RESULTS: Team Liquid Push Past FaZe Clan for Third Place

Team Liquid was pushed into today's third place decider match by a 1-2 loss to Mousesports in the semifinals. FaZe Clan made their way into today's third place match by the way of a 1-2 loss to Natus Vincere in their semifinal match. With a difference of $15,000 between 3rd and 4th place, there was still a good amount of motivation for both teams to claim a victory in their final match of StarSeries i-League Season 4. Here is a short breakdown of how the match went. 

Nuke was up first and the North American squad of Team Liquid raced out to a 12-3 lead in the first half on the counter terrorist side. Liquid was able to shut down any threat that FaZe tired to throw at them. Not improving on their poor first half, FaZe would not win a single round in the second half, as Team Liquid would secure four straight rounds on the terrorist side to claim the 16-3 victory on Nuke. Lucas "steel" Lopes was the only player on Team Liquid to not have a kill to death ratio of at least two. Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski would lead the way for Team Liquid with 24 kills, 122.6 average damage per round and only six deaths. No player on FaZe Clan would have a positive kill to death ratio, as Nikola "NiKo" Kovac was the only player to reach double digits in kills. 

Inferno was up next and began just like Nuke, as Team liquid was able to collect a 12-3 lead on the counter terrorist side to begin the map. Facing another blowout loss, FaZe flipped a switch and took over the match in the second half. Mirroring Team Liquid on the counter terrorist side, FaZe would win 12 out of the 15 rounds to force a 15-15 tie at the end of regulation. Continuing their impressive comeback, FaZe would win the first three rounds of overtime to take a 18-15 lead. Looking to avoid playing a third map, Team Liquid would snap out of their poor play, and win the last three rounds of overtime to force a second overtime. Our second overtime period would be all Team Liquid at the beginning, as the North American roster would win three out of the first four rounds to take a 21-19 lead. FaZe Clan would secure the last two rounds of the second overtime to tie the map at 21-21 and force a third overtime period. Wanting to finally put this match away, Team Liquid took three out of the first four rounds to take a 24-22 lead. FaZe was able to take the last two rounds of the third overtime to tie the map at 24-24 and force a fourth overtime. Nick "nitr0" Cannella would come close to clinching the win with a bomb defuse, but a clutch headshot from Havard "rain" Nygaard would save FaZe Clan. The European roster would take the first three rounds of the fourth overtime to take a 27-24 lead. Team Liquid would win two straight rounds to cut FaZe Clan's lead to 27-26, but would fall in the final round to lose Inferno 28-26. Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovacs led the way for FaZe Clan with 48 kills and 83.2 average damage per round.

Mirage would be the final map of the match. Team Liquid would once again start extremely well, as they would win 12 of the first 15 rounds on the counter terrorist side to take a 12-3 lead at the end of the first half. Wanting to finish this match as fast as possible, Team Liquid would not let FaZe climb their way back into the match, as they had done on Inferno. The talented roster of Team Liquid made sure of this by winning four of five rounds on the terrorist side to secure the 16-4 victory on Inferno. EliGE led the way for Team Liquid on the map with 19 kills and 113.1 average damage per round. This map win gave Team Liquid the 2-1 match victory.

With the win, Team Liquid finishes in third place for StarSeries i-League Season 4 and takes home $30,000. The loss drops FaZe Clan to a fourth place finish for the event and leaves them with $15,000 to take home. 

Interested in more esports news? Check out which team was able to take first place at the IEM Katowice 2018 Player Unknowns Battlegrounds Invitational.