19:39 Vitality take early lead on Mirage
A triple by Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut stopped Liquid‘s B rush, and the European combine raced to a 4-1 start. It wasn’t the smoothest of starts for Vitality, however, as they needed ZywOo‘s miraculous 1vs3 clutch to keep themselves ahead.
19:12 The series is tied up
Vitality closed out Dust2 with a 16-7 scoreline, mirroring the scoreline of Inferno. ZywOo showed up, putting up a 1.32 rating to power his team to a map victory.
19:07 Map starts to get away from Liquid
With the deficit at six rounds and the North American’s economy in tatters, Vitality look set to equalize the series score.
19:00 The gap widens at the start of second half
Vitality‘s pistol round win means the gap is increased to five rounds, with Liquid set to get full buy in the next.
18:53 Vitality take narrow lead into second half
The high-paced nature of the half continues, with neither team able to run away with the map so far. Lotan “Spinx” Giladi‘s triple-kill on the A site made sure that his team was ahead at the interval before Vitality won the last round to take a three-round lead into the second half.
18:43 Vitality extend lead near the end of the half
Vitality look to have put Inferno behind them, looking comfortable on the offensive side of their map pick. This time around, their job is made easier by the fact that Emil “Magisk” Reif is able to match Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis in terms of finding opening kills.
18:32 Scores tied up
A massive 2vs5 conversion by ZywOo and Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen enables Vitality to tie up the scores early in the second half.
18:27 Vitality win first gun round
Magisk found an entry-kill that his team converted into a dominant round, keeping all five members alive in the process.
18:23 The second map, Dust2, begins!
Both teams have lost the map just once in the last three months, so we are in for a good battle.
Liquid are quick out of the gates on their CT side with a pistol round win, going for an aggressive lower tunnel push that works out flawlessly.
18:01 Liquid close out dominant first map
The North American roster lost just two rounds on their defensive side, closing out the map 16-7 with relative ease. YEKINDAR went an incredible 8:3 in opening duels, winning the star-player battle against ZywOo on the first map.
17:49 Liquid win second pistol round
A 3vs3 retake on the B site puts the North Americans in the driver’s seat to win the first map of the series.
17:43 Liquid take commanding lead into halftime
Vitality‘s fumbled round against pistols stops their comeback attempt, losing momentum and the upper hand in the economy with the loss.
Liquid continued to find a lot of success on the B site, with Vitality being forced into several save rounds. Magisk‘s triple-kill in the final round of the half reduced the deficit to five rounds, but the European combine is still far behind as they move over to the Terrorist side.
17:33 Vitality begin closing the deficit
Vitality manage to string rounds together after being unable to control YEKINDAR on Banana in the opening few, with the Latvian 5:1 in opening duels so far.
17:22 Vitality get on the board
A triple-kill by Magisk on the A site gets a much needed round on the board for the European combine.
17:20 YEKINDAR off to a hot start
The Latvian has already found several openings for his team, including a few through a smoke.
17:15 Liquid continue impressive start
After converting their pistol round win to a 3-0 lead, Liquid won the first gun round with another B execute.
17:08 Liquid start strong
The North Americans take an early lead after winning the pistol round with a quick B attack.
17:05 : The veto is in
We have the maps for our best-of-five final, with both teams removing their perma-bans as expected.
1. Liquid ban Nuke
2. Vitality ban Ancient
3. Liquid pick Inferno (Map one)
4. Vitality pick Dust2 (Map two)
5. Liquid pick Mirage (Map three)
6. Vitality pick Overpass (Map four)
7. Vertigo was left over (Map five)
16:45 Both finalists look to end their trophy droughts
Both teams haven’t had the best of times recently — Liquid haven’t been in a Big Event grand final since IEM Chicago 2019 when their lineup still included Jake “Stewie2K” Yip and Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken. Vitality have also made just their second grand final since their change to a European roster at the beginning of the year, with their first coming at BLAST Premier Spring Final 2022 in June.
16:35 Mixed up casting duos for the final
The action will be brought to you by a different duo on each map, with the lineup looking as follows:
Map 1: Anders “Anders” Blume and Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill
Map 2: Matthew “Sadokist” Trivett and Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill
Map 3: Matthew “Sadokist” Trivett and Jason “moses” O’Toole
Map 4: Anders “Anders” Blume and Jason “moses” O’Toole
Map 5: Matthew “Sadokist” Trivett and Jason “moses” O’Toole
16:25 Who will take the title today, Liquid or Vitality?
The month-long ESL Pro League Season 16 is coming to an end, with Liquid and Vitality battling it out in the grand final.
The teams have met just once so far at PGL Major Antwerp 2022, where Vitality comfortably beat the North Americans in a 2-0 series. Since then, both teams have significantly upgraded their firepower, with YEKINDAR replacing Richard “shox” Papillon on Liquid, while Vitality moved away from a French-majority roster by replacing Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier with Spinx.
YEKINDAR looks to power Liquid’s resurgence
Vitality are still undefeated in this season of ESL Pro League, having blitzed the group stage by losing just two maps in five best-of-three series. In terms of firepower, it is no surprise that ZywOo leads the charge, with the 21-year-old putting up an event-high 1.43 rating so far.
On the opposing side, Liquid had a much tougher time at the tournament, edging through the group stage with a 3-2 record after losses to Eternal Fire and FURIA. YEKINDAR is the top performing player for the North Americans so far with a 1.19 rating, with Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski (1.10) and Keith “NAF” Markovic (1.08) not far behind.
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EliGE: “There’s been a lot of sacrifice on our side and it feels rewarding to make it to the finals”
The teams’ lineups for this grand final are:
Nick “nitr0” Cannella
Keith “NAF” Markovic
Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis
Dan “apEX” Madesclaire
Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen
Lotan “Spinx” Giladi
