nitr0 stars as Liquid beat NAVI to secure semi-final spot in Copenhagen

Liquid secured a spot in the BLAST Premier Fall Final semi-finals after taking down Natus Vincere 2-1 in Group B’s upper bracket final. The North American side won out the game after emerging victorious on Inferno (16-14) and Mirage (16-7), despite losing NAVI’s pick of Dust2 (12-16).

With the matchup deciding just the playoff seeding, neither team is out of the tournament. Liquid are now set to face the winner between Heroic and G2 on Saturday at 15:30 . Natus Vincere, whose roster’s future is clouded by uncertainty, are put on the other side of the bracket and will meet Ninjas in Pyjamas in the quarter-finals on Friday at 19:00 .

Denis “⁠electroNic⁠” Sharipov kicked off the game by winning a 1vs2 clutch in the pistol, only for Liquid to answer straight back with a forcebuy aided by the bomb plant in the previous round. Force-buy wars ensued, with Natus Vincere coming out on top and racing to a 4-1 lead. That was the only period of success for the Ukrainian side, as Liquid began chipping away at the deficit, tying up the scores at 5-5 in no time. Nick “⁠nitr0⁠” Cannella had a fantastic first half, providing his team with a crucial quad-kill to give them the lead for the first time, before winning a 1vs2 clutch with impressive spray control. Keith “⁠NAF⁠” Markovic also had a highlight of his own, winning a crisp 1vs3 clutch to finish off his ace and put the half-time scoreline at 9-6 in the North Americans’ favor.

Liquid continued their winning ways in the second-half pistol but otherwise struggled in their defensive half. Once Natus Vincere got to a gun round, they clawed back the deficit and eventually tied up the scores at 11-11. A back-and-forth ensued, with neither team in control of the game as they traded rounds until eventually getting tied up again at 14-14. It was once again nitr0 who stepped up with two crucial multi-kills on the B site, getting his team over the line with a 16-14 win and putting up 31 kills in the process.

Next up was the outgoing Dust2, where Natus Vincere were hot out of the gates and put together a dominant offensive half. They strung seven rounds together before Liquid got their first, but their resurgence didn’t last long. The North Americans got just three rounds before Natus Vincere went back to dominating, closing out the first half with a 12-3 scoreline.

Natus Vincere won the second-half pistol and their win looked to be a certainty, but Liquid didn’t back down. Their offensive half was much stronger, as they reached double digits and got within four rounds of their opponents. Natus Vincere looked bereft of ideas and struggled to fight back the Liquid offense, but still managed to close out the game with the help of Valeriy “⁠b1t⁠” Vakhovskiy‘s triple with an MP9, the series moving on to the decider of Mirage.

Mirage started with another dominant T-side performance, this time by Liquid. Their start was shaky, as they won the pistol before Natus Vincere came back to tie up the scores at 2-2. Liquid then stole a round with an eco, when Oleksandr “⁠s1mple⁠” Kostyliev failed to find the bomb in the smoke and ran out of time for the defuse. The round turned the tide completely, as the North Americans went on to lose just two more in the half, ending up 11-4 ahead at the interval. nitr0 had another stellar performance, winning a 1vs4 clutch on his way to 14 kills at halftime.

A second pistol victory for Liquid meant their triumph was a mere formality as the North Americans found themselves nine rounds up. s1mple prolonged the inevitable with a 1vs2 clutch, but it wasn’t enough. Liquid got the required rounds and closed out the map comfortably, winning the series and booking a direct spot in the semi-final.