Virtus.pro win Liquid rematch to qualify for ESL Pro League playoffs

23-9-2023 21:22

Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali and company locked in third place in Group D after coming back from the brink of a two-map loss.

Jame stepped up on Ancient to force the Vertigo decider, where Virtus.pro swept Liquid aside

Virtus.pro are through to the playoffs at ESL Pro League Season 18 following a 2-1 win over Liquid in a lower bracket rematch from the opening round of Group D.

Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis and company fall to the Last Chance bracket, where they will need two best-of-three wins to secure the final playoffs spot on offer.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 18
24/09/2023	Lynn Vision 12:30 Liquid	Match

Although the deciding Vertigo was a one-way street, Virtus.pro had to sweat to earn the chance to go to three maps in the first place.

They got off into the series with a tough loss on Inferno, where a full eco win at 12-12 swung the map in Liquid's favor. Virtus.pro then faced a 10-14 deficit on Ancient but went on a six-round streak to force the decider off of superb play from Jame.

The round that turned the match

The comeback began with a close retake situation on B, where the Russian AWPer's late molotov ensured Virtus.pro's survival. Jame went on to put up seven more crucial kills in a much more comfortable final five rounds to complete the comeback.

"On Ancient I thought it will be GG already," Virtus.pro's coach, Dastan "⁠dastan⁠" Akbayev, admitted after the match.

"It felt like everything was under control, but anyway it was very stressful inside, so much pressure. When it was 14-14, it was full pressure, but we won the round and killed their economy," Petr "⁠fame⁠" Bolyshev added.

A swift win on Vertigo followed, ensuring Virtus.pro's second series victory over Liquid at the tournament, one that had special meaning to the team given their former teammate was sitting on the other side.

Against Mareks [YEKINDAR] it's always a very important match for us. It's always a super motivating game for us

Dastan "⁠dastan⁠" Akbayev

"It's nice that we won, because against Mareks [YEKINDAR] it's always a very important match for us. It's always a super motivating game for us," dastan shared. "Mareks knows how we play. We are like good guys, with structure, strats, and Mareks a bad guy — push, finding information, screaming, always focused, extra motivated, he will fight until the end."

ESL Pro League Season 18Best of 3

Virtus.pro

Matchpage

23rd September 2023

Liquid

Inferno

Ancient

Vertigo

Virtus.pro	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Dzhami 'Jame' Ali Jame	60 - 34	+26	67.5	80.0%	1.29
Nikolay 'mir' Bityukov mir	54 - 43	+11	72.3	76.2%	1.13
Evgenii 'FL1T' Lebedev FL1T	55 - 51	+4	78.9	68.8%	1.12
David 'n0rb3r7' Danielyan n0rb3r7	42 - 50	-8	69.5	73.8%	1.00
Petr 'fame' Bolyshev fame	43 - 50	-7	64.0	63.7%	0.92

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Josh 'oSee' Ohm oSee	52 - 50	+2	66.5	66.2%	0.99
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis YEKINDAR	41 - 55	-14	71.1	66.2%	0.94
Aleks 'Rainwaker' Petrov Rainwaker	44 - 49	-5	67.1	68.8%	0.92
Keith 'NAF' Markovic NAF	50 - 49	+1	64.2	72.5%	0.92
Robert 'Patsi' Isyanov Patsi	39 - 53	-14	55.4	70.0%	0.83

jame up! not in dpr tho

2023-09-23 21:22

2 replies

34 deaths LOL.

2023-09-23 21:33

1 reply

"I only need a few dozen of death to sit at the analyst desk as a man who has fought"

2023-09-23 21:36

FRAUDKINDAR STRIKES AGAIN OMEGALUL

Give Yekindar time, transitioning from fragger to IGL is difficult, a lot of new igls struggle, yekindar has potential for sure, let him gain experience.

2023-09-23 21:23

3 replies

no on HLTV you are not given reasonable time to develop, perform or minus threads will be created!

2023-09-23 21:40

or just exist. On HLTV you will be hated no matter what

2023-09-23 22:38

The problem is he's already been trying to IGL for Liquid, with and eventually against nitr0 before the change happened. He wanted to IGL so bad? He got it. He's had this squad for a few months now with poor early results, but the "it's still early" argument can only hold for so long. This roster started around late June. It's about four months later and they had so much practice time before EPL. There's so much pressure here. This is where they have to prove stroking snekindar's precious ego and letting him Dictator Allu for Liquid won't be an exact repeat of the ENCE situation where Allu got Aleksib out and they started failing. The excuses are wearing thin, especially when they drop games like this

2023-09-24 09:14

Liquid would have won if they stick to anubis. Ah whatever, Liquid have prertty easy matchups for the play-off qualification.

2023-09-23 21:29

4 replies

Ifs and Ifs and tons of excuses. VP just lipton'd your pretty Liquid and I'd like to hear a few nice words about VP, not those well known excuses, they deserved it. At least you showed up here in the first place, that's nice of you

2023-09-24 03:37

U wont hear any nice words about virtus fluke from me ever except for maybe that they are top 10 gatekeepers

2023-09-24 03:55

Deluisional

2023-09-24 10:02

I see, it's useless to talk to you then. Like a little child who's constantly offended at you. You can't objective and that's a harsh sentence

2023-09-25 03:19

2023-09-23 21:35

Nice & Stronk

2023-09-23 22:14

Liquid sold ancient

2023-09-23 22:44

chokequid

2023-09-23 23:27

A strong team needs to fix problems

2023-09-24 02:48

Nice Respect to yekindar from VP dastan : ""It's nice that we won, because against Mareks [YEKINDAR] it's always a very important match for us. It's always a super motivating game for us," dastan shared."

2023-09-24 03:00