Liquid have shockingly fallen 0-3 from Stage 3 without winning a map.
“I just thought about the round swing I’d get,” said nicx about his timely 1v3 ninja defuse. He also added that he never felt nervous throughout Train, despite being 3-9 down.
Team Liquid fell into the 0-2 bracket by losing best-of-one matches to Team Spirit and The MongolZ. Passion UA had losses to G2 and Falcons.
Liquid came in as a favorite to win this series and stay alive in Budapest, but Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski now fell out of contention to his former team.
Passion UA win Train after 3-9 down
Passion UA managed a great comeback on their pick of Train. Liquid started out with a 9-3 CT half, with EliGE playing well but visibly frustrated.
The three rounds they lost proved crucial, as Passion UA set up a defensive wall. All of Liquid’s B attacks were stifled by timely aggression, and Nick ‘nicx’ Lee showed his worth on this map.
He was a constant nuisance for Liquid and closed out the map with a key 2v2 win. The Ukrainian, Vladyslav ‘Kvem’ Korol, was also crucial in defeating Liquid on the Ivy position.
Liquid’s pick starts disastrously
The map kicked off with close rounds, with one problem for Liquid: they all went the way of Passion UA. Liquid were getting kills but Passion consistently closed out the rounds with Kvem shining.
Passion then went on a tear, getting up to 6-1, until something devastating happened for Liquid. While up 3v1 in a post-plant, nicx defused the bomb with multiple smokes stacked on it. About this, nicx said after the match that he “just thought about the round swing he’d get” from the defuse.
EliGE tried to knife the smoke, but missed every swipe. Then, Liquid lost 4 rounds in a row, and luckily nicked the last one.
A late comeback
Liquid managed to get within 2 rounds of Passion, with a very dominant CT-side. They won 6 rounds in a row, but Passion slowly but surely came alive with openings from Kvem.
That ended up being enough, as Passion beat Liquid with two slow offensive rounds. The last round came off the back of a timely mid flank from Johnny ‘JT’ Theodosiou, who had the highest round swing on the server.
Liquid fall 0-3, while Passion UA live to fight another day, ousting their former teammate.
Match Statistics
Liquid vs Passion UA – | Starladder Budapest Stage 3 Round 3
11-13 (Train) – nicx | 1.48 rating
10-13 (Mirage) – JT | 1.62 rating
