

letsgo!

2023-05-19 20:43

2 replies

lets go Apex vs Apeks derby

2023-05-19 20:46

1 reply

Questionmark

2023-05-19 22:57

Insane, gj apeks

its time TL CS2 coming out , move on from Maldlige , he`s done for. Get a better awper and some other rifler too , or just cut Yekindar and NAF so they can save their careers. GJ by Apeks, but this was one of the worst performance by TL ever.

2023-05-19 20:44

16 replies

I came up with the idea of Yekindar moving to Faze (karrigan out), they would again get more firepower and reboost their game back to 2022 peak form? Of course depending on what Yekindars role in calling and being igl actually was. If he grows in that regard I think it would be cool to see Faze with his entries! Very unlikely but would be cool, also just waiting to see how Faze and Liquid will move forward in to CS2 and the final CSGO tournaments

2023-05-19 20:57

11 replies

To Vitality instead of maldpex

2023-05-19 21:30

6 replies

0/8

2023-05-19 21:38

aPEX got a pretty good gamesense, he always helps his teammates. He's everywhere supporting. Utility player. Why would you add yekindar to that system? Nonsense.

2023-05-19 21:59

4 replies

What are you talking about? Apex is probably the worst igl right now cost Vitality multiple titles. He is getting carried by Zywoo.

2023-05-19 22:25

He has been awful for ages, don't act as if he has been thriving for ages, Vitality have had absolutely horrible results up until recently in proportion to the talent that is stacked in this team. Now maybe not be the best moment when they finally are getting their sh*t together but if they go into another slump after the Major he is the first that needs to go.

2023-05-19 22:28

I'm not acting. He's really present for his teammates and is well aware of the raw skill the team has. In this regard he administrates utility and makes space for rotations to be more fluent, he won't peek and maintain angles for no reason even if regular non-logical hltv people think he's throwing, that he lacks. Keeps the team in a confort zone of its own. You can't just analyze him on raw stats and he ain't that bad either. I've read people defending way worse igls...

2023-05-20 00:18

What ? He won't overpeek ??? Please delete your account and go get your eyes checked because he single handlely throws rounds ( CT ) on a daily basis, and that is a widely established fact. Even xtqzzz who was his coach for 2+ years on Vitality commented on his overpeeking tmes and times again. Not to mention he is raging way too much when as a captain he should be collected to calm his mates. And I won't even start on his individual skill which is awful nowadays... Apart from a few flashbacks of his entry days he misses a lot of spray, even on people that aren't looking at him... He isn't the worst IGL either, and I give him that he is a really hardworker, but he is past it let's be honest. Now that Vitality is an inter team there is no reason other than him being pals with NEO and ZywOo to keep him. If he is so good he shouldn't have trouble finding a tier 1 team once he is out of Vitality. Hint : he won't , and will end up in a tier 2.5 team liké Falcons at best. PS : did you miss the ESL short video where they itw tier 1 IGL and coaches to ask what they think about him and some of them litterally laugh while borderly calling him retarded ( in his IGLing ) ?

2023-05-20 01:40

Maybe Jackzz instead of rain

2023-05-19 23:33

That's really not a smart take man. Karrigan state that he wants to continue and resign with Faze. How would yekindar even fit in?

2023-05-20 00:15

Karrigan could coach and yekindar replace him as igl/entry. Makes sense actually.

2023-05-20 11:37

yekindar need a CIS team again

2023-05-20 01:00

-npl +Yekindar

2023-05-19 22:58

3 replies

Now this is logical

2023-05-19 23:05

Indeed, hard to disagree

2023-05-20 01:15

+1 Electronic can go fragging again

2023-05-20 04:18

Next move from nip : bring back nawwk kkk

5 replies

Hhahaha, nah but headtr1ck is good enough, but that team is a mess in general

2023-05-19 21:37

Yeah cause of 3 unmotivated riflers

2023-05-19 23:28

Sadge but true I honestly think they just need a whole rework :/ Also nawwk enjoyer his 6k on vert is still so insane :P Hope you have a lovely day further mens)) stay safe and hydrated <3

2023-05-19 23:30

Bruu headtr1ck was a one man army vs apeks 1.47 on ancient and rez trolling again

2023-05-20 01:01

Headtrick was doing fine considering he is a rookie

2023-05-20 03:05

liquid needs a real awper any awper they shoud get?

9 replies

Yeah, nitr0 is an excellent awper.

junior has been dominating t2 recently. I'm confident he could outperform oSee

Lmao why? Osee never was the problem.

2023-05-19 21:00

Some CiS talent ? An aggro one like degster would be perfecto, or even better the return of the problemchild s1mple ?

2023-05-19 21:31

R1nkle

2023-05-19 21:52

Regali

2023-05-19 22:46

Liquid needs to know how to fucking use an awper they never had a good awper even during their ‘era’ nitro no clue how to play around one

2023-05-19 23:07

Typical issue for there top 10ish teams tbh

2023-05-19 23:11

Mantuu

2023-05-20 09:19

if tomorrow they gonna eliminate vitality too im not gonna suprised at all

Liquid has 0 intricate calling. Apeks just assumed where smokes or flashes go liquid is going to attack that site, and it works 95% of the time. The only reason liquid win against better teams is the higher rated teams think too much of liquid and overthink it. Apeks kept it simple and read nitr0 and liquid like a book.

2023-05-19 20:52

10 replies

what is the fix? -nitro -oSee get REAL IMPACT awper and igl

2023-05-19 20:50

Yeah they need to have some mixups and speed on T side, with real fakes and rotations sometimes. Osee sucks but he sometimes has games where he does decent to give him some defense of not being kicked, which is unfortunate since he should have been kicked like 6 months ago.

it's too late for fixes now. There's gonna be a new game. This was the last cs go major. Liquid blew it. No point in even talking about fixes. See you in Washington for BLAST spring final liquid. lol

Oh now its Nitr0's calls when they lose. Yekindar only calls when they win. Scapegoating is a sign of weakness.

2023-05-19 20:51

nitr0 and yekindar are both shit. One is washed the other makes 3 good plays and then throws the next 5 plays...don't get me started on oSee

7-0 in entry frags at one point lmao. keep talking shit

Also yekindar is entry and like many entry players he will have "stupid" plays to create space

2023-05-19 23:10

Remember when all the igl's made a video at that one event rating every other igl on how frustrating they are to play against and everyone put nitro as easy to call against? I member

You must have missed that Yekindar is calliing here. They got beat pretty badly. Their Tsides wers terrible today.

I'm not sure which maps yekindar or nitro was calling today. But this definitely seemed like nitro calling. Yekindar calling is much faster on T side

2023-05-19 21:03

being an NACS fan is painful and i am not going to stop.

Wish you the best for all the pain you will feel in the future, stay strong

thanks scotty, you too with your neighbours.

2023-05-19 20:53

-nitr0 +MisteM -YEKINDAR +Twistzz (come back goat) -oSee +device

2023-05-19 20:47

Nice to see better team winning. So many upsets this major.

crowdcheating and getting karma

2023-05-19 20:48

Idk

“FalleN was the problem”

Goatsee strikes again.

I'm glad to see teams like GameLegion and Apeks shine and develop, also ITB and Monte ..It's about time that we see new faces kick some ass. Well played Apeks, and with that being said... TL - kick yekindar and oSee please and make EliGE wake up or else kick him as well.

Also naf wants to play in eu team

I'd be very happy to see that happen !

2023-05-20 12:47

based

atleast liquid got to go to disney land in their player break between groups and playoffs, good thing they didnt prep or change anything about ancient for their apeks rematch :(

classic

2023-05-19 20:55

Insane!

2023-05-19 20:56

Who else made superteam for fantasy from Faze and Liquid players? Mine: nitr0 oSee broky Ropz And extra CRUC1AL, cause frsgged a lot in legends stage...unluko

2023-05-19 20:58

- elige - osee - nitro + brehze + cooper + junior

2023-05-19 21:05

GG <3

2023-05-19 21:06

its APEKS day! great play 1st time scene playing for some guys and thats result

16-11 on overpass not 16-12

2023-05-19 21:09

Dude what? That's awesome

2023-05-19 21:11

Liquid got beat by a better team. They get the hype just cuz they’re NA. Overrated

2023-05-19 21:13

I picked Apeks ionstead of Liquid on my pick ems gg

2023-05-19 21:15

great performance by Apeks ! Lets gooooo !

2023-05-19 21:35

European domination. Nothing new to see here.

2023-05-19 21:36

J-14Legend

2023-05-19 21:46

best player from the only NA team is from latvia :P

2023-05-19 22:12

Liquid are really bad...

2023-05-19 22:39

Liquid losing to tier 2. Nothing new...

2023-05-19 23:15

They might have a better chance against heroic or vitality, but zero chance against t2 like GL or these guys

2023-05-19 23:29

That might be true because of the playstyle. But honestly Liquid didn't show up at all as a team. If they played like In legends stage they should have been able to win that match. No one showed up, they played scared on second map. And Apeks believed in their heavy antistratting and liquid weren't able to adjust.

2023-05-20 00:20

yeah, if nosee was playing decent and elige up to his normal standards then theyd win it without needing yekindar going beastmode. but at the same time, its very clear these t2 teams love getting aggro and push down deep more often than not, so its just puzzling to me why so called t1 teams are caught off guard by it 80% of the time. they should be prepared for it.

2023-05-20 01:41

I don't get it either, how all the t1 were constantly surprised by the aggro plays etc.

2023-05-22 23:07

LULQUID ROFL

2023-05-19 23:57

happy for Apeks

2023-05-19 23:58

Called it, liquid r shitters in beds

2023-05-20 00:04

Botsee

2023-05-20 00:05

expected better from liquid that game was just sad

2023-05-20 00:24

let's go Apeks.. time to beat the other apEX and WIN THIS MAJOR

2023-05-20 00:35

even with cheating lolquid cant do shi7 x]

2023-05-20 00:39

NACS..

2023-05-20 01:13

If Gamerlegion beats Heroic or Apeks beats Vitality want to just make it so this major is void and doesn't count?

2023-05-20 01:35

-EliGE +Twistzz -oSee +dev1ce Boom, a top contending Liquid

2023-05-20 03:40

Why would twistzz downgrade tho

2023-05-20 06:59

When will Elige get kicked?

2023-05-20 11:09

<3 Apeks

2023-05-20 05:16

Did anyone really doubt that this was gonna happen

2023-05-20 05:50

not really:D pretty obv

2023-05-20 13:42

Lol

2023-05-20 06:40

GG!

2023-05-20 07:12

aperks gl lmao

2023-05-20 08:09

nawwk impressive

2023-05-20 09:04

this major is just crazy lmao

2023-05-20 09:57

STYKOLA KOVAC DOES IT AGAIN

2023-05-20 11:08

Yekindar cheated twice and still lost lol

2023-05-20 11:14

ez berth for apeks

2023-05-20 12:30

Honestly I'm just surprised to see jkaem still being around, let alone in a major semi

2023-05-20 13:55

I got another headline: NA is a joke and here's why

2023-05-20 15:07

NA trash goes onto de_airport as per usual

2023-05-20 15:36

lets go boys!

2023-05-20 16:03

This Apeks team is looking insanely good, insane composure of youngsters with veterans, I think they're a really scary team, they absolutely deserve to be in the semi-final, I think they can make it even further, I expect a great battle with Vitality. Happy for kuben and the boys, Let's go guys!

2023-05-20 17:05