After years and years of failing to perform on the grand stage, it was generally agreed that Team Liquid were under some kind of curse that prevented them from winning a “big event”. They have finished second in 10 high-profile esports tournaments since ESL One Cologne 2016.
It’s not only the defeats, but also the way Liquid lost some of those finals. Numerous times before have we seen Liquid in an excellent position to win it all, but they always found a way to “choke” and drop the title out of their hands.
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One of the most memorable defeats came in the ESL One New York 2018 finals against mousesports, when Liquid went from a 1-2 lead to a 3-2 defeat. But that is in the past and after three long years, the time has finally come for the NA team to lift a trophy.
Looking back at the group stage of IEM Sydney 2019, Team Liquid had a fairly easy time with their opponents. They started off with a 16-9 win over B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape, to which they added 2-0 wins over BIG and NiP to secure a place in the playoffs.
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Due to the format of the tournament, Team Liquid did not have to appear in the quarter-finals but were directly promoted into semi-finals, where they got paired with the seventh-ranked team in the world, MIBR. Despite facing their toughest opponents thus far, Liquid approached the match without any fear and not only won, but dominated the Brazilians, who stood no chance against them.
After an impressive 2-0 win against MIBR, Team Liquid entered the finals as the only team that had not lost a single map at IEM Sydney. On the other side stood Fnatic, who had a much tougher road to the finals, as they had to go through the lower bracket after being knocked out by NRG in the group stage.
Teams kicked off the finals at Cache, which belonged to Fnatic (10-16). The next map (Overpass) was a closely fought one; however, it ended 16-14 for Team Liquid. The North American outfit dominated the third map (Mirage) to win 16-8 and move within one of the title.
The fourth and potentially the final map, Dust II, ended in a historical way. Liquid lost 6-16 and gave their opponents a fighting chance to steal the crown from them. But Team Liquid pushed through on the fifth and final map (Inferno) to win 16-9, thus securing their first major trophy in three years.
]]>The winner will advance to the semi-finals, while the loser will get another chance in the quarterfinals.
Team Liquid started their campaign with a win over Indonesian side BOOT-d[S] with the scoreline of 16-6 on Nuke.
Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken had an impressive performance, with 104.00 ADR and an astonishing 1.76 HLTV rating. Their newest addition, Jake “Stewie2K” Yip, also had an amazing performance with 96.6 ADR and a 1.51 HLTV rating.
Their next match was against BIG, who were playing with their coach Nikola “LEGIJA” Nini? as a stand-in, as their star player Ismailcan “XANTARES” D?rtkarde? was unable to play due to visa issues. Liquid won quite convincingly, beating them 2-0, 16-7 on Dust2 and 16-3 on Overpass. Jake “Stewie2K” Yip was the best player on server that day, with the amazing 1.62 HLTV rating, but Keith “NAF” Markovic was not far behind with a 1.60 HLTV rating.
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Ninjas in Pyjamas` first match at IEM Sydney was a hard-fought 16-13 win over eUnited. Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg stepped up with an amazing performance, netting him 100.7 ADR and 1.58 HLTV rating.
Their next win came from their match against the home team Renegades, where Fredrik “REZ” Sterner went completely mad with an amazing 1.71 HLTV rating. He was a beast on both maps, 100.2 ADR and a 1.69 HLTV rating on Nuke, somehow managing to top that on the second map with 125.6 ADR and a 1.73 HLTV rating. He was clearly the MVP of the match and I highly doubt they would be able to beat Renegades without his monstrous performance.
Both teams had an extra day to prepare for each another due to being undefeated on Day 1.
These teams met twice in 2019, first at the IEM Katowice, where Team Liquid won 16-13 on Overpass. The second match was at the BLAST Pro Series Sao Paulo 2019, where Team Liquid won again on Overpass, but this time with a more convincingly fashion, in a 16-3 stomp.
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Team Liquid vs Ninjas In Pyjamas match result and betting tips
Looking at the odds, Team Liquid are favourites, priced around 1.30, which is about right. NiP had some problems dealing with eUnited and their win over Renegades was mostly due to an amazing performance from Fredrik “REZ” Sterner. If he fails to step up this time, NiP are in for a beating.
Ninjas in Pyjamas could be favoured to win on Train, but I highly doubt we will see a game on it in this match, as Team Liquid perma-bans it quite often.
As for our prediction, we will go with Team Liquid. They are in great form, had no problems beating BIG and BOOT-d[S], which is why we believe they should be able to close this match fairly quickly.
Take Liquid to get it done in two maps!
Prediction: Team Liquid -1.50 maps @ GG Bet
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