Liquid secures 3-0 victory over NRG
April 05 2016
"We don't care who's at the top, someone in the top 4 better get out."
-Christian "IWilldominate" Rivera, HyperX Q&A
Ah, twas' a delightful agony they have received--they being NRG of course. This weekend, the quarterfinals for the NA LCS took place and boy, let's just say Team Liquid took home a fairly convincing 3-0 clean sweep against 5th seed NRG. I believe the saying is 'systematic annihilation' and while NRG did have their moments, Liquid looked good enough to warrant the confidence they've been spewing out over the final weeks of LCS.
A sweep so clean, you could eat off it
I for one, am a fan of clown fiestas. It's often exciting to watch heads clash till someone just wins. But if those are the types of matches you envisioned for this 4th seed vs 5th seed match-up, well, stop it. Liquid was calculated, like a Lion waiting for the meatiest prey to pass by. For all 3 matches in this swift best-of-5, the boys in blue out-rotated, out-farmed, and quite literally ran laps around this NRG line-up. The pink team may have responded with a play or two, but any attempt to thwart the weight of Liquid crashing on the nexus were doused by sheer map pressure.
Here's a VoD in case you missed it. Game 2 and 3 were closer, but Game 1 dictated how both teams were going to play for the rest of the day. It honestly is very self-explanatory.
But if we had to go into some sort of analysis, Liquid recognized that guaranteed gold would win the game. The priority was farm and objectives--the few moments we prioritized kills, were the few greedy moments NRG was able to make a play on. But because Liquid was already knee-deep in NRG towers, it would take many fights won to even push into Liquid territory, making all three games an uphill battle for NRG. (We even lost a Baron, and still destroyed the other team. Who would have thought?).
That's not to discredit the surplus farm on FeniX @20 minutes, or the 3 combined Quadrakills from Piglet and Dardoch, but when you're ahead by more than 5k gold margins, confidence is permitted and Liquid simply executed (literally).
Liquid plays 2nd seed CLG on April 9th in a Best-of-5 series. You better believe we're coming in with all the momentum and CLG... You best brace yourself. #TLWIN
-Christian "IWilldominate" Rivera, HyperX Q&A
Ah, twas' a delightful agony they have received--they being NRG of course. This weekend, the quarterfinals for the NA LCS took place and boy, let's just say Team Liquid took home a fairly convincing 3-0 clean sweep against 5th seed NRG. I believe the saying is 'systematic annihilation' and while NRG did have their moments, Liquid looked good enough to warrant the confidence they've been spewing out over the final weeks of LCS.
A sweep so clean, you could eat off it
I for one, am a fan of clown fiestas. It's often exciting to watch heads clash till someone just wins. But if those are the types of matches you envisioned for this 4th seed vs 5th seed match-up, well, stop it. Liquid was calculated, like a Lion waiting for the meatiest prey to pass by. For all 3 matches in this swift best-of-5, the boys in blue out-rotated, out-farmed, and quite literally ran laps around this NRG line-up. The pink team may have responded with a play or two, but any attempt to thwart the weight of Liquid crashing on the nexus were doused by sheer map pressure.
Here's a VoD in case you missed it. Game 2 and 3 were closer, but Game 1 dictated how both teams were going to play for the rest of the day. It honestly is very self-explanatory.
But if we had to go into some sort of analysis, Liquid recognized that guaranteed gold would win the game. The priority was farm and objectives--the few moments we prioritized kills, were the few greedy moments NRG was able to make a play on. But because Liquid was already knee-deep in NRG towers, it would take many fights won to even push into Liquid territory, making all three games an uphill battle for NRG. (We even lost a Baron, and still destroyed the other team. Who would have thought?).
That's not to discredit the surplus farm on FeniX @20 minutes, or the 3 combined Quadrakills from Piglet and Dardoch, but when you're ahead by more than 5k gold margins, confidence is permitted and Liquid simply executed (literally).
Liquid plays 2nd seed CLG on April 9th in a Best-of-5 series. You better believe we're coming in with all the momentum and CLG... You best brace yourself. #TLWIN