Liquid's new lineup earn first playoff berth over G2

The broadcast team opined that Liquid needed to show their worth at IEM Chengdu, and so far they have done so.

Liquid have bagged a first playoff berth for their new lineup, taking down G2 2-1 with victories on Ancient (13-6) and Inferno (13-9) coming either side of a loss on Anubis (10-13).

Multiple different members of the broadcast team have opined throughout IEM Chengdu thus far that Liquid have reached a point where their lineup needs to show some promise, with their disastrous RMR campaign still fresh in everyone's minds.

Liquid have answered the call by claiming a playoff berth over G2, and showing some fine CS in the process. Liquid easily could have taken the series 2-0, they earned six first half rounds on the CT side of Anubis, but ultimately powerful performances from Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic and Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken ensured a reasonably confident series victory.

On the other side of the server G2 continued to suffer from underperformances from their star players, outside of the ever-effervescent Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov. Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač was woeful on Ancient, Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač was terrible on Anubis, and no one outside of the young Russian AWPer produced much of worth throughout the series outside of the odd highlight moment.

Liquid now have a playoff campaign to look forward to, and they will play the winner of FURIA vs. MOUZ for a semi-final spot later in the week. G2 meanwhile will have to fight for their tournament lives in the lower bracket, beginning with a matchup against the winner of TYLOO vs. Lynn Vision.

Date	Matches
IEM Chengdu 2024
09/04/2024	G2 13:30 Lynn Vision	Match
10/04/2024	Liquid 10:30 MOUZ	Match

This series kicked off on Ancient, and Liquid made quick work of G2. A powerful T side predicated on well-layered bombsite hits gave way to confident CT-side holds, and G2 were just outclassed throughout.

Anubis began in much the same fashion, with Liquid in the ascendancy. The international squad raced out to a CT lead with a defensive approach that focused on bombsite holds and abandoned middle, but a m0NESY clutch rescued G2's T side for a 6-6 score. Liquid were far less accomplished on their own offense, and eventually slipped to a defeat.

Liquid started brightly once again on Inferno, with Twistzz's monstrous rifle work pushing his team to a 7-0 defensive lead. G2 produced a couple of clutch moments to turn man-down scenarios and muster some offensive rounds, before starting their own CT side brightly, but NAF and Twistzz were not to be denied and Liquid recovered to claim the series win.