Team Liquid exacts revenge on FUT, Masters Bangkok in sight

Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #18 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak has defeated FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #8 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan qRaxs Doğukan Balaban 2-1 to eliminate them from EMEA Kickoff. After dropping to the lower bracket early on, now only Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius stands in between Liquid and Masters Bangkok.

The match went to three maps. The two teams traded each other's map picks, with Liquid winning Abyss 13-7, and FUT winning Bind 13-11. Liquid then took the deciding map of Haven 13-4.

These two teams faced off earlier in the tournament, with FUT sending Liquid to the lower bracket in a comfortable 2-0 win. Since then, Liquid has gone on a streak of three wins, while FUT suffered a stomp at the hands of Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #2 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso , and then defeated FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #6 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder .

Coming in as the underdogs, Liquid were looking to prove that they were not the same team they were when they last faced FUT. Their growth in their last three games showed, as they came out and dominated on FUT's map pick. The duo of kamyk and nAts were walking all over their opponents, who weren't able to get anything going for themselves. Liquid quickly won the map in 13-7 fashion.

Moving on to Liquid's map pick of Bind, it was FUT who started to come alive. They took a 7-5 lead at half, and won the next pistol to extend their lead. However, a clutch from Keiko gave Liquid the momentum to come back to take the lead at 11-10.

With victory in sight for Liquid, they let slip what could have been a 2-0, as FUT clutched out the last three rounds to take Bind.

“We just kind of panicked in my eyes,” said paTiTek in a post-game interview, but “it didn't really affect us [mentally]” going into the final map of Haven.

After the nail-biter that was Bind, Haven was a complete stomp. On Liquid's defense side, they won countless retakes to take an 8-4 lead at the half. They were even better on the attack, as they flawlessly closed out the map with five straight rounds in the second half. kamyk, who went quiet on the second map, turned up again, putting up a 1.83 rating on the newest agent Tejo.

With this defeat, FUT Esports are eliminated from Kickoff, but their fourth place finish has earned them one Championship Point. Team Liquid will go on to face Team Heretics in the lower final, where the winner will become the final team to qualify for Masters Bangkok.

EMEA Kickoff will conclude with two best of fives:

• Team Heretics vs Team Liquid
• Team Vitality vs TBD