Outsiders qualify for Legends Stage, Liquid win NA derby

The second round of today's matches has concluded with Outsiders and Liquid picking up wins.

Outsiders became the fourth team to advance from the Challengers Stage with their win against FORZE, who will have their last chance to qualify tomorrow.

In the second game of the day we had the NA derby, where it was Liquid who prevailed, keeping their Legend Stage dreams alive as they go into the deciding series tomorrow. For Complexity this is the end of the road at the Major, as they are eliminated with a 1-3 record.

The first map of the CIS clash was a story of CT sides. FORZE started off the series with a commanding defensive half on Dust2, at one point being 11-0 up and in the end limiting their opponents to just three rounds, with three members of the Outsiders roster finishing the half with five kills or less.

Once Outsiders got to the CT side they got a good start with the help of Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis's clutch in the pistol round. That enabled them to establish a good economy straight away and start mounting a comeback.

YEKINDAR and Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali were the stars for the Outsiders CT side, with both getting crucial multikills and clutches. Outsiders chained eight rounds in a row to get the scoreline to 12-11, before an attack on the B site with pistols gave FORZE their first T round. That returned the confident playstyle of the young FORZE team, with a couple of executes on the B site getting them a 16-12 win.

The second map of the series was Mirage, the pick of FORZE. It was once again FORZE who got off to the better start, but this time Outsiders were quicker to respond. After going 4-0 down, they put together a streak of six rounds, before a back-and-forth ending to the half got Outsiders a one round lead at the half.

Outsiders started off the second half with a successful B rush in the pistol round. They followed that up with a comfortable half, finding holes in the FORZE defence and exploiting them on their way to a 16-10 map win.

The deciding map was Inferno, with both teams sporting at least a 75% win rate on the map. Neither roster was able to take control of the first half, with them never being separated by more than two rounds. FORZE were able to get a couple of low economy rounds to work in their favor, which led to them winning the half 8-7.

A pistol round win for Outsiders evened the scores at 8-8 and they never looked back, confidently denying the flustered FORZE much success on their T side. Outsiders qualified for the Legends Stage with the victory, while FORZE have another chance tomorrow.

The North American derby started off on Liquid's pick of Ancient. Complexity were able to start off with a pistol round win, but Liquid quickly started to rack up rounds, getting up to a 5-2 scoreline on the back of Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic's clutch. Towards the end of the half, Complexity got themselves back into the game and were thus able to take a narrow lead at the break.

The CT side proved more successful for Liquid, who after losing to a Complexity force-buy and going down 11-8, started to shut out their opponents, with Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon's clutch at 11-10 proving crucial for Liquid as they came out 16-12 winners.

Next up was Vertigo, where Liquid proved comfortable against the attacks of Complexity, who oddly proved more dangerous on eco rounds, where they hit some beautiful shots on the Desert Eagles, than on full rifle rounds. Ignoring the previously mentioned rounds, Liquid kept up a healthy round advantage all throughout the half which finished with a 12-3 scoreline.

While Complexity started their CT side by winning two rounds, they quickly allowed Liquid to get up to match point with a 15-5 scoreline. The Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou led team managed to get seven straight rounds to get into double digits, including a 2v4 retake by JT and Justin "⁠FaNg⁠" Coakley, before eventually falling 16-12 which ended their Major run.