Liquid eliminate Imperial from BLAST Lisbon

Twistzz's troops will now face off against the loser of NAVI vs. The MongolZ.

Liquid began their lower-bracket run at BLAST Open Lisbon with a three-map victory (Dust2 13-4, Nuke 11-13, Anubis 13-5) over Imperial to eliminate the Brazilians from the tournament.

Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken and company now require two more victories to make the playoffs, with their next test coming against the loser of Natus Vincere vs. The MongolZ.

Date	Matches
BLAST Open Lisbon 2025
23/03/2025	Liquid 18:55 The MongolZ	Match

Imperial went for a Dust2 pick in the series, but the map didn't go according to expectations. Liquid dominated from start to finish, first putting up a 10-2 CT half before closing out with a 13-4 scoreline without much difficulty.

Imperial put up much more of a fight on the second map and went 5-2 up after they won an eco round early on. Liquid stabilized after that, however, with Roland "⁠ultimate⁠" Tomkowiak's two 1vs1 clutches giving them a two-round lead at the switch.

Imperial tied up the scores thanks to a pistol-round victory, and the Brazilians stayed in the map thanks to Santino "⁠try⁠" Rigal's 1vs2 clutch. The Argentinian's play proved to be the turning point of the map, as Imperial put together a six-round streak off the back of it to secure a 13-11 victory.

The Anubis decider began well for Liquid, who made the most out of Twistzz's quad in the pistol to take an early lead. While several of their round wins weren't pretty, they got the job done and won out the more challenging half with a 7-5 scoreline, which they comfortably converted to a 13-5 victory.

Imperial miss their best chance to avoid the MRQ

Imperial came into BLAST Open Lisbon with an outside shot of securing enough points for an Austin Major Stage 2 invite, but a winless campaign at the tournament is not what the doctor ordered.

"If people are not taking space like they do in practice and are waiting for a miracle call, it looks messy," Vinicius "⁠VINI⁠" Figueiredo said in a post-match interview.

Bar some fantastic results in the PGL Astana and FiReLEAGUE Buenos Aires qualifiers, the team is now all but locked in for an MRQ appearance, where they will fight seven other South American squads for one of the three Stage 1 spots up for grabs.