Liquid defeat NiP 2-1

Liquid defeated NiP 2-1 (Nuke 16-10, Inferno 7-16, Cobblestone 16-3) in the upper-bracket quarter final match at cs_summit.

Nuke, NiP's map pick for the last series of the day at cs_summit, started well for the Swedes' opponents Liquid. The North American side secured the Terrorist pistol round and went 4-0 up thanks to good anti-eco rounds and favorable trades in the first buy round.

NiP replied shortly, winning the following round with pistols—signaling the back-and-forth half that would follow. William "draken" Sundin picked up a 3k with the AWP that allowed NiP to take a 5-4 lead, but Liquid's change of pace and some good fragging from Nick "nitr0" Cannella got them seven rounds in the first half.

The second pistol round came down to the wire, but Liquid's new signing Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken stepped up with three USP-S kills and made the B site retake possible, getting his team back in the lead.

EliGe was a standout player on Nuke

After NiP won some fast-paced rounds, "" and Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz pulled out the double AWP that caught the Swedes off guard and eventually got them to match point.

Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund and Richard "Xizt" Landström almost clawed back from 2v5 situation to extend the map, but Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski clutched out the final 1v1 to secure the first map for his team.

After a rough start and two lost pistol rounds on Nuke, NiP kicked off Inferno brilliantly, with a convincing 6-0 lead on the CT side of the map. Their overaggressiveness was punished in the 7th round as Liquid pounced after a double-entry on banana, getting their first round, and followed that up in the next one after recovering from a 4v5 deficit.

After success on B, Liquid tried to turn their focus towards the A site and were able to get plants, but the clutch situations went the way of NiP who went 9-2 up off the back of it.

Liquid got the pistol in the second half round after finishing 12-3 down, but a single AK47 buy from NiP ended up being enough for the Swedes to get the round, reset Liquid, and close out the second map swiftly.

Xizt had some good rounds on Cobble, but couldn't get his team the win

The series came down to the decider, Cobblestone, where Liquid got another 4-0 start. NiP replies with one round, but weren't able to tie rounds together as Liquid shut down their A hit with good individual plays.

The rest of the half followed in that pattern, as a single round win for the Ninjas was followed by a series of rounds that went in the favor of the North American side.

Liquid's 12-3 lead after the first half was made even greater after the pistol round went their way, putting them in a great spot to close the map out and secure the series. That happened shortly, as anti-ecos were cleaned up and the A site push went worked out well for stanislaw and co. on the first gun round of the second half, making the score 16-3.

cs_summit Spring 2017Best of 3

NiP

Matchpage

1

2

21st April 2017

Liquid

10

Nuke

16

16

Inferno

7

3

Cobblestone

16

Professeur writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter.