ESL Pro League Season 21Liquid make EPL playoffs over 3DMAX
The win marks Liquid's first playoff appearance in 2025.
Liquid qualified for the ESL Pro League Season 21 playoffs after defeating 3DMAX with a 2-1 scoreline (Inferno 13-11, Ancient 5-13, Anubis 13-4).
Inferno began with the teams engaging in force-buy wars that eventually ended with Liquid taking a slender lead, one they kept into the second half after Torbjørn "mithR" Nyborg encouraged them to take even more fights during a time-out.
Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken's ace in the pistol extended their lead to 10-5, and while the French side equalized the scores at 11, Liquid did just enough to secure a 13-11 victory after two 4vs4 post-plant conversions.
3DMAX answered with a comfortable 13-5 on Ancient with the help of both pistol rounds — one came courtesy of some clean taps by Pierre "Ex3rcice" Bulinge, and the other from a 3vs5 conversion.
Roland "ultimate" Tomkowiak kept up his impact and led the way in an 8-4 offensive half, with Keith "NAF" Markovic's pistol-round triple ensuring Liquid secured a comfortable 13-4 win alongside a playoff spot.
3DMAX fall at the final hurdle again
A heartbreaking end to another encouraging campaign for 3DMAX, who end their tournament after a loss in the 2-2 pool for the second consecutive event.
The French side came close to qualifying at PGL Cluj-Napoca but faltered against SAW in the deciding match, with their match against Liquid at EPL having the same result.
Still, 3DMAX can look back at a comfortable Stage 1 progression and wins against Eternal Fire and Falcons in Stage 2 as encouraging signs, but taking the next step seems like a must if they want to shake their 'Gatekeepers of tier-one' nickname.
Liquid secure much-needed playoffs and VRS points
It has been a rough start to 2025 for Liquid, who were left without a playoff spot at BLAST Bounty and IEM Katowice. The organization then decided to skip PGL Cluj-Napoca, which gave the team an uphill battle in the VRS rankings.
With a win against 3DMAX, a playoff berth, and a minimum of $58,000 in prize money secured, some of those worries should be put to rest for now — but Twistzz's team isn't in the clear just yet.
 Liquid |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47 - 33 | +3.38% | 87.3 | 76.7% | 1.35 | |
| 43 - 33 | +2.86% | 72.4 | 76.7% | 1.16 | |
| 43 - 36 | -0.05% | 81.1 | 66.7% | 1.10 | |
| 30 - 35 | -2.78% | 63.9 | 76.7% | 0.98 | |
| 31 - 37 | -0.73% | 54.4 | 75.0% | 0.92 |
 3DMAX |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47 - 43 | +1.10% | 85.3 | 63.3% | 1.06 | |
| 36 - 34 | +0.97% | 64.6 | 68.3% | 0.94 | |
| 35 - 41 | -0.38% | 69.9 | 63.3% | 0.86 | |
| 32 - 38 | -0.44% | 59.0 | 68.3% | 0.85 | |
| 23 - 38 | -3.92% | 54.6 | 65.0% | 0.73 |
Torbjørn 'mithR' Nyborg
Oscar 'AZUWU' Bell
Maikil 'Golden' Selim
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Abdul 'degster' Gasanov
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski
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Risette
Eichiki_Onizuka
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bigpapapickle
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miami_disco
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XiJinPingIsBetterThanUSA
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moonEEK!
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