After a hard fought battle in the grand final, Team Liquid came out on top as they edged out fnatic in a very close match. To be honest, the only problem Liquid had on this tournament occurred in the grand final, everything else was smooth sailing for the North American CSGO team. Below you will be able to read our short IEM Sydney 2019 recap.
© ESL
As mentioned above, Team Liquid only dropped two maps in this tournament, and that happened in the finals. Liquid had it easy in the opening match against BOOT-d[S], as they trashed Asian CSGO roster, 16-9 on Nuke.
After advancing through to the upper bracket of their group, Liquid was matched against weakened BIG. Given the fact that BIG lacked their star player, XANTARES, no one was giving them a chance against Liquid. German organization was stomped on both Overpass and Dust 2, winning 10 only 10 rounds over the course of two maps.
Even though NiP came close, they were unable to steal a map from Liquid. For some reason, NiP decided to pick Nuke against Liquid and that backfired massively. Even though NiP was able to win 11 rounds in total, Liquid was in control of this match from the start.
After going 10-5 on Overpass, we all thought that NiP will force a decider in this best-of-3 series. However, poor performance from the Swedish CSGO roster secured a 16-14 victory for Liquid on Overpass.
Liquid was matched against ever so dangerous MIBR in the IEM Sydney semi-finals. Even though Liquid won this best-of-3 series without dropping a map, I would dare to say that this series could have easily gone the other way around. Liquid was a better team on Mirage, and they have won it without problems. However, MIBR stepped up on Nuke, but sadly, they were eliminated in the overtime.
© ESL
To be honest, I was not expecting a complete brawl in this best-of-5 series. It all started on Cache, a map that Liquid hates. They were stomped by fnatic there, and all of a sudden, Liquid was 1-0 behind.
However, Team Liquid picked up the pace, and they tied the series on Overpass. Fnatic made it competitive and at one point, it seemed like fnatic will steal Liquid’s map pick. Liquid pulled through somehow as they sealed a 16-14 victory on Overpass.
I was expecting a lot more from fnatic on Mirage, especially on the T-side. However, the Swedish CSGO team was not able to find a solution for Team Liquid aggressive plays. But still, it does not change the fact that fnatic should have played better, as they were only able to win two rounds on the CT-side, leaving them with 8 rounds in total.
Now that Liquid was able to defeat fnatic on their map pick, we were expecting a 3-1 ending. Somehow, fnatic showed up on Dust 2, which is not a good map for them and they left Liquid with only 6 rounds to their name.
Inferno was straightforward. Fnatic was never known for their matches on Inferno, and Liquid took advantage of that. They left fnatic with 4 rounds to their name in the first half, and at that point, it was all over. Even though Swedes tried their best to pull it back, the deficit was too big. Final score, 16:9.
Russel was brutal throughout the entire event. Even though he was not rated as the best player in this tournament, he was clearly Liquid’s best player in the grand final, hence why he scooped the MVP award. Below you can find some of his stats from IEM Sydney 2019.
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