BLAST Bounty 2025 Season 2Liquid survive ECSTATIC scare after quintuple-overtime Train
ultimate's side won nine clutches in a memorable 54-round affair.
BLAST Bounty has witnessed what Hugo "Hugo" Byron called the "gentleman's NIP-AMKAL" after ECSTATIC took Liquid to their limits in the opening round of the competition.
The Danes' pick of Train opened the series with a blockbuster quintuple-overtime affair, with 54 rounds resulting in 14 clutches and an eventual Liquid 28-26 victory.
Clip: Roland "ultimate" Tomkowiak and Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken finally end Train with 2v4 retake.
The stakes are high for Liquid despite the online setting, after a disastrous start to the season where Liquid exited IEM Cologne in 13-16th and failed to qualify for ESL Pro League or BLAST Open.
After the second qualifier loss, at the hands of VP.Prodigy, Twistzz posted on X that Liquid "are not a team" and that he had "no words for how we play."
Clip: Liquid give up 5v3 post-plant with the bomb halfway gone
In that context, the win on Train could be framed as a morale-boosting one but Liquid will know better. Guy "NertZ" Iluz's struggles — he has a 0.96 rating in the last 3 months — continued, and at one point he was 4-15 in opening duels.
Liquid as a team had to win from behind often, going 21-32 in openers overall. It was only the 48-frag effort of ultimate and the fact they won 9 clutches that covered how often ECSTATIC had them read, with Kamil "siuhy" Szkaradek forced to call pushes through smokes on plenty of occasions.
The hectic nature of proceedings had everyone shook, and ECSTATIC played their part in the mayhem with late-round overpeeks as pointed out by Robin "flusha" Rönnquist.
Fortunately for Liquid Ancient was a more straightforward affair, an effective T side bolstered by NertZ's resurgence after a rough first map, before a cosmetic second-half comeback by ECSTATIC was stopped in its tracks.
Regardless of the final result this was not a convincing victory for Liquid, despite the 2-0 series scoreline, and there is plenty of work left to be done if Liquid are to fully dispel their torrid early-season form.
More highlights from Liquid vs ECSTATIC:
 ECSTATIC |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 66 - 59 | +1.22% | 100.5 | 72.4% | 1.32 | |
| 57 - 53 | +0.18% | 73.7 | 75.0% | 1.08 | |
| 50 - 54 | -0.97% | 80.2 | 73.7% | 1.07 | |
| 44 - 49 | -3.66% | 61.5 | 72.4% | 0.94 | |
| 48 - 58 | -2.33% | 69.8 | 65.8% | 0.85 |
 Liquid |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 - 50 | +1.69% | 90.0 | 76.3% | 1.18 | |
| 59 - 52 | +1.84% | 69.3 | 78.9% | 1.17 | |
| 60 - 54 | +1.73% | 76.8 | 80.3% | 1.15 | |
| 49 - 57 | +1.18% | 77.2 | 75.0% | 1.01 | |
| 49 - 56 | -1.61% | 71.5 | 67.1% | 0.98 |
Viktor 'flashie' Tamás Bea
Martin 'nut nut' Holm Vestergaard
Dias 'F0R3VER' Kutubay
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist
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