Liquid EliGE on losing the Heroic 1-vs-5: ‘Everything that could have went wrong, went wrong’

Nobody desires to be on the unsuitable finish of a spotlight, particularly one that may resolve the result of a pivotal match. It doesn’t get a lot worse than Gambit losing a one-vs-four to cadiaN and Heroic that gained the Danish aspect ESL Professional League season 13. However Liquid’s one-vs-five collapse in the quarterfinals of season 14, additionally to Heroic, is a robust contender.

Trailing 12-3 at halftime on Inferno, map three of a playoff collection, Liquid pulled off an incredible comeback on the CT aspect. They gained 12 of the subsequent 14 rounds to take a 15-14 lead going into the ultimate spherical of regulation. Stewie and FalleN’s AWP duo had eradicated 4 Heroic gamers in that spherical, leaving Ismail “refrezh” Ali because the final one alive. Then, chaos ensued.

The one-vs-five clutch from refrezh despatched the map to additional time, the place Heroic’s momentum carried them to victory, delivering a gut-wrenching loss to Liquid after they spent a lot vitality preventing again within the second half. However Liquid’s Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski isn’t involved that one thing like this can occur once more quickly.

“When it comes to speaking about that stuff [happening] sooner or later, it’s so irregular that we in all probability gained’t be in a scenario like that for one more couple of years,” he informed Dot Esports. “It feels similar to every part that might have went unsuitable, went unsuitable.”

EliGE talked about that the refrezh play reminded him of an analogous clutch from present Staff Vitality participant Richard “shox” Papillon towards Luminosity in 2016. This was a one-vs-four with the CT/T sides switched, but it surely was on the identical website on Inferno and likewise throughout a pivotal spherical late within the collection in an necessary ESL Professional League occasion—the grand finals of season three.

With no grenades and no time to spare, shox dropped 4 gamers from that legendary LG roster to get the defuse and maintain G2 alive in additional time of map 5. 5 years later, Liquid misplaced their spherical in a strikingly comparable style. And like LG, they acknowledged what else may have been finished solely with the present of hindsight.

“We didn’t double-peek on the man, but it surely’s arduous as a result of there’s a really actual risk that refrezh is sitting in pit,” EliGE stated to Dot. “And in the event that they double-peeked, then he may have remoted the man at triple and killed that man, after which it’s one other one-vs-one in website and he is aware of [Stewie] is in emo (darkish). My mistake is lots simpler [to learn from], I may have simply been extra affected person as an alternative of operating towards the smoke.”

The notion of every part that might go unsuitable did is an apt description of Liquid’s on-line period over the previous two years. After a sluggish begin in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic moved all of CS:GO on-line. And outdoors of profitable the NA division of ESL Professional League season 11, Liquid didn’t add any new trophies from half a 12 months of strictly regional competitors.

Then, in October 2020, the workforce started touring to Europe to compete within the extra prestigious worldwide occasions. EliGE stated touring backwards and forwards between Europe and NA has been mentally taxing, and that’s been made worse by some less-than-stellar outcomes and regularly having to play on-line—one thing that the Liquid veteran says the workforce has by no means been good at.

“I feel that’s simply very troublesome for our workforce specifically as a result of we’ve by no means been superb at taking part in on-line,” he stated. “Even in 2019 after we had been profitable lots, we gained like two [offline] tournaments in a row, received owned in an ECS qualifier on-line, then gained one other event the subsequent week after. It’s been powerful for us to have good depth ranges after we’re on-line. That’s the place most of our issues come from.”

The web competitors continues for them heading into BLAST Premier Fall 2021, the place they kick off the primary set of group play motion towards Vitality, Astralis, and Evil Geniuses. Vitality are coming off an impressive showing at ESL Pro League after what’s been a down 12 months for the workforce. Each EG and Astralis are taking part in short-handed, with EG’s stanislaw and Brehze taking a step again to give attention to their psychological well being and gla1ve taking time without work forward of the delivery of his first little one.

EliGE stated if Liquid don’t make it out of this group, it “could be one of many worst tournaments of the 12 months” for them. However he’s much less involved about placing on a robust displaying only a month or so forward of the PGL Stockholm Main. He simply desires to lighten the Liquid journey schedule.

In the event that they end prime two within the group, they go straight to the BLAST Fall Finals in late November. However Liquid must fly again to NA after group play to compete within the IEM Fall NA RMR occasion. And in the event that they don’t end prime two of their BLAST group, they must fly again to Europe for the BLAST Fall Showdown, which begins simply two days after IEM Fall NA ends.

To keep away from that scenario, which EliGE believes could be “an enormous psychological hit” on the workforce, they’ll must get off to a robust begin towards arguably the hardest workforce of their group in Vitality. That match takes place on Sept. 16 at 12pm CT.

However whereas Liquid are nonetheless ironing out their journey plans and dealing on their on-line play, they’re not missing in one thing that might be pivotal to deep runs at BLAST, IEM, and the Main—depth.

“Since we began touring in October, going to Europe for month-long spans to play within the on-line tournaments, we’re all collectively in particular person,” EliGE stated. “The depth is certainly again.”