Liquid beat FURIA to qualify for Shanghai Major

The Brazilian squad will have to win two series in the final day to qualify for the Major.

Liquid have secured a spot at the Perfect World Shanghai Major after a 2-1 victory over FURIA which started out with two one-sided maps, Anubis (13-3) and Dust2 (3-13), and ended on an Inferno decider (13-7).

Liquid's Anubis CT side was a delight in a map usually dominated by T-sides. Two aces, one by Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis — who also got an AWP triple in the play — on the B site, and one by Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage over on A, marked strong individual and team performances in a dominating 10-2 half.

The same happened on Dust2, except this time around the roles were reversed and it was FURIA dominating on the CT side with nine rounds in the half.

"They picked Dust2, I was a bit more confident on Nuke than Dust2, obviously, but it just comes down to teams having good preparation, good analysts, and good leaders," Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken said in the post-match interview on the broadcast. "They owned us on Dust2; they had a good gameplan. We got fucked. But the other two maps: very happy."

Inferno hosted the decider, where Liquid got off to a flying 6-0 start mirroring what they had done on Anubis, threatening another short one-sided map. FURIA didn't let it happen, though, and scored four out of the last five to stay in contention even if a little behind.

A strong Mid defense by Liquid closed FURIA down in the second pistol round and promised to keep them firmly in the lead, but the Brazilians struck right back and won three in a row.

A massive A defense by Roland "⁠ultimate⁠" Tomkowiak with an AWP triple eventually turned the tides in his team's favor, as Liquid went on to win it out from there, 13-7.

"We’ve been working our asses off for the past month trying to get the team back in the right place" Twistzz told Pala "⁠Pala⁠" Gilroy Sen after the match. "I feel we’re in a good spot and we’re at the right time to peak for the Major."

Date	Matches
Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 Americas RMR
15/11/2024	9z 09:50 FURIA	Match
15/11/2024	M80 13:00 FURIA	Match

The journey is not over for FURIA, but they will need to have a resilient final day at the Americas RMR, as they will need not one but two victories on the final day of play if they want to make it to the Major.

The reason for FURIA needing to win both matches tomorrow is that there will be three teams competing for two spots. The team with the best Buchholz score will go straight through, but FURIA's is low enough to ensure that even if they win their 3-2 bout against 9z they will not immediately qualify.