Liquid score opening win in Pro League over BIG

The North American side beat the German team 2-0 and will next face GODSENT on Thursday.

Liquid took on BIG to kick off their ESL Pro League Group C campaign, securing a comfortable 2-0 victory in their first international appearance since their 13-16th place elimination at IEM Katowice in February.

The Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella-led side have been unable to put up the results expected from the Liquid moniker since putting their new roster together, but have steadily been making progress, with the in-game leader stating that the team had an extremely productive conversation following their elimination from the event in Poland in the latest documentary episode from the organization covering their run in the tournament.

BIG, meanwhile, have struggled since managing to secure qualification to the BLAST Premier Spring Finals, exiting the IEM Katowice Play-In early and faltering in two PGL Major Antwerp Europe RMR open qualifiers before making it through on their third attempt. The German team have been attempting to integrate Karim "⁠Krimbo⁠" Moussa into their lineup after he officially got the call up from the academy roster to replace Nils "⁠k1to⁠" Gruhne, but will have to prove their worth against the other teams in Group C, with their next match pitting them up against Party Astronauts on Thursday at 16:00 .

oSee topped the series for Liquid, averaging a 1.43 rating

The series kicked off on BIG's map pick of Dust2, and Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz's men all contributed with multi-kill rounds early on to help their side establish a 5-0 lead. The tides turned quickly though, and it was a substantial change at that as Liquid put up a stalwart defense, with BIG almost never in a round-winning position for the rest of the half as Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm and Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic helped their team win ten rounds in a row for a dominant halftime scoreline.

A pistol win after the side swap offered BIG a brief respite, but Liquid quickly got back in the saddle and claimed match point before closing things out shortly afterward, recovering from a Josef "⁠faveN⁠" Baumann ace to secure a 16-11 victory.

Mirage was a more contentious affair as a back-and-forth battle unfolded in the first half, an early string of rounds for Liquid dwindling as BIG gained steam. The latter portion of the half ended up going the way of Liquid though, granting them a narrow lead as they swapped over to their CT side, and that edge was only further extended after a pistol round victory as they moved up to a 12-7 lead.

BIG began to build up momentum in an effort to mount a comeback, winning five rounds in a row to tie up the scoreline, but just when they were about to pull ahead Liquid tightened up their defenses and won four final rounds to take the map over the line and close up the series, denying a Vertigo decider.

ESL Pro League Season 15Best of 3

Liquid

Matchpage

2

0

23rd March 2022

BIG

16

Dust2

11

16

Mirage

12

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Josh 'oSee' OhmoSee	46 - 31	+15	84.7	1.43
Keith 'NAF' MarkovicNAF	48 - 31	+17	87.9	1.30
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	42 - 39	+3	82.3	1.18
Richard 'shox' Papillonshox	32 - 35	-3	64.8	0.92
Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0	26 - 37	-11	58.9	0.83

BIG	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Johannes 'tabseN' WodarztabseN	43 - 41	+2	91.8	1.15
Florian 'syrsoN' RischesyrsoN	39 - 35	+4	77.3	1.12
Josef 'faveN' BaumannfaveN	42 - 39	+3	84.7	1.07
Karim 'Krimbo' MoussaKrimbo	28 - 39	-11	54.0	0.73
Tizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschtiziaN	21 - 40	-19	44.5	0.57

The Group C standings after day one look as follows:

Group C

TEAM

M

P

Players

1

3

Liquid

1

3

Movistar Riders

1

3

GODSENT

1

0

BIG

1

0

Party Astronauts

1

0