Liquid picked Falcons, despite NAF openly preferring the FURIA matchup.
Ivan ‘zweih’ Gogin came out to face the world himself, after being removed from Team Spirit. Given the option between them and Vitality, he went for his former team.
He did not shy away in his reasoning, saying that it was because he knew Spirit well.
“I know their strats, and I can help prepare some anti-strats,” zweih said. “I also know how they like to prepare.”
When James Banks, the host, asked zweih if he wanted revenge, he denied it.
Boris ‘magixx’ Vorobiev replied on-stage that he was expecting this pick, but did not have a clear answer when asked if Spirit had changed their way of playing.
NAF preferred to face FURIA over kyousuke-less Falcons
Before picking Falcons, Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic said he preferred to face FURIA, but that his team overrode him.
It could be telling that NAF would have preferred to play the number one team of the second half of 2025 at full strength, over Falcons with a stand-in in place of their star rifler.
The other matchups will be FURIA vs HEROIC and Vitality vs GamerLegion.
Match Starts
Quarter-finals will start tomorrow, Januray 22nd, with Liquid vs Falcons at 16.00 CEST. HEROIC face FURIA at 19.00.
Vitality plays against GamerLegion at 16.00 on Friday the 23rd of January. Finally, PARIVISION will take on Team Spirit at 19.00 afterwards.
