Liquid already out of the Austin Major!

With the recruitment of Twistzz and then NertZ, Liquid had made their ambition clear about their roster. They wanted to establish themselves as one of the best teams in the world. The Austin Major was the perfect audition. Unfortunately, the wagon fell of the rails. Lynn Vision, The MongolZ and then MOUZ took care of Liquid in three consecutive series to end their short stint in Stage 3. Let's review what happened.

Tragic first day

Entering the competition straight in the third stage can be both a blessing and a curse. A team has to be able to switch on immediately and handle the tricky best-of-one's that pertain to the Swiss System. Liquid kicked off their campaign against Lynn Vision, who had already played 16 maps in Austin, from the very beginning of Stage 1. That difference was clear as day. Even if on paper the Liquid roster is supposed to be miles ahead of Lynn Vision, no individual could actually step up in that game and the powerhouse got stopped promptly in their tracks on the offensive side, score 3:9. This margin was way too thin to hope for a comeback. At the end of the day, no player on the Liquid side displayed more than 11 frags. A non starter really.

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Shellshocked, Liquid walked then into battle against the terrifying MongolZ, a match-up that famously and historically never went well for siuhy and his crew. Once again, with the exception of NertZ, the output from the individuals turned out to be vastly insufficient. On the other hand, bLitz toyed with them, boht in terms of frags and in terms of calling, as he closed this game with an impressive 1.85 rating. We could not even blame a slow start in this scenario, as Liquid actually started with an original 5:0 lead, only to see The MongolZ catch up and take firm control of the game in the second half. No conversation, they were outmatched.

Waking up against MOUZ

Back against the walls, Liquid kicked off their survival series vs MOUZ the same unfortunate way, without any chance. They lost Dust2 13:8 (their third map in a row without double digit rounds won in Austin) in spite of a couple of well inspired stacks on their defensive side. Truth be told, siuhy did anticipate a few of the MOUZ attack correctly but at some points frags have to come through and once again the output was not here. As Nuke started, we were all ready to pack up and send Liquid home. Yet, for the first time at the Major, we saw a reaction. Voices got louder and the energy rose as NertZ and (more importantly) ultimate started to find impact. A powerful defense saw Liquid turn a 1:3 deficit start into a 8:4 half time score, the momentum had shifted. Winning the pistol round and converting was all they needed to send us to a third map with brio. Mirage, final and deciding map, will spawn nightmares in the mind of Liquid. An incredible defense in the second half saw them lead 12:10, with two match and series point. In the first overtime, once again, Liquid were positioned at 15:13 with two additional possibilities to close the game. They couldn't. In spite of a spectacular 45-frags map from ultimate, MOUZ held strong and crossed the finish line first, sending Liquid home. The bad aftertaste for the fan comes from seeing their team genuinely playing great Counter-Strike, only too little too late.

NAF's future uncertain

Austin marked the end of the worst season in NAF's career. There is no other way to put it. In an interview with BLAST, Keith Markovic revealed that he did not know whether he would be on the roster for the next season. The BLAST Major marked the sixth consecutive event with a sub 1.0 rating for NAF.

The eye-test doesn't paint a better picture. Even if NAF is comically famous for not showing tons of emotions in his gameplay, the images coming out of Austin gave us a feeling of defeat. It is unclear at this point whether a few positional changes impacted NAF dramatically. Over the years, Markovic had always been described as one of the most consistent and reliable players at the top level. We're far from that image nowadays. The summer break will tell us what the future holds for him.