Liquid beat FURIA to make Cologne group stage

The new-look squad extends their unbeaten run with their new roster to five series in a row.

Liquid are through to the top-16 stage of IEM Cologne after securing a reverse-sweep victory over FURIA in the upper bracket of the Play-in.

The Brazilian team was well-prepared for Liquid's Anubis pick and romped to victory off the back of a stellar individual effort from Yuri "⁠yuurih⁠" Santos, but couldn't convert on Nuke and ran out of gas on the Mirage decider, where Liquid secured a comfortable win to earn their group stage ticket.

"The resilience [of this team] is night-and-day compared to last team, and maybe even other iterations of Liquid," Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken said in a post-match interview. "We're very strong in what we believe in and the way that we try to play, and I feel like we're never out of the game.

"In terms of losing Anubis, clearly they had this in their pocket for a while and they used it at the right time, but yeah, really happy. I knew that once we started CT Nuke that I have some T rounds to show and I can finally call on this map, and also on T side Mirage. It's kind of fun to show the world our map pool."

FURIA have one remaining chance to advance in the lower bracket, where they will face the winner of HEROIC vs. 3DMAX in hopes of making it to the group stage of Cologne for the first time since 2022.

Date	Matches
IEM Cologne 2024 Play-in
09/08/2024	FURIA 15:55 HEROIC	Match

Liquid were punished on their Anubis pick and struggled to halt FURIA's aggression for much of the first half, going down 1-7 and barely salvaging three rounds by the break. A pistol win and conversion helped close the gap, but yuurih and FURIA had done their homework and gave Liquid no window into the map, putting it to bed 13-8.

That momentum continued on Nuke as FURIA jumped out to a 5-0 lead on the T side, but excellent reads from Twistzz and multi-fragging from Roland "⁠ultimate⁠" Tomkowiak tore apart FURIA's executes and defaults as Liquid won seven in a row back.

The Polish AWPer was key in kicking that recovery effort off with a triple kill and 1vs1 clutch, and he remained a stalwart presence in the second half to help Liquid reach map point, 12-8, before Twistzz and Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis won a 3vs5 in round 24 to force a decider.

Liquid shifted up a gear on Mirage, stamping their authority with a flawless eight-round streak thanks to Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage and Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic's consistency anchoring both ends of the map leaving YEKINDAR and ultimate free to roam and gain early advantages.

FURIA stopped the bleeding near the end of the half and came dangerously close to stealing the lead away in the second half, but a 2vs4 recovery by jks and ultimate swung momentum the other way, and a subsequent 3vs5 win by Liquid took any remaining wind out of the Brazilian team's sails as the series was brought to a quick end.