The First Grand Finalist for the ECS Season 5 Finals Has Been Decided – NRG vs. Team Liquid Report

The first Grand Finalist at the ECS Season 5 CS:GO Finals has been decided after Team Liquid blew past NRG Esports in swift 2-0 fashion.

The two North American teams came into the first semifinal of the day looking confident but Wilton ‘zews’ Pardo’s statements about Team Liquid not underestimating their competition soon proved to be true.

Liquid recently lost to NRG Esports at the StarSeries Season 5 Finals but they clearly made a number of adjustments for the rematch at the ECS Finals and blew past their rivals on their map pick, Inferno.

Keith ‘NAF’ Markovic was in particularly good form – the Canadian eventually finished with a score of 23-11, and over 110 average damage per round, in the 16-6 victory.

NRG Esports chose to play on Nuke despite the fact that Team Liquid had dominated Fnatic on the same map in the Group A decider match on day two of the competition.

That decision would prove to be one that Damian ‘daps’ Steele and company would regret as Team Liquid once again proved to be virtually unstoppable. NRG got off to a strong start on the CT side but Liquid eventually turned things around to secure an 8-7 lead at the half.

NAF and company then produced a near perfect CT side, dropping just one round, and quickly closed things the series out 2-0 with a 16-8 map score as  Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski topped the table at 28-12.

The NRG players are now eliminated from the competition in a respectable 3rd-4th position, netting themselves $65,000 in process, but they will surely feel like their semifinal performance left a lot to be desired.

Team Liquid will now keep a close eye on the Astralis vs. FaZe Clan match as they wait to find out who will join them in the Grand Final, which is worth $250,000 for the winning team.