Liquid and ENCE advance to DreamHack Masters Dallas grand finals

Team Liquid and ENCE will battle it out tomorrow for the DreamHack Masters Dallas trophy.

Liquid took down FURIA, the tournament’s sensation, while ENCE beat FaZe in two hard-fought maps—one of which could have easily gone FaZe’s way if it wasn’t for some successful forcebuys from the Finns.

Liquid played the first semifinal of the day against FURIA, the Brazilian team that hyped every caster and analyst throughout the tournament. The first map was Nuke, a reliable pick for FURIA. But the North Americans had Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski doing all the heavy work. He finished the game with 35 kills and a few clutches for Liquid as they won the map 16-13.

FURIA didn’t look prepared for map two, Overpass. Liquid won the first half 14-1 and swapped to the CT-side with a huge advantage. EliGE had another good map and has been playing like a man who wants to win his first MVP title.

ENCE and FaZe’s semifinal showdown started with an entertaining match on Dust II. The Finns came back after being down 14-6. FaZe couldn’t close out the game on their T-side and almost all of their executions were frustrated by Aleksi “allu” Jalli and crew. ENCE finished on top after the first overtime with a 19-16 win.

Train almost went to overtime too, but ENCE won 16-13. They were down 10-5 after the first half and had to react on their T-side. ENCE turned the map around after they won a couple of rounds with pistols. Jere “sergej” Salo, their young star, had 59 kills in the series.

Liquid and ENCE are arguably two of the best teams in the world behind Astralis, who’ve been sitting on top for more than a year. Whoever wins the grand finals tomorrow will put pressure on the Danes’ claim to the throne.

Despite being eliminated, FURIA and FaZe probably feel good about their performances at DreamHack Masters Dallas. It was the first time the Brazilians reached the playoffs of a big event and they were one of the most entertaining teams to watch. And this was FaZe’s first LAN tournament with Filip “NEO” Kubski, who took over as the in-game leader in May. The team looked more disciplined and organized than before in most of their matches at DreamHack Master Dallas.

Liquid and ENCE are set up to play the grand finals of DreamHack Masters Dallas tomorrow at 1pm CT. The winner earns $100,000 and gains one point in the Intel Grand Slam, which gives $1 million to the team that wins four out of 10 big ESL, DreamHack, or IEM tournaments.