After the opening day of the BLAST.tv Paris Major Challenger stage, it looked like Liquid was heading for the door in Paris. Instantly dropping down to 0-2, there was no more room for error for the North American giant as they reached the BO3 games, and despite some scary moments, Liquid made it through to the Legends stage.
No Chokequid this time
The opening BO1s saw Liquid come close against both Apeks and Forze, losing 16-12 and 16-14 on Ancient and Nuke respectively. While both of these teams are strong opposition, the performances from the North Americans were not what we have come to expect from one of the dark horses to win this Major.
Moving on to play Fluxo in their 0-2 elimination game, Liquid continued to look unconvincing and like a shadow of the team we have come to expect since they added Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis. Dropping map one against the lowest-ranked team in attendance on Nuke, Liquid recovered the series on Inferno and Ancient where they continued to struggle.
Liquid looked far more convincing against their domestic rivals at 1-2, dominating them on Anubis before coming within one round of Major history at 15-0 on Overpass where they unfortunately couldn't convert the pistol round to record the fourth-ever flawless game at a Valve-sanctioned Major.
The level of experience and class that Liquid possessed over their 2-2 opponent Grayhound was evident from the outset. 16-9 on both Anubis and Inferno, Liquid could finally breathe a sigh of relief now that they had advanced to the Legends stage. For YEKINDAR though, the job is far from finished.
It feels good to complete the reverse sweep and to bounce back from two bad losses on the first day but the work still continues. We didn't win something big, we just qualified for the next stage and we need to focus up and play even better if we want to compete in the Legends.
Now that the Liquid are seemingly over the hump and locked in, YEKINDAR is also confident that if everything comes together, they can win this Major together when questioned on the topic.
I hope so, I hope so. Of course, you try to get yourself into the thoughts of winning the Major because if you don't believe in it then you're not going to win it. I believe, and as all my teammates believe, if we play the way we are supposed to play and the way that we want to play and perform individually, we are going to win the Major.
Stephanie Lindgren