Team Liquid complete upset as they takedown World #1

Team Liquid have delivered the first surprise of the event after taking down World #1 in NAVI with a 2-1 result in the opening round of BLAST Premier World Final. With the victory, FalleN's men have managed to put an end to NAVI's 10 match winning streak and are now through to the upper semi-finals of the event, where they will be taking upon the winner between Gambit vs. Heroic.

The game started on Liquid’s pick of Overpass, where the Russian-Ukrainian squad kicked off with a pistol win and converted the following round. Once the North American squad got their economy going and rifles in their hands, FalleN’s men grabbed two of their own to equalize the score. After that, NAVI got momentum and strung together 4 rounds in a row to go up 2-6 on the scoreboard. However, the Russian-Ukrainian side found it hard to keep the Liquid roster out of the bombsites in the long run, as they secured five out of the seven remaining rounds of the half. When sides switched and Liquid got on the defensive side, the map was quickly running away from s1mple and company who only added three rounds to the scoreboard before Stewie2k and company closed out Overpass 16-11. The duo of Stewie2k and NAF stepped up in several key moments and finished off the map with 24 frags each, helping Liquid to extend their winning streak on Overpass to 9 games. 

NAVI answered back on their own map pick of Dust2 and tied up the series after closing it out 16-7, with all players finishing with a +1.00 Rating. Liquid started off good with a 3-4 lead on the CT-side after losing the first two rounds, but from there on, the game turned into a NAVI show as the Russian-Ukrainian side won thirteen out of sixteen rounds before completing step 1 of the reverse sweep. NAVI’s B1T ended on top of the scoreboard with a 1.43 Rating and 84.2 ADR. 

Inferno turned into a nightmare for NAVI, who couldn’t keep up with Liquid’s fast and aggressive moves in the first half. The North American squad only lost one gun round before the second half and went to halftime with a massive 11-4 advantage. In the second half, Liquid picked up their first pistol round in the series and quickly made it to match point on the scoreboard by winning the first four rounds of the half. NAVI fought to add three more rounds to the scoreboard before FalleN’s men wrapped up the series by closing out the map 16-7. 

Overpass: 16-11 ~ Stewie2k - 1.47 Rating / 24-18 K/D - 107.1 ADR

Dust2: 7-16 ~ B1T - 1.43 Rating - 19-9 K/D - 84.2 ADR

Inferno: 16-7 ~ NAF - 1.75 Rating - 24-9 K/D - 106.7 ADR 

MVP: Keith “NAF” Markovic - 1.29 Rating - 64-41 K/D - 86.8 ADR - 68.5% KAST