ENCE send Liquid packing from Gamers8

16-8-2023 22:52

ENCE will lock horns with Cloud9 on Friday in the $1 million tournament's quarter-finals.

NertZ put up a 1.85 rating on Anubis to gift his team the victory

ENCE have ousted Liquid and advanced to the quarter-finals at Gamers8 in Saudi Arabia after prevailing in a two-map series, snatching away victory after a trip to overtime on Vertigo (19-17) before wrapping the series up in commanding fashion on Anubis (16-5).

ENCE, now sitting at No. 4 on the world ranking, traveled to Gamers8 as one of the favorites thanks to their runners-up finish at IEM Cologne and first-place showing at IEM Dallas. The international cohort showcased their world-class form in their comfortable win on Anubis, and will have their sights firmly set on making back-to-back Big Event grand finals as they meander their way through the single-elimination bracket in Riyadh. Their next test is against Cloud9 in the quarter-finals on Friday at 16:30 .

Date	Matches
Gamers8 2023
18/08/2023	Cloud9 17:10 ENCE	Match

"We had a good day. On Anubis, we felt like the communication was good, the game plan was on point, so everyone just felt the game and it was really good," Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz said in a concise summary of ENCE's 2-0 victory in a post-match interview with James "⁠BARDOLPH⁠" Bardolph and Alex "⁠hawka⁠" Hawkins.

The series began on Liquid's pick of Vertigo, and it was the now-European squad who enjoyed the better start, strong fragging from Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm and Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis splitting open ENCE's defensive lines and allowing the side to lead 8-7 at the internal. ENCE did wake up once it was their turn to attack and raced to a 13-9 scoreline to inch closer to victory, but this all proved to be in vain as Liquid dug deep to fend off defeat and sprint to map point, 15-13.

Liquid's grip wasn't firm, however, with a clinical two-round spree by ENCE forcing a trip to overtime. There, it was ENCE who continued to pile on the pressure, finding a way to keep oSee and his 32-kill performance at bay in the nick of time to eke out victory, 19-17, and send the series to Anubis.

While Vertigo was a back-and-forth affair, Anubis turned out to be the complete opposite. ENCE dominated from start to finish, with NertZ and Paweł "⁠dycha⁠" Dycha joining forces with 32 kills to power their team to a comfortable 12-3 lead by the end of their T-side campaign. From there, and with confidence pumping through the veins, it was only a matter of time before the IEM Cologne silver medalists closed out the map, 16-5, and the series, 2-0.

Gamers8 2023Best of 3

Liquid

Matchpage

16th August 2023

ENCE

Vertigo

Anubis

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Josh 'oSee' Ohm oSee	50 - 34	+16	82.8	64.9%	1.28
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis YEKINDAR	41 - 42	-1	92.9	68.4%	1.16
Keith 'NAF' Markovic NAF	34 - 37	-3	65.1	71.9%	0.94
Robert 'Patsi' Isyanov Patsi	32 - 42	-10	60.7	61.4%	0.79
Aleks 'Rainwaker' Petrov Rainwaker	17 - 44	-27	54.9	61.4%	0.61

ENCE	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Guy 'NertZ' Iluz NertZ	51 - 33	+18	94.2	73.7%	1.37
Paweł 'dycha' Dycha dycha	43 - 35	+8	83.4	73.7%	1.24
Álvaro 'SunPayus' García SunPayus	39 - 33	+6	71.3	71.9%	1.12
Pavle 'Maden' Bošković Maden	36 - 35	+1	67.2	61.4%	1.02
Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer Snappi	30 - 38	-8	67.2	64.9%	0.86

EZ4ENCE

2023-08-16 22:54

3 replies

"we changed players to win championships" lmao

2023-08-16 23:06

2 replies

One win and one final, not bad

2023-08-17 06:28

1 reply

Obv he means Liquid bro

2023-08-17 08:48

sad

This roster is dead and walking, my guess is they kick Rainwaker for an igl But Yekindar’s ego is too big so he’ll probably never give up igl Paid $50k/month to kill the team

2023-08-17 00:16

hopefully -yeki -rainw

patsi has been igl before, if they kick rainwaker and drag in igl then yeki and patsi will have role clash both ct+t

2023-08-17 01:22

Ence are trash will get exposed again soon

Bruh

2023-08-16 23:16

tell me Liquid didnt really ditch NA for this EU roster.

2023-08-16 22:55

4 replies

Liquid ditch NA for this egokindar. Me, Yekindar, me can igl. Nitro igling was bad, we lost many rounds. Me, not responsible, only nitro. Me, great igl, me like Jame.

2023-08-17 04:24

yes yes they lost because of yekindar, not because of rainwaker, unironically tho replace him with buster and liquid will be better lul

2023-08-17 13:28

Tbf yekindar as an igl is a waste of talent. He is an average igl at best while patsi is not doing better than elige. He is not renplacing yekindar for the firepower Rainwaker is .. bad too. Naf is good anchor on some maps, very bad on others. No one is really stepping. Osee is not monesy,zywoo whatever type of awper.

2023-08-17 14:02

they need time my man, yekindar is good, but what he can do when his anchor on vertigo shits pants all the time. btw people who say -osee are clueless

2023-08-17 23:01

SAVE OSEE

2023-08-16 22:56

Rainwanker

2023-08-16 22:58

NA liquid >>>>>>>> EU shitquid

2023-08-16 22:59

100%

2023-08-17 02:40

2023-08-17 09:38

Liquid has only one good player, rapha.

2023-08-17 20:13

oSee finally has a good game and the rest of Liquid don't show up. ENCE look terrifying - the next game should be an absolute corker of a match.

2023-08-16 23:04

5 replies

People kept saying oSee was holding Liquid back, but he wasn't. He usually showed up and performed well in most matches. He's not the best AWPer - definitely not close to ZyWoO, but if the rest of Liquid could put up some numbers more consistently, then they'd win more often. I hate to say it, but I have yet to see an example of a pro player who was a fragger that turned into a good IGL who could maintain their fragging abilities. Look at pro fraggers who tried to IGL - it has not ended well, and when they went back to fragging full time, they returned to their previous form. Some examples are NiKo in his MOUZ days, mezzii before he joined FNATIC to become their IGL and him after he finally got relieved of his IGLing duties, and now YEKINDAR. YEKINDAR is and will always be a terrible IGL. I don't know why he wanted to become one, but it's clearly not working out despite his persistence. He needs to swallow his pride and go back to fragging like he used to back in his Virtus Pro days. The only passable example is Electronic, though he's still a much better fragger than he is an IGL. Leave IGLing to someone whose mechanics just aren't up to par because they won't lose much in terms of fragging ability to begin with when they have to manage a team's play style.

2023-08-17 02:33

I think blamef has been pretty decent as a fragging igl in astralis, his calling is pretty good and he has good stats on top of that. Might not fit into criteria because he was an igl in complexity, but still.

2023-08-17 07:58

Oh crap, I totally forgot about blameF. Thank you for mentioning him! I definitely agree that blameF is a successful fragger-turned-IGL.

2023-08-17 13:26

Blamef is pretty fire though.

2023-08-17 09:47

You are correct - I totally agree with you! Thank you for reminding me as I totally forgot about him.

Things you love to see: it.

save noSee!

2023-08-16 23:13

unluck

2023-08-16 23:17

expected EZ4ENCE

They could bullcrap all they want about a "hand-picked player by players and staff" but Liquid wont convince anyone they knew what they were doing with the rainwaker addition. Probably just a desperate move to become European. Liquid is also one of the biggest orgs in the world so why didnt they just buy for example kyxsan so the arrogant Yekindar could return one role that made him one of the best players in the world?

2023-08-16 23:24

what an absolute joke - we knew this roster was going to amount to nothing but for some reason liquid management put too much belief into yekindar/NAF for an EU move. this eu roster is worse than the NA roster - rainwaker just can't hang at this level, and it's severely hurting liquid. if no improvement next tournament, changes will be made 100%, no doubt.

2023-08-16 23:25

Man even elige wasn't this bad

Elige had to go though - he just wasn't cutting it. I don't know if Rainwaker and Patsi were the right moves, but I'd personally give them 2-3 more months before making any roster changes. If Liquid want to go back to their winning ways though, they need to put YEKINDAR back on fragging duties and find a dedicated IGL first and foremost.

2023-08-17 02:34

not surprised

2023-08-16 23:50

NA Liquid would've done better LMAO

2023-08-17 00:07

good I hope liquid continue losing like this

2023-08-17 00:14

awesome from nertz i'm rooting for ENCE this tourney!!

2023-08-17 00:21

everything is going according to plan for the Stewie NA savior comeback

2023-08-17 00:26

2023-08-17 12:29

Trash tournament format where teams have to fly home just after losing 1 match. Environmental pollution

2023-08-17 00:31

-iM +Yekindar

2023-08-17 00:38

But Navi spent 900k on iM so they’re not kicking him anytime soon

2023-08-17 02:45

Do u also believe in Santa Clause?

2023-08-23 17:29

don't waste navi with egokindar. iM is a better teamplayer than yekindar

2023-08-17 04:22

Rainwaker was a mistake. Also, Yekindar as an IGL is a wasted firepower.

2023-08-17 02:18

I don't know if Rainwaker was a mistake, so I'd personally give him 2-3 more months to see if he can adapt and step up to playing Tier 1 CS. As for YEKINDAR, I agree with you 110% that he's a terrible IGL and should immediately go back to solely fragging and holding W like he used to.

2023-08-17 02:35

Let's go liquid! keep it up!!

2023-08-17 05:22

What could go possibly wrong with adding rainwaker and patsi? Well...

2023-08-17 08:34

cant believe Osee has to play with this, save my man

2023-08-17 12:08

i hope people who shittalk yekindar and liquid realize that this team is still new with 2 players who never played in internatinal teams before outside your average faceit pug. when dupreeh and magisk joined vitality, they needed one year and one more replacement to be relevant. Everyone were laughing at vitality and look at them now.

2023-08-17 13:32