Liquid best paiN to set up upper final match against FURIA

The North American side claimed revenge against paiN after losing their first head-to-head match-up in DreamHack Open March.

Liquid have secured a spot in the upper bracket final of cs_summit 8 after beating paiN in a two-map series, setting up a battle against FURIA to see who will advance directly to the grand final of the Regional Major Ranking event.

"In the other games we didn't put in as much work as we did for this one and the last one," Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski said regarding the clean victory. He also touched on Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo's comments after their last match, in which the Brazilian captain had revealed that Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip may take over calling duties, explaining that FalleN had mostly been calling at the start of rounds, while Stewie2K already did most of the mid-rounding.

EliGE led the server in Liquid's 2-0 win

"It's just very difficult when you're not the aggressive player calling stuff," he went on to explain. "We think that it's easier for the player in the action to do most of the calling, so I think just giving that to him has made it a little bit easier." EliGE also added that Eric "⁠adreN⁠" Hoag was helping correct errors more than adding new strategies, stating that their playbook was already deep but that they were making "very basic mistakes."

Liquid were unleashed coming into paiN's pick of Nuke, showing none of the issues they'd displayed in earlier series as they took a comfortable 12-3 lead at halftime led by the trio of EliGE, Stewie2K, and Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic. Match point for Liquid came swiftly after the side swap, with paiN adding a few rounds to their tally before the map was brought to an end.

Dust2 was a closer affair as Rafael "⁠saffee⁠" Costa kept his side in contention, although it was still Liquid who led at the break, pulling three rounds ahead of their Brazilian opponents. The second half was more of a back-and-forth, with Liquid reaching match point and paiN making a bid for overtime, only to be cut short on round 29 as EliGE and company took the map over the line.

cs_summit 8Best of 3 paiNMatchpage 0 2 27th May 2021 Liquid 7Nuke 16 13Dust2 16

paiN	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Rafael 'saffee' Costasaffee	50 - 33	+17	97.3	1.33
Gabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoNEKIZ	31 - 40	-9	74.0	0.93
Wesley 'hardzao' Lopeshardzao	22 - 30	-8	51.3	0.79
Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourtbiguzera	22 - 38	-16	57.7	0.72
Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoPKL	26 - 42	-16	54.8	0.67

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	38 - 32	+6	95.1	1.30
Keith 'NAF' MarkovicNAF	40 - 29	+11	83.3	1.23
Michael 'Grim' WinceGrim	42 - 29	+13	68.7	1.17
Jake 'Stewie2K' YipStewie2K	33 - 30	+3	68.3	1.12
Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFalleN	30 - 31	-1	62.9	1.03

Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski Age: 23 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1447 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.68 Rafael 'saffee' Costa Age: 26 Team: paiN Rating 1.0: 1.23 Maps played: 148 KPR: 0.82 DPR: 0.60 Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo Age: 29 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 1401 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.60 Keith 'NAF' Markovic Age: 23 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1408 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.63 Eric 'adreN' Hoag Age: 31 Team: LiquidC FURIA #6 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoPaytyn 'junior' JohnsonKaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato paiN #32 Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoGabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoWesley 'hardzao' LopesRodrigo 'biguzera' BittencourtRafael 'saffee' Costa Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip Age: 23 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 1383 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.68 Liquid #9 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipMichael 'Grim' Wince