Team Liquid Defeats Natus Vincere, Earn ESL Pro League Finals Spot

Saturday's first semifinal match of the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals in Dallas, Texas saw Team Liquid defeat Natus Vincere 2-0 in the best-of-three series to secure a spot in Sunday's grand finals against the winner of the Astralis and FaZe Clan semifinal match. With the largest share of the $750,000 prize pool and title of ESL Pro League Season 7 Champions, there was a great deal at stake in the matchup between Team Liquid and Natus Vincere, as the North American Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) team was able to walk away from the match without letting Natus Vincere take a single map off of them. 

Dust II was the first map of the semifinal match, and it saw Natus Vincere take a 9-6 lead in the first half on the Terrorist side. However, Team Liquid was able to flip the script in the second half with their terrorist side play that saw them secure a 10-5 round advantage to close out the 16-14 victory over Natus Vincere on Dust II to take a 1-0 lead in the series. Epictacio "TACO" de Melo led the way for Team Liquid with 23 kills, 81.1 average damage per round and an overall rating of 1.26.

Inferno was the second map of the semifinal match, and Team Liquid started the action right where they left off on Dust II by taking a commanding 11-4 lead in the first half on the counter terrorist side. Natus Vincere was able to put up a much closer fight in the second half, but Team Liquid was able to secure the 16-10 win on Inferno with a 6-5 round advantage on the terrorist side to take the 2-0 semifinal victory over Natus Vincere. Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski was the driving force behind Team Liquid's victory on Inferno with 24 kills, 105.4 average damage per round and an overall rating of 1.54.

Now Team Liquid will be patiently waiting to see if they will be facing Astralis or FaZE Clan in Sunday's grand finals for the title of ESL Pro League Season 7 Champions and the lion's share of the $750,000 prize pool. Either matchup has the potential to be a very entertaining show for CS:GO fans tuning in.

Interested in more CS:GO news? Check out which former Cloud9 player announced his return to competitive CS:GO. 

(cover photo courtesy of ESL)