Team Liquid back to winning ways against NIP

It has been with their heads held high, that Team Liquid has returned to Europe for the second part of the season beginning with the BLAST Fall Groups. The interviews before the tournament revealed some of the newfound confidence, that the North Americans picked up during IEM Cologne towards the end of last season.

A key component in the resurgence has been the addition of Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis, who is not yet confirmed as a permanent member though. But he should be, and today’s match against Ninjas in Pyjamas showed why.

Team Liquid started out on the CT side on Overpass, where they quickly picked NIP’s map pick apart. A 13-2 lead left little to no hope for the Swedish Ninjas in the second half. But in a game of CT sides, NIP recovered and almost managed to go all the way before losing a key round at 14-13. Liquid closed the map and took the match to Mirage, where the NA team had a 100% win rate (Three matches) during the last three months.

Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis spearheaded both the attack and defense for Liquid, who had a 6-9 deficit to catch up on in the second half on their CT side. Liquid took the lead at 11-10, but then NIP started to switch up their pace. NIP found themselves in a 5vs3 situation 14-12 up, but then lost the round, which saw Liquid overtake the momentum which was enough to secure overtime. Here both EliGE and YEKINDAR passed the 30-kill mark to set up Liquid for the overtime win to seal the match.

Team Liquid advance to the next round, where they face Heroic, while NIP drops down to the last chance bracket, where they will face the loser of Heroic/Liquid for the last spot to BLAST Fall Finals.

Team Liquid - Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 | BLAST Premier Fall Groups

16-13 (Overpass) | oSee – 1.45 Rating / 26-15 K-D / 79.6 ADR

19-17 (Mirage) | YEKINDAR – 1.63 Rating / 26-12 K-D / 97.5 ADR

MVP: Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis Rating / K-D / ADR