Liquid made a statement to kick off their ESL Pro League Season 14 campaign, securing a win in two maps over NIP in their opening match of Group D thanks to dominant showings from Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski and Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo.
The victory is a much-needed one for Liquid as they are next set to take on the No.2-ranked team in the world, Gambit, on Thursday at 20:00 — the first time the two rosters will square off in history.
“We really needed some confidence wins for us here, and this is a good place to start,” Liquid‘s head coach Eric “adreN” Hoag said after the match. “We tried getting out of [North America] as soon as possible, we were only there for a couple of days. I feel like in the last six months to a year this game has advanced so fast, and you’re only going to get really good practice in Europe.
“Everyone is sacrificing a lot to be here and represent North America and Liquid. You basically have to live in Europe to play Counter-Strike nowadays, so I hope we can make NA proud and show up.”
EliGE laid waste to NIP, mustering a 1.75 rating
Liquid came into the series gun blazing, racing to a 3-0 start on Inferno before NIP got their first round on the board. A 1vs3 clutch from EliGE kept Liquid in control of the proceedings though, and the 24-year-old star rifler continued to post multi-kills alongside the AWP of FalleN, allowing Liquid to further extend their lead to 8-1.
NIP managed to keep themselves in the match with a string of rounds towards the end of the half, and added a handful more to their tally following the side swap; however, FalleN‘s mobility with the AWP combined with EliGE‘s stellar rifling shut down any hopes of a comeback, with the pair locking down the A bombsite round after round to take the map over the line.
Dust2 unfolded in similar fashion as it was a flood of rounds for Liquid that kicked things off, with EliGE and FalleN continuing to dominate NIP for a 9-1 lead. It took a 1vs3 clutch from Linus “LNZ” Holtäng for the Swedes to finally break through and get their second round, but it was still Liquid who maintained firm control, blazing ahead to a 12-3 scoreline by the break.
Nicolai “device” Reedtz scored a USP-S triple kill to keep NIP in the running at the start of the second half, and the first gun round saw Hampus “hampus” Poser grant his team some much-needed breathing room as he gunned down four Liquid players to shut down a catwalk hit. The situation began to look grim for Liquid as NIP closed the gap to 13-10, but again it was EliGE who stepped up with a triple kill to secure a post-plant situation. The breakthrough round proved to be enough for Liquid to stabilise as they converted the momentum into two more round wins, closing out the map 16-10.
The standings for Group D after the first day of play looks as follows:
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Source: https://www.hltv.org/news/32280/elige-shines-as-liquid-hammer-nip-in-esl-pro-league-opener
