EPL Season 9 Champions: Team Liquid

Team Liquid managed to beat G2 in an epic Grand Final to clinch the title at EPL Season 9 Finals. Team Liquid became the first NA team to win the big event in Europe and are now one step closer to the Intel Grand Slam Prize.

G2 reached Grand Final on wings of domestic atmosphere

In the first Semi-final of the EPL Season 9 Finals, the domestic team, G2 Esports faced NRG. The encounter kicked off on G2’s map pick, Dust 2. This leg could be separated into three parts. The first part was the first nine rounds when G2 clinched eight of them. Afterward, NRG gained momentum and won ten rounds in a row. But, then G2 stepped up to secure eight out of the following nine rounds and win the first map with KennyS ending the game with 28 kills. No one else from G2 had more than 18 frags.

• More: ESL Pro League Finals: Team Liquid Outlasts Astralis On Vertigo

Things then moved to Train, and at the half-time, we could already assume who was going to win the game. NRG secured the first half on T side with convincing lead (10-5) and it was just too hard for G2 to come back. Thus, the North American team concluded the second map in their favor (16-7) to move action to the final map, Overpass.

.@G2esports have been the French heroes of CS in Montpellier all week long 🇫🇷

Without a doubt they have made this entire season of #ESLProLeague an absolute treat for all their fans both at home and in the arena

You boys made this Grand Final one to remember pic.twitter.com/614nOXeDMq

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) June 23, 2019

The Frenchmen started off on CT side on Overpass and fully exploited the fact that Overpass favors CTs. They secured the first half in a dominant manner conceding only three rounds. A comeback was a long shot for NRG even though they put significant effort in an attempt to come back. In the end, G2 put the game to bed with final scoreline 16-10. AmaNEk had an outstanding game as he ended up with score 30/10/18 and 127 ADR. The French team sent NRG home and officially ended daps’ chapter in the North American team.

Team Liquid bested mousesports to make the seventh Grand Final in a row

In the other Semi-final of the EPL Season 9 Finals, we saw almost a flawless game by Team Liquid, despite the fact that they almost choked a big lead on the second map. The first leg took place on Liquid’s favorite map, Overpass. They had a very good T-side half (10-5) and it helped them a lot to win the game in convincing fashion (16-8).

• Also Check Out: Big Roster Changes In NiP: Dennis And GeT_RiGhT Leave The Team

Teams then moved on to Nuke. After the first half, it looked like it was going to be another easy victory for the best CS:GO team in the world. They allowed mousesports to barely win two rounds on T-side. But, Nuke again proved to be CT-sided map. Even though Liquid needed “just” three rounds on T side to secure the victory, they didn’t win that much. Karrigan and co. managed to come back and take the game to Overtime after saving five match points.

Woxic played the most important role in mouz’ incredible run on the CT side. Thanks to his incredible triple-kill in the 29th round, mousesports stayed alive. Although Liquid successfully planted the bomb on B site and had 4v2 man advantage, woxic pulled off some insane shots and finally managed to defuse the bomb on time to keep mousesports in the match.

When the game ended, he had 41 kills and was the best-rated player of the second map by far (1.71). Nevertheless, it wasn’t enough for the complete comeback as Liquid prevailed in Overtime (19-17) to reach the seventh consecutive Grand Final.

🇺🇸🇨🇦 NA is taking the ESL #CSGO World Ranking by storm after the #ESLProLeague Finals:

🏆Winners @TeamLiquid stay at no. 1 with double the points of no. 2 @astralisgg.

👆Semi-finalists @NRGgg jump to 4th ahead of #ESLOne Cologne.

Full standings:https://t.co/RGqsAe3ZMM pic.twitter.com/TpWordPlNB

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) June 24, 2019

What a way to end EPL Season 9 Finals

The Grand Final between the domestic team, G2 and Team Liquid was an epic one by all definitions. The highlights of this match are countless as we saw a number of jaw-dropping individual displays.

The first map in this Best-of-5 Grand Final was Dust 2. G2 picked this map and it looked like a good choice after the first ten rounds. G2 was leading 8-2, but then their car started going downhill and their brakes seemed to be broken. The Frenchmen clinched only one out of the following 13 rounds. But they didn’t lose faith especially in front of the domestic crowd. Eventually, they managed to come back after saving one map point. The first leg went into the Overtime, but G2 fell short to win a single round in Overtime. So, Team Liquid stepped in the Grand Final in the best possible way, stealing opponent’s map pick.

• Read: Fastest CS:GO Round Win Ever? Team CR4ZY Wins in 7 Seconds

The second leg on Overpass was just too easy to ride for Team Liquid. North Americans dominated G2 on Overpass allowing them to win only three rounds. Hence, after the second map, it looked like the Grand Final was over. But it was just a moment when the atmosphere started heating up.

Great battle on Nuke and epic end on Inferno

The following map was G2’s pick, Nuke. It was a wild ride on Nuke and the game could easily go either way. Neither team managed to maintain momentum on their side for a longer period. However, G2 Esports prevailed in the end to prolong the Grand Final at least for one more map.

The fourth and the last map of the Grand Final was Inferno. This leg saw a big battle on both sides and nerve-racking and heartbreaking turn of events. The first half ended in Liquid’s favor who won it on CT side with minimal lead (8-7). In the second half, players of both teams were pulling off some outstanding plays, especially shox and Stewie2k. However, the most important display was made by Twistzz who stepped up in the most important moment for his team.

Unbelievable 1v3 clutch by Twistzz

In the last round of regular time, Liquid had a weak buy and tried to occupy B bombsite. There, shox and KennyS managed to take down four Liquid’s players and shox dealt 30 HP of damage to Twistzz who was the last player standing on Liquid’s side. He managed to plant the bomb. A couple of seconds later, he won 1v3 clutch with only 1 HP left on his health bar. Obviously, he was a little bit lucky, but we must give credit to him for his amazing skills. The game went into triple Overtime where Liquid saved another map point.

At last, Team Liquid earned three championship points and converted the second one to the win. They prevented the game from going to the Vertigo and finished G2 off on Inferno (25-22) to win the third big tournament in a row.

Let’s hear it from the Champion!@Stewie #ESLProLeague pic.twitter.com/5MFoCiUD7t

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) June 23, 2019

Liquid took $250,000 home, and their player, EliGE claimed an MVP award for his great performance throughout the entire EPL Season 9 Finals. On top of all said, by winning EPL Season 9 Finals, Liquid came one step closer to Intel Grand Slam Season 2. This is their third event from IGL Series for Liquid and they need just one more to win IGL Season 2 and $1,000,000 prize.