Fnatic Eliminates Liquid From VCT Masters Iceland 2021: Stats, Highlights, Interview

The lower bracket European clash at the VCT 2021: Stage 2 Masters - Reykjavík came to an end with Fnatic handing a clean ‘2-0’ defeat to Team Liquid. It was a tight match between the two European teams who had both fallen to the lower bracket early in the tournament. However, this only seemed to have motivated them as they kept pushing ahead, only to face off each other tonight. Despite the clean sweep for Fnatic, it was not an easy task as Liquid put on quite the show. The teams went hard and this reflected in their gameplay, which was full of some really stunning clutches and highlight reels.

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Fnatic Defeats Liquid ‘2-0’ to Win the European Showdown

Fnatic has found its groove and they seem unstoppable at the moment. Even Liquid could not force them down to a decider as they simply refuse to lose anymore, staying undefeated in their lower bracket run so far. MAGNUM who has not been in the spotlight so far was their man of the hour tonight, leading them from the front with his Skye and Cypher combination across the two maps.

Team Liquid who usually plays solid defence, could not hold the sites against the tactical dissection brought forth by Fnatic on the first map. They did come back slightly in the following map, but as has been the story this tournament were massively let down with their brittle attacking skills.

Result: Fnatic Eliminates Liquid

The first map observed Fnatic going berserk on their most favored map Bind, which was surprisingly not banned by Team Liquid. Here Fnatic displayed a great attacking half, though Liquid started to get a hang of their executes it was a bit too late. In the second half Liquid despite a good start struggled to enter the site, as Fnatic crippled them by winning 5 round in a row and soon after winning the map ‘13-10’.

Liquid on their map pick Ascent did go on to put a better defensive hold, even ending the half with a 2 round lead. However, their lackluster attacking skills were once again the reason for their collapse, as Liquid only managed to win 3 rounds in the second half. Fnatic with their deep patient holds was slowly able to take the lead and win the map ‘13-10’.

Stats

• MAGNUM was the lead character for Fnatic tonight, providing great support with Skye on the first map while smashing Liquid with his sneaky Cypher gameplay in the second one. In total MAGNUM had 40 kills to his name with an ADR of 147.2.
  
  
• Jamppi was a letdown in yet another important match for Liquid, with ScreaM and L1NK doing all the heavy lifting for the side. They secured 38 and 34 kills respectively, while also delivering the maximum percentage of Liquid’s total damage output.
  
  
• Talking about how good the two teams were when it comes down to their aim, Fnatic had an average headshot percentage of 28.8% while that of Team Liquid’s was 28%.

Highlights

L1NK with the Judge went huge for Team Liquid, as he pulled off an incredible clutch against Fnatic on Ascent by doing everything single-handedly. Securing the shotgun, securing the bomb, planting it, and then taking the clutch as well.

L1NK was feeling himself tonight and this amazing spray transfer to take a total of 3 kills on Bind just shows the great touch he was in today.

Fnatic show some great teamwork to retake the site on Bind, making it look all too easy as they avoid the Viper lineups and punish Liquid.

Team Liquid with a flawless victory as they hit Fnatic with a well timed execute on Bind to break their streak and come back into the game.

Team Liquid holds strong to easily defuse a push from Fnatic on Ascent. ScreaM's perfect Sage -Slow Orb really coming clutch for the side.

Interview: Liquid’s Coach Sliggy on Where The Team Lacked

In the post-match interview, Liquid’s coach Sliggy spoke about where according to him did Team Liquid lack which resulted in their elimination from the tournament,

“Honestly a lot of it came down to just momentum. I think there was quite a lot of mistake on our behalf as well maybe should not have been there, definitely just a good one to go back and watch and just try and keep on improving.

We made good progress last 2 months, but yeah just some of these mistakes cannot be happening at this point of the stage. So yeah something that we need to keep on working and improving upon.”

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