Liquid fend off 100 Thieves to secure second victory in ESL Pro League North America

Liquid completed two hard-fought comebacks on Vertigo and Mirage against 100 Thieves to secure their second victory in ESL Pro League North America.

Liquid made up for a crushing loss to Swole Patrol in their second match as they prevailed 2-0 over 100 Thieves on day three, but the series was anything but clear-cut as the North American roster remained on the back foot in the opening half of both maps.

After initially overcoming the prospect of another crushing loss on Vertigo, Liquid were forced to fight back from a seven-round deficit on Mirage to sweep the series, fighting through 65 rounds to secure a victory in two maps.

Stewie2K's entries on Vertigo and AWP on Mirage proved crucial

A 1vs3 clutch from Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage helped 100 Thieves get off to a swimming start on their pick of Vertigo, allowing the Australian squad to run up a 7-1 scoreline before Liquid began to stabilize. Multi-kills from Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski gave the North American side a fighting chance as they rallied back to a 10-5 scoreline, but a USP-S triple kill from Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad kept 100 Thieves in control following the side swap as they moved up to thirteen rounds.

Left facing the prospect of another crushing defeat on Vertigo, Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella's troops refused to concede, with Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip creating openings into bombsites round after round as Liquid fought back from 7-14 and 10-15 deficits to take the map to overtime. There, EliGE reigned supreme, securing ten frags in the first three rounds to help his team complete the comeback with a 19-16 victory.

Another slow start to Mirage left Liquid down 0-5 before they put their first two on the board, but from there, the AWP of Sean "⁠Gratisfaction⁠" Kaiwai and rifle of jkaem took over the proceedings as 100 Thieves ran up an 11-4 scoreline at the break. Much like on Vertigo, the second half proved to be all Liquid as the North American side locked down their defense, keeping 100 Thieves at bay for the majority of rounds to narrowly edge out a 16-14 victory.

ESL Pro League Season 11 North AmericaBest of 3 LiquidMatchpage 2 0 28th March 2020 100 Thieves 19Vertigo 16 16Mirage 14

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	49 - 40	+9	98.3	1.37
Keith 'NAF' MarkovicNAF	49 - 34	+15	75.7	1.19
Jake 'Stewie2K' YipStewie2K	47 - 43	+4	79.4	1.09
Russel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenTwistzz	33 - 38	-5	50.5	0.94
Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0	34 - 41	-7	65.2	0.90

100 Thieves	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Sean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiGratisfaction	52 - 45	+7	87.5	1.15
Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostadjkaem	50 - 46	+4	80.5	1.12
Justin 'jks' Savagejks	43 - 41	+2	79.2	1.08
Aaron 'AZR' WardAZR	30 - 43	-13	51.2	0.82
Jay 'Liazz' TregillgasLiazz	20 - 37	-17	42.8	0.72

The group standings for ESL Pro League Season 11 North America look as follows:

Group A TEAM M P Liquid 3 6 100 Thieves 3 6 Swole Patrol 2 3 FURIA 0 0 Evil Geniuses 1 0 MIBR 1 0 MIBR #25 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoVito 'kNgV-' GiuseppeFernando 'fer' AlvarengaEpitacio 'TACO' de MeloIgnacio 'meyern' Meyer 100 Thieves #9 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiJay 'Liazz' Tregillgas Aleksandar 'kassad' Trifunović Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski Age: 22 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1235 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.68 100 Thieves #9 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiJay 'Liazz' Tregillgas Nick 'nitr0' Cannella Age: 24 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 1260 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.66 Justin 'jks' Savage Age: 24 Team: 100 Thieves Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 886 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.63 Swole Patrol #56 Ryan 'freakazoid' AbadirVictor 'food' WongEdgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoJordan 'Zellsis' MontemurroAustin 'Cooper' Abadir Liquid #6 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken Eric 'adreN' Hoag Evil Geniuses #8 Peter 'stanislaw' JarguzTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Chet 'Chet' Singh FURIA #12 Henrique 'HEN1' TelesAndrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato Nicholas 'guerri' Nogueira Sean 'Gratisfaction' Kaiwai Age: 24 Team: 100 Thieves Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 693 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.61 Liquid #6 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad Age: 26 Team: 100 Thieves Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 922 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.69 Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip Age: 22 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 1171 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.68