Liquid exit Open at the hands of The MongolZ

The two top teams on Asia's VRS met with The MongolZ prevailing for the second time this year.

The MongolZ are the first team into Group B's lower bracket final after they dispatched Liquid in a two map series.

The winner of G2 and M80 will face them on Sunday to decide the last of three playoff spots from the group.

The series could have presented an interesting head-to-head of fragging in-game leaders in the form of Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken and Garidmagnai "⁠bLitz⁠" Byambasuren, but the result did no favors to the Canadian's stock as The MongolZ outclassed their opponents both tactically and individually.

bLitz's side had won just ten rounds over their last two Anubis matches, and even first banned it against Liquid in their previous meeting at Katowice, but looked back to the form that earned them seven wins in a row on the level last year as they ran out 13-7 winners on Liquid's home map.

Ayush "⁠mzinho⁠" Batbold's clutch kept their T side rolling, before bLitz took over, hitting a 10-2 K-D during a CT rampage.

Ancient handed more pain to Liquid as they lost successive retakes on A: First a 5v3 at the hands of Usukhbayar "⁠910⁠" Banzragch, and then a 5v2 as Azbayar "⁠Senzu⁠" Munkhbold took his turn to clutch.

A spirited performance from Roland "⁠ultimate⁠" Tomkowiak, who scored five openers in a proactive half of CS, got Liquid to 7-5 but the rounds they lost early in the half came back to bite them as The MongolZ wrestled back control of the game on CT side.

Key rounds down the stretches came down to 1v1 clutches —- Sodbayar "⁠Techno⁠" Munkhbold versus Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic, and Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage versus Senzu — but the winner was always Mongolian as they put themselves one game from playoffs with a 13-8 win.

Faltering in these multi-man advantages were a point of criticism even in Liquid's earlier win over Imperial, and will be a key are as Liquid look to reset.

Communication is also a point of concern, with NAF saying that "sometimes, for a lot of our mistakes [...] we're over-communicating and not being calm or collecting our thoughts" in a post-game broadcast interview.

"There's a lot to learn here," he continued. "Luckily in Counter Strike you have a lot of chances for redemption with more events."

Date	Matches
BLAST Open Lisbon 2025
24/03/2025	The MongolZ 19:05 G2	Match

Liquid's home map falls by the wayside

Anubis was the bright spot for the in-game leader version of Twistzz, a map where players default largely on their own and one where his system made sense.

They were 18-4 on the map, with a 66.8% T side win percentage, between August 2024 and March 11 but have since gone on a 1-3 streak with that number dropping to 47.2% — with the solitary win coming against Imperial.

The loss today also means they have lost their map pick in six successive series.

NertZ has lost his confidence

"When I joined Liquid I felt good overall," Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz said pre-game on stream. "But in the last months I don't have the best confidence." It's a concerning sentiment to hear from the organization's blockbuster winter signing just three months into his tenure.

Early tournaments, where he posted a 1.22 rating at Bounty and 1.28 at Katowice, were seen as proof that NertZ could use his natural aggression in new spacetaking roles but as time has gone on he has lost the edge that made him so dangerous in ENCE and HEROIC.

Over the last two events, he has dropped to a 1.03 rating and 0.70 deaths per round as he toils under the weight of being Liquid's primary playmaker.

With no sign of extra aggression coming from nominal passive duo jks and NAF, NertZ is going to have to seek solutions within his own game as he tries to recover his form ahead of a crucial period for Liquid.