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Liquid move past Na`Vi; to ELEAGUE grand final

In two maps, Liquid defeated Natus Vincere (16-13 Dust2, 16-9 Overpass) and secured a spot in the ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018 grand final.

The second semi started on Dust2, Liquid's map pick. The North Americans bounced back from a pistol round loss thanks to Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella's Scout triple, and they were looking to advance the lead even further when Natus Vincere shut down a B-split with a pistol-buy stack.

Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev then got the AWP in his hands and secured a quad-kill in round six, getting things rolling for the CIS side. However, the back-and-forth continued, Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko's 2K from CT spawn was key to Natus Vincere winning their fifth, but Liquid replied with a fast short push on a force-buy, which finally broke Natus Vincere's momentum. Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski and co. did a similar strat in the following full-buy, catching their opponents in a transition from long to finish the half 10-5 up.

Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic denied Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov's 1v3 attempt in the pistol, however, Natus Vincere went for a full investment in round two and AK-47's on Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev and s1mple did work, giving them the round and getting them back into the game. Zeus then called a couple of B-hits, that worked out perfectly, giving Natus Vincere the lead, 13-12. Just when things started looking grim for Liquid, the North Americans squeezed out four tight rounds back-to-back and claimed their map pick 16-13.

NAF was a standout player for Liquid

Natus Vincere grabbed a 3-0 start on Overpass to bounce back from the map 1 loss, but Liquid would put up lockdown defenses on A and B in the next two rounds to establish themselves on the CT side. Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev and co. broke into the B site do add their first full buy to the board, but that was all they managed for a while, as NAF and Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo excelled for their team and got them to a 7-4 lead.

Liquid went up 9-4 after they managed to delay Natus Vincere enough to deny the bombplant, however, off the back of flamie's four kills, Natus Vincere claimed the last two rounds and finished the half with a reasonable 9-6 scoreline. Two more were added to the board by Natus Vincere, starting with the pistol, but a blunder in the second anti-eco saw Liquid take back control of the game (12-8).

Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken then plowed through Natus Vincere's defenses, securing the ace, which his team followed up on to take the 14-8 lead. s1mple's team mustered a round after that, but a crazy 4K from TACO turned a 2v5 round on its head, setting up Liquid for a 16-9 win.

ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018Best of 3

Natus Vincere

Matchpage 0 2 28th July 2018

Liquid 13Dust2 16 9Overpass 16

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Denis 'electroNic' SharipovelectroNic	35 - 39	-4	87.3	1.05
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie	37 - 38	-1	73.6	1.04
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	37 - 38	-1	79.5	1.01
Danylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoZeus	33 - 41	-8	75.2	0.96
Ioann 'Edward' SukharievEdward	30 - 40	-10	60.6	0.83

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Keith 'NAF' MarkovicNAF	45 - 34	+11	88.9	1.34
Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0	36 - 32	+4	86.2	1.28
Russel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenTwistzz	42 - 32	+10	81.0	1.22
Epitacio 'TACO' de MeloTACO	35 - 36	-1	80.1	1.11
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	37 - 38	-1	70.4	1.01