Team Liquid Upset Virtus Pro 2-0 at IEM San Jose

Team Liquid crushed an Incomplete Virtus Pro 2-0 to advance to the semi-finals at IEM San Jose. Liquid beat VP 16-2 on Overpass(Liquid’s pick) and on Mirage(VP’s pick).

Overpass opened with an ace by FugLy that stopped VP’s push through bathrooms. While Virtus Pro is playing with a stand-in, CSGOLounge’s Michu in for snax, they and their fans should expect more out of them at a LAN event. Their first win came during their first rifle round on the back of a byali 3k. Rounds six and seven saw Team Liquid keeping at all of their members alive, give or take 1. Round eight saw VP’s second and last win of the map off of a strong A long execute and out duel of Elige. Personal highlight was the following round in which Hiko was left in a 1v2 against PashaBiceps and Byali. Hiko hit a fading away shot on sniper window on B site before turning around and out-shooting byali, who was on site. Hike smiled and nodded his head steadily as he nabbed a seventh round for his team. Nobody on Team Liquid had more than nine deaths while only one person on VP, byali, had a kill count in the double digits. Semmler took up for VP’s stand in Michu, but michu delivered the least kills, by 1, and the lowest player rating of .28. The lowest player rating on TL was 1.26.

Mirage was considerably more competitive, though 16-4 would mean VP technically did 100% better than they did, despite it closing out at 16-9. Liquid won the pistol round on an A retake after VP trades one for one on the bombsite. Liquid go up 5-0 before VP took their first round on an A take. VP picked up the next four but not without contention. Their losing streak ends on a double fake A in which they never planted the bomb once they made it on site. Liquid went on to win the half 9-6, losing the last round of the half. Pasha and Byali held B site during pistol round, grabbing three and two kills respectively. Liquid would go on to win a force up next round and with it, more or less, the game. Elige led his team in frags with 27 while pasha led his with 21. VP saw an overall better performance, but Hiko was right when, after the win, he said, “No snax, no win.”

When he was asked if Team Liquid could win, a smile broke over Hiko’s face and he calmly said, “Yes.”

Team Liquid moves on to face Natus Vincere in the semi-finals as the last American team.