Team Liquid’s preparation for ECS season eight finals is already paying dividends.
The North Americans defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas 16-4 on Mirage on group A opening match, and Liquid will proceed to the winners’ bracket while NiP will play an elimination best-of-three tomorrow.
Liquid scored seven consecutive rounds on their CT-side until NiP reacted with four consecutive rounds on their own. But the North Americans had the perfect read on the ninjas’ gameplan and ended up winning nine rounds in a row to close out the match. Everybody on Liquid fragged well, but Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken stood out with 20 kills.
The only other tournament Liquid played in November was BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen, where it had a poor performance and finished at the bottom with Cloud9. The team even dropped out of IEM Beijing, which took place after BLAST, to have some rest and prepare for the rest of the CS:GO season.
Twistzz and his crew lost to NiP at BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen by 16-11 also on Mirage. After Liquid beat NiP today, Twistzz said in the post-match interview that they had lost to themselves that day and praised his team’s preparation for the ECS season eight finals.
As Liquid secured this win against NiP, they’re in a good spot to qualify for the semifinals of the tournament later today. To achieve that, Liquid will have to defeat Evil Geniuses at the winners’ match at 6pm CT.