Liquid overcome NAVI in FalleN's debut in BLAST Premier Global Final

The North American side kicked off the year in promising fashion, with a 2-0 victory in BLAST Premier Global Final 2020.

Liquid's first match with Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo went positively as the North American team took down Natus Vincere in two maps to progress in the BLAST Premier Global Finals upper bracket. Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip's troops stormed to a map one win on Inferno with little resistance (16-6) and carried their momentum over to Nuke for a 10-0 start. However, Liquid had to fend off a monstrous performance from Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev to get over the line as the contest went the full thirty rounds.

The result sees Liquid set up a clash with Vitality in the upper bracket semi-final, while Natus Vincere will face off against Complexity in an elimination match.

FalleN kicks his Liquid career off with a win

Liquid fell behind on their map pick of Inferno in the opening rounds as a result of a Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy triple kill on the pistol, but the North Americans swiftly hit back on the offence once guns came out to string together five rounds of their own. Natus Vincere could muster just one additional round for the remainder of the half as Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic and co. ran riot to post a 12-3 lead at the midway point.

NAVI made it two pistol rounds from two as the second half commenced and chipped away slightly at the deficit to bring the score to 6-13. However, Liquid recomposed promptly to overwhelmingly pick up the three final rounds and lead the series, with a FalleN double AWP kill comfortably locking down Inferno 16-6.

Nuke was up next, where Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev subbed in for Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy as Natus Vincere looked to tie up the series. The CIS side failed to achieve the start they desired as Liquid, who were brimming with confidence from the previous map, put together a water-tight defence to shut down Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov’s men time and again. Multi-kill rounds from Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski, Stewie2K and NAF saw Liquid rapidly hit double digits without a response before NAVI eventually retaliated. s1mple and Perfecto stepped up for damage control in the back-end of the half to help post five consecutive rounds and salvage a 5-10 scoreline.

With s1mple now unleashed, Natus Vincere rallied together and mounted their comeback. The CIS squad replicated Liquid’s first-half success and gave the North American side zero breathing room as they levelled the score, 11-11. A FalleN 1v3 briefly put his team ahead before NAVI took the lead for the first time. With Nuke slipping from their grasp, Liquid got their second wind to edge out their opponents and proceed in the upper bracket.

BLAST Premier Global Final 2020Best of 3 Natus VincereMatchpage 0 2 20th January 2021 Liquid 6Inferno 16 14Nuke 16

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	47 - 31	+16	90.0	1.39
Ilya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyPerfecto	35 - 27	+8	75.7	1.14
Kirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovBoombl4	23 - 40	-17	65.2	0.83
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie	15 - 21	-6	61.6	0.78
Denis 'electroNic' SharipovelectroNic	26 - 40	-14	59.5	0.76
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiyb1t	9 - 17	-8	55.1	0.63

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Keith 'NAF' MarkovicNAF	42 - 22	+20	93.0	1.46
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	41 - 38	+3	78.8	1.16
Michael 'Grim' WinceGrim	32 - 32	0	67.7	1.08
Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFalleN	34 - 29	+5	66.3	1.06
Jake 'Stewie2K' YipStewie2K	26 - 37	-11	59.6	0.87

Kirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov Age: 22 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 834 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.69 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski Age: 23 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1388 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.68 Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo Age: 29 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 1342 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.60 Keith 'NAF' Markovic Age: 23 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1349 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.63 Egor 'flamie' Vasilyev Age: 23 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 1460 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.67 Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy Age: 18 Team: Natus VincereS Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 215 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.66 Liquid #8 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipMichael 'Grim' Wince Natus Vincere #3 Egor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovKirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovIlya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Ilya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Age: 21 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 438 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.62 Vitality #2 Richard 'shox' PapillonCédric 'RpK' GuipouyDan 'apEX' MadesclaireMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautKévin 'misutaaa' Rabier Complexity #12 Justin 'jks' SavageWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaKristian 'k0nfig' WieneckeValentin 'poizon' VasilevBenjamin 'blameF' Bremer Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip Age: 23 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 1324 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.68 Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev Age: 23 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.24 Maps played: 1287 KPR: 0.85 DPR: 0.65