The first semifinal of the 14th CS:GO Major has been determined following the conclusion of the second quarterfinal between ENCE Esports and Team Liquid.
Finnish underdog ENCE pulled off a crazy sweep against an underperforming Liquid, who struggled heavily in both maps played today. ENCE chose Mirage as the first map and Liquid went with Inferno as the second.
Related: Na’Vi defeat FaZe in the first quarterfinal at the IEM Katowice Major
Quarterfinal No. 2: Team Liquid vs. ENCE Esports
ENCE won Mirage 16-11
The first half of Mirage was tight as both sides put rounds together. ENCE continued to hit the A bomb site, while Liquid traded out narrow defensive wins with Jake “Stewie2k” Yip dealing the most damage on CT. ENCE led at the half 8-7 before dropping the second pistol round.
The Fins reset Liquid twice on the North American’s T side, but a pivotal two-vs-five ace clutch from Keith “NAF” Markovic kept the NA team’s hopes alive in the first map. Despite the massive play, Liquid still gave ENCE the map one victory because of their weak offenses.
ENCE won Inferno 19-16
Liquid fought tooth and nail for their late T rounds after being stomped 5-1 at the start. After looking tilted early on, the NA stars persevered and denied ENCE’s good half start at 10-5 by cleaning up the bomb sites and denying retakes left and right.
ENCE chipped at the NA lead with a second pistol round win, but Liquid dominated on CT until they hit 15-8. Eventually, ENCE adapted and prevented Liquid from winning game point seven times in a row to force overtime against a passive and scared Liquid, who were playing like previous iterations of TL that were known for choking in 2016. The Finnish side then completed the comeback with clean wins on both T and CT in the end. Aleksi “allu” Jalli finished the game at a 36 kill top frag, with 26 of those being on the AWP.
Allu and crew will now move on to the semifinals of the Katowice Major, where they’ll compete against Natus Vincere for a spot in the grand finals. Their match will take place on Saturday, March 2. The Major continues tomorrow at 9am CT with quarterfinal games featuring Astralis vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas and MIBR vs. Renegades.
