Movistar Riders take down Liquid to remain undefeated

25/3/2022 - 15:59

The North American squad suffered their first defeat in Group C, ending the day with a 2-1 record.

Movistar Riders took their third victory at ESL Pro League Season 15 after defeating Liquid 2-1. Both squads came into this series with a 2-0 record, but it was the Spanish squad that eventually came out on top after an exciting match that saw the two teams exchange map picks before Alejandro "⁠alex⁠" Masanet and co. edged the series on Ancient after going to overtime.

Despite rocking a 3-0 record in Group C, Movistar Riders have yet to confirm a top-three finish and secure themselves a spot in the playoffs. Today's victory is a big boost for the Spaniards' campaign in Germany and a GODSENT win over Party Astronauts would stack the odds even more in their favor. With Players and North America's best behind them, Movistar Riders now look at the last two games against BIG and Party Astronauts with high hopes.

Movistar Riders remain undefeated in Group C

Alvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" Garcia kickstarted the series with three quick frags on Inferno, delivering the opening pistol to Movistar Riders. Unfortunately for the Spaniards, Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon was able to put a wrench in their plans of converting the anti eco on the B bombsite, flipping the game in favor of Liquid. Despite a few good B hits from alex's squad over the course of the half, the defensive quality brought by Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm and Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic was too much for the offense to overcome, trailing 6-9 at halftime.

Movistar Riders gave Liquid a taste of their own medicine, converting a force buy on round 17 which allowed them to gain some early momentum on the CT side and equalize at 10-10. Fortunately for the North Americans, Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski bounced back from a quiet first half and helped them secure map point at 15-11 after a solid offensive half. Despite bringing their map pick all the way to 30 rounds, the Spanish quintet was unable to force overtime, conceding the B bombsite to Liquid and with it, the opening map 14-16.

Movistar Riders came into their opponents' pick with a score to settle. In a similar fashion to the previous map, the Spaniards converted a second-round force buy to keep the T economy in check and propel them to a quick 7-1 lead. Liquid would only take one more round with a plant on the B site as they struggled to make a dent on the Spanish defense powered by SunPayus and Raúl "⁠DeathZz⁠" Jordán Nieto, going into the second half 2-13 behind. A flat start to the second half from the Spaniards gave Liquid the chance to get back in the game, bringing the scoreline all the way to 12-15. Despite their best efforts, the advantage was too large to overcome and Movistar Riders were eventually able to close out Liquid's pick 16-12.

Liquid were unable to close out Ancient

Moving into the decider on Ancient, Liquid secured their early advantage by taking the pistol round and converting the following anti eco. It did not take long for Movistar Riders to respond, winning a crucial A hit that allowed them to retake a 6-4 lead. Despite the Spanish resurgence, the North Americans could count on oSee performing and shox winning a 1v1 clutch to secure a late five-round winning streak and go into halftime leading 9-6.

Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella and co. quickly extended their advantage to 12-6 after a few successful offensive rounds in the second half, but Movistar Riders were not going to let them run away with the series uncontested. Once the rifles came out for the defenders, they were able to reduce their deficit to 10-12 as alex and SunPayus continued to shine. A crucial 3k by nitr0 on the B bombsite had seemingly given Liquid the game but they were unable to take advantage of their position, conceding four rounds in a row as Movistar Riders forced overtime. The North American squad seemed to have lost steam in extra time, only able to steal one T round as their opponents ran away with the game 19-16.

ESL Pro League Season 15Best of 3

Liquid

Matchpage

25th March 2022

Movistar Riders

Inferno

Mirage

Ancient

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Josh 'oSee' Ohm oSee	65 - 57	+8	66.2	1.06
Keith 'NAF' Markovic NAF	62 - 61	+1	81.5	1.05
Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski EliGE	56 - 69	-13	76.4	1.01
Richard 'shox' Papillon shox	52 - 60	-8	60.5	0.93
Nick 'nitr0' Cannella nitr0	48 - 66	-18	61.3	0.84

Movistar Riders	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Alvaro 'SunPayus' Garcia SunPayus	79 - 48	+31	82.5	1.40
Alejandro 'alex' Masanet alex	71 - 56	+15	84.5	1.17
Raúl 'DeathZz' Jordán Nieto DeathZz	60 - 54	+6	69.5	1.08
Alejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo Cano mopoz	57 - 64	-7	74.2	0.99
David 'dav1g' Granado Bermudo dav1g	44 - 61	-17	55.6	0.81

Group C

TEAM

ez, even if Liquid won 5/6 pistol rounds, should have been 2-0 for Riders btw, they throwed the inferno so bad. also, someone please tell the casters who Mixwell and loWel are, what are they doing talking about Musamban1? and who in the hell pronounce mopaz? its mopoz, both O are the same. And its pronounced MOBYSTAR. And update the scoreboard, why is Liquid 1st in the group?

2022-03-25 20:38

19 replies

"Liquid remain undefeated in Group C"

2022-03-25 20:35

Musamban1 practically carried the scene for years in 1.6. He wasn't successful in GO, but he was the only star Spain had for a long time.

2022-03-25 20:39

8 replies

no, x6tence as a whole were in the same level, if anyone in 1.6 it was xhiroz who was carrying

7 replies

I mean, not really. The only player I ever remember being talked about as a star for x6tence was Musamban1. Granted this was 13-14 years ago or something, but still.

2022-03-25 20:44

Musaban1 is the spanish foxj for portuguese scene. Dont forget you got only one team in your country. Its line talking about Mangiacapra for the UK scene. (Hopefully they more players now). I see spanish scene like norwegian, its empty

2022-03-25 21:53

5 replies

Yes

2022-03-25 23:50

So what? CS was never one of the main played games here in Spain and still we have one team competing with top teams. How's that an empty scene? what are you smoking?

2022-03-26 04:37

3 replies

It is empty, there's no team other than Movistar Riders, only NaoW and Martinez's team who are in advanced (if they didn't disband yet) other than that, empty.

2022-03-26 11:54

2 replies

Thanks

2022-03-26 17:21

1 reply

You judge things with the wrong scope. CSGO was never popular besides casually for older people like myself ( I'm talking about Spain) Young people don't have any interest in It. Taking that into consideration having 1 team at the top is good enough. I wouldn't call that empty either, not all the countries will have a lot of players/teams at the top like France. There are so many sheeps that come up with the empty or dead scene and It's ridicolous, no one cares anyway. I mean It's not like the french scene is doing great either. You have Zywoo carrying Vitality and that's It, nothing else.

2022-03-27 04:34

Way too ez, Movistar Riders play beautiful CS in comparison to the unorganized mess of lulquid.

2022-03-25 20:50

yeah, i cringed at that moment. They also chose to deliberately forget that the Spanish 1.6 scene was actually pretty decent, even if in GO it was never fully cohesive. Also, they called him mopaz and mopez more than they called him mopz... bruh. edit: they also grouped together Portugal and Spain (fine, Iberian cs it's pretty much the same level) but it was hard to watch them fail at coming up with any spanish players lmao.

2022-03-25 20:56

dude u make the spanish community look toxic, just chill.

2022-03-25 21:03

said the clown of Mediavida

2022-03-25 21:10

4 replies

i dont even have an acc on that page

2022-03-25 21:14

Jajajaj, estás on fire hermano.

2022-03-25 22:21

You just proved his point smartass

2022-03-25 22:53

Way to prove his point

2022-03-26 01:56

tHeY ThRoWeD tHe iNfeRnO sO bAd Your post is legitimate, but that was cringe.

2022-03-26 06:17

This is one of the most beautiful. I dont Really know what to say

6 replies

This was posted 4 hours ago?????

Probably started writing it 4 hours ago

2022-03-25 20:45

This was posted as soon as the post came out Lol

2022-03-25 21:02

F1 fan huh?

2022-03-26 01:05

Wonder how did you notice :P

2022-03-26 17:09

It's been 10 years since that radio message... sheesh.

2022-03-26 21:03

3rd

2022-03-25 20:34

Vamos Riders ez playoffs!

Tarik's law

Liquid remain undefeated in Group C scripted

expected spanish inquisition

2022-03-25 20:36

Based

2022-03-26 08:47

Mopitooooooooooooooz

quick post?!!

cool to see movistar riders do good, they have been on a nice upwards trajectory for some time now.

Spanish cs pog

2022-03-25 20:40

The text from the first picture is a bit inaccurate.

2022-03-25 20:41

They are actually still undefeated, wym?

2022-03-25 21:33

It was #7. With a picture of Liquid. I think they wanted to post it really quickly after the end of the match (which they did) but didn't expect the Spanish dudes to make the comeback and forgot to change the pictures.

2022-03-25 21:35

Good on Movistar Riders. I hope they continue to impress in playoffs. I was hoping to see Liquid pull through, but they were really flat today, especially on tside Mirage. Unless something drastic happens against PA they're going to playoffs even if they lose to Gambit, so I can't be too upset.

2022-03-25 20:42

They already won vs Gambit, only left BIG tomorrow and PA.

2022-03-25 20:48

Wut? Liquid have to play Gambit Sunday. They beat Big in their first match. Movistar have beaten Gambit and Liquid but not Big.

2022-03-25 20:51

I don't know wtf I read, I think you are talking about MR. My bad.

2022-03-25 20:54

Liquid remain undefeated in Group C ok

Hermanos <3

2022-03-25 21:11

2022-03-25 22:23

SO EZ

vamos

Liquid is a dead team -nitro -shox -elige (mood killer) Build around Naf and OSee

2022-03-25 20:57

mood killer haha

2022-03-25 22:01

-elige +floppy????

2022-03-25 23:36

VAMOOOOOOOOOOOS

2022-03-25 20:58

Lets goooo

2022-03-25 21:04

What a game! After securing ot in ancient, i had no doubts of the winner. Gg Riders!

2022-03-25 21:05

Ridersssssss. Thanks god Offset is not playing Pro League...

2022-03-25 21:12

hahahah

2022-03-25 21:24

Congrats hermanos!

2022-03-25 21:20

what a match

2022-03-25 21:28

Nobody expects the spanish inquisition

2022-03-25 21:29

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOO

2022-03-25 21:31

Movistar is playing out of their minds

His name is mopoz and he is one of the best lurkers out there

2022-03-25 21:32

ez for riders

2022-03-25 21:34

Moviestars riders are on cloud 9 right now. Performing really good lately. Muy bien amigos

2022-03-25 21:37

movie who?

2022-03-25 21:52

holy shid mobi stars

2022-03-25 21:58

Was this article prepared? It says it was posted 6 hours ago lol, also fix the points and the typos

2022-03-25 22:03

chokequid

2022-03-25 22:24

Good for the Riders

2022-03-25 22:50

MR too stronk

picking up Shox was so dumb

2022-03-25 23:38

Wtf ESL fluke league??

2022-03-25 23:41

limit testing before Major

2022-03-25 23:52

"Despite rocking a 3-0 record in Group C, Movistar Riders have yet to confirm a top-three finish and secure themselves a spot in the playoffs" I just checked the matches left to be played and I think there is no combination in which MR are not in top3

2022-03-26 00:09

jeez fluke league

2022-03-26 00:22

was hoping to see Liquid pull through, but they were really flat today, especially on tside Mirage. Unless something drastic happens against PA they're going to playoffs even if they lose to Gambit, so I can't be too upset.

2022-03-26 01:03

Sun payus is better than simple

2022-03-26 03:40

Lanpayus

2022-03-26 06:51

I am glad MR finally made good roster. It took few years of roster changes and grinding, but they once again prove that it's possible. Where is italian CS for example? :( Also their coach seems to be kinda hyped guy, i like it :) I am happy for oSeee, he also proves that it's possible to become young up and coming star from NA, but it needs dedication as well.

2022-03-26 08:45

Godpayus!! This ProLeague proves that MR IEM Fall was not a stroke of luck (for being BO1...).

2022-03-26 10:08

I've been calling, be ready for the moviestar era

2022-03-26 12:41

This Movistar Riders team really has great synergy together, you can see that they all understand each other, everyone seems comfortable in their roles and spots and overall it makes them look decent, I don't think they've enough firepower to compete with the best, nor really a strategical side that can make for the firepower issue, but still they make it work, really nice to see. This Liquid team is looking super good, I'm surprised they lost it, I guess they underestimated their opponent, but sitll I'm sure they will make it deep here, I'm really impressed with how this roster functions, I really think this might be the roster that brings Liquid back to being a tournament contenders.

2022-03-26 14:36