Liquid outlast FURIA after YEKINDAR resurgence

Liquid recovered from losing their map pick with aplomb.

Liquid survived a test from FURIA in their opening match of ESL Pro League Season 19 and have advanced in the upper bracket of Group C, with a match against Monte for a spot in the playoffs next in the cards.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 19
01/05/2024	Monte 19:35 Liquid	Match

It was a bit of a revenge match for the team around the Dutch organization since FURIA had beaten Liquid in a BO1 at the PGL Major Americas RMR, casting the team down to the elimination pool where they lost to Complexity and missed out on the world championship in Copenhagen.

This time, however, FURIA were playing with academy member Kayke "⁠kye⁠" Bertolucci, and the newcomer simply couldn't rise to the occasion despite a handful of good rounds, recording a bottom-of-the-board rating in the series and struggling to adapt late into maps.

Read more

FalleN: "With more autonomy and responsibility, I really want to leave my mark here during the next year"

Liquid had looked much better at IEM Chengdu and eyes were on them to see whether they carried that form into Pro League, but all the while pundits and fans have continued to question Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis and Felipe "⁠skullz⁠" Medeiros's levels for a team expected to contend for trophies in the near future.

The latter has steadily been working to shrug off those doubts and prove worthy of his reported $600,000 buyout, but on the other side, YEKINDAR has struggled.

The Latvian is Liquid's only truly aggressive space-maker, a role they direly need in an otherwise passive team. Thus, it particularly stands out when his plays and decisions aren't working as it hands over advantages, and his start to this series was a poor answer to those conversations as FURIA repeatedly shut him down.

"I think we're like 50%, honestly," Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller said regarding his team's level on the broadcast after the game. "There's plenty of room for improvement for understanding, for more teamplay, for better team culture, there's still so many things that can be improved. At least right now we're not fucking horrible, we are getting to be a little bit more average, but I still think there's room to go.

"Like you said, Chengdu was a really good performance, now we need to make sure it's not just a one off, more like that's the base level we want to be at. Reaching playoffs here would be a good start, and then I think it's about who you draw in the playoffs bracket."

Read more

cadiaN interview: Major blow, Chengdu improvements & 2024 goals

cadiaN's side picked Inferno to start the series, but had a rough time gaining momentum in gun rounds against inspired performances from Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato and Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo.

2-0 starts in both halves offered Liquid some breathing room on the map, with two 1vs2 clutches by Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic offering his team some salvation on their pick, but FURIA excelled at shutting down Liquid's attempts to take Banana on the T side.

YEKINDAR and skullz had particularly woeful showings, and the nail was hammered into the coffin when Liquid lost a 4vs2 advantage in the second half to allow FURIA to close out the map, 13-9.

An early lead from FURIA on the T side of Mirage, the map they had beaten Liquid on at the RMR, briefly had things looking dire for cadiaN's side, but a late resurgence and multi-kills from NAF and Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken helped recover the score.

YEKINDAR then came alive and made up for his rather quiet showing in the series thus far, cracking open Middle in a crucial gun round that allowed Liquid to run away with the lead. Twistzz added to that blitz by closing out the game with a 1vs2, forcing a Nuke decider.

Another slow start for Liquid, hampered by them winning a force-buy in round 2 and then losing to MP9s in the next, allowed FURIA to mount a 5-2 lead on the defense as they repeatedly shut down YEKINDAR outside and prevented Liquid's A hits.

A pause by Wilton "⁠zews⁠" Prado completely turned the tides, however, as after that Liquid gave up just one more round in the first half and three in the second.

YEKINDAR was absolutely key in that effort, his aggressive plays catching FURIA's defenses off-guard and crushing their defaults on the T side, and that combined with some excellent multi-kills from skullz on T and NAF and Twistzz on CT had Liquid looking like a well-oiled machine as they regained control.

A squandered round to some incredible Tec-9 shots from FalleN and KSCERATO in the second half allowed FURIA to close the gap and tie the game at 9-9, but Liquid recovered and showed resilience by shutting down upper executes to win four rounds in a row and close things out.