BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024Liquid send Spirit to lower bracket at BLAST
Liquid secured their first win against a top-five team since the Fall Groups and are set to go up against another tomorrow.
Liquid have secured a place in the playoffs at the BLAST Premier Fall Final with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Spirit in Group B's opening round.
The Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken-led side will go up against Vitality next in the group's upper final, playing for a chance to secure a direct berth in the semi-finals in a rematch from the ESL Pro League group stage two weeks ago. There, Dan "apEX" Madesclaire and company prevailed after three maps.
Meanwhile, Spirit have gone down to the elimination zone and are set to face off against the new Astralis for a place in the quarter-finals.
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024 | ||
| 26/09/2024 |
17:50
|
Match |
| 26/09/2024 |
20:45
|
Match |
Since their first appearance with Roland "ultimate" Tomkowiak and Justin "jks" Savage at the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, Liquid struggled when facing the elite teams, running up a tally of four consecutive losses to top six teams. They've brought that streak to an end now with the win against Spirit, and are set to meet another tomorrow in the Vitality matchup.
Liquid had to come back from a crushing loss on Dust2 to win the series. Despite a competitive start, their pick went quickly awry after they left the bomb unguarded in a 2v2 and allowed Spirit to defuse and, two rounds later, lost to a halfbuy. Down 3-9 and losing the next pistol, they didn't even get to play their high-octane, dynamic CT side on the map in the end.
It quickly became apparent that Nuke was going to be a different story when Liquid rallied up a big lead on the CT side with Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis on top of the board despite clearly feeling unwell and having to run to the bathroom during the half.
Closing out the map turned out more difficult than anticipated, as a Danil "donk" Kryshkovets 1v2 clutch set off a dominant run on the CT side from Spirit. As the map reached the closing stages, it seemed destined to go to overtime, until Keith "NAF" Markovic stepped up with a 1v3 clutch to close it at the final hour.
Marred by T side issues on Nuke, Spirit struggled on the offensive side of Anubis as well. Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov was the only man to turn up while Myroslav "zont1x" Plakhotia's nightmarish form on the T side continued after he had put in a 0-12 half in the map prior, and Liquid took full advantage.
Spirit once again showed better form on the CT side, as did zont1x, but that wasn't enough to bring it all the way back from a 4-8 half on what is usually the favored T side on Anubis. In the end, another big clutch, this time from YEKINDAR, brought the series to an end.
The win
  Spirit |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 62 - 47 | +5.83% | 101.8 | 68.3% | 1.37 | |
| 45 - 41 | -0.55% | 75.9 | 69.8% | 1.10 | |
| 39 - 41 | -0.61% | 63.2 | 73.0% | 1.00 | |
| 37 - 42 | -1.68% | 70.5 | 66.7% | 0.96 | |
| 34 - 40 | -0.59% | 57.5 | 71.4% | 0.86 |
 Liquid |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 54 - 41 | +0.48% | 89.6 | 77.8% | 1.31 | |
| 49 - 46 | +1.77% | 81.7 | 76.2% | 1.24 | |
| 36 - 44 | -0.90% | 63.7 | 76.2% | 0.94 | |
| 39 - 43 | -2.66% | 67.1 | 65.1% | 0.94 | |
| 33 - 45 | -1.17% | 69.0 | 66.7% | 0.92 |
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan
William 'mezii' Merriman
CodeStrife7
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whatareyousaying
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celtek
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1cristiaan
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Vrede
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SilverQuick
tanerorc
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B3nk4i
Emikap
