Team Liquid and MAD Lions each pulled off third-map victories Saturday, with the Lions twice needing overtime, in advancing to the Round of 4 at the single-elimination Blast Premier Fall Showdown.
By virtue of their triumphs, the two victors will face each other Sunday for the chance to claim one of two spots in the Fall Finals.
Liquid ousted Virtus.pro 2-1 in a back-and-forth affair while the Lions dropped their opening map against G2 Esports before rallying in a 2-1 decision.
After building a 14-5 lead to open the match on Inferno, Liquid held on for a 16-14 win to take the early map lead. VP came back strong to take an easy 16-9 win on Vertigo to even the match, but Liquid shook off a 10-0 VP run on Overpass to win 16-12 and move on.
Jake “Stewie2K” Yip topped Liquid with 68 kills while Canada’s Keith “NAF” Markovic had a team-high plus-13 kills-to-deaths differential. Mareks “YEKINDAR” Galinskis of Latvia led all players with 73 kills and a plus-17 K/D differential.
MAD Lions overcame a rough start, losing 16-4 on Ancient to open the match. G2 was two points from a sweep, leading 14-12 on Mirage, before the Lions rallied for a 19-16 win in extras. The Lions then came from behind again, turning an 11-5 deficit into a 19-17 OT stunner.
The winners incredibly had only one player finish with a positive K/D differential: Justinas “jL” Lekavicius of Lithuania, who led his squad at plus-3 along with 68 kills. G2 was carried by Nikola “NiKo” Kovac of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who posted match-bests of 82 kills and a plus-20 K/D ratio.
All matches are best-of-three in the playoffs, which run through Sunday. The top two teams proceed to the Fall Finals. The winners take home $30,000 and earn 1,500 Blast Premier points in the $162,500 event.
The Round of Four continues with two matches Sunday:
Heroic vs. OG
Team Liquid vs. MAD Lions
Blast Premier: Fall Showdown prize pool:
1-2. $30,000 — TBD
3-4. $16,250 — TBD
5-8. $10,000 — Dignitas, Complexity Gaming, Virtus,pro, G2 Esports
9-16. $3,750 — POGGERZ, Team Fiend, MIBR, paiN Gaming, 9z Team, Movistar Riders, Evil Geniuses, Lynn Vision Gaming
–Field Level Media
