Liquid eliminate Evil Geniuses from BLAST Premier Global Final

Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic shined as his team won the first North American derby of the year.

Liquid stay alive in the $1 million BLAST Premier Global Final following a 2-0 victory over Evil Geniuses in the lower bracket of the competition. They now await the winner of Natus Vincere and G2, the second match of the day, and play another elimination series in the lower bracket final on Saturday.

The action started on Inferno, which has been Evil Geniuses' map pick throughout the entire tournament. They had a solid start on their T side, having won nine rounds and conceded only four until the game had to be paused for 20 minutes due to a technical problem on Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo's PC. The Brazilian veteran shined after the pause and single-handedly took care of the 15th round with an AWP ace.

NAF stomped Evil Geniuses on Dust2

The 9-6 advantage wasn't enough for Evil Geniuses as Liquid played well as a unit and abused the numbers game whether they were hitting the A or the B bombsite. Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik finished the map as the top-fragger, but FalleN, Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince, and NAF combined for 60 kills on the other side.

Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz won a 1v2 clutch against FalleN and Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip to secure the first pistol round of Dust2 for his troops but they went for a full B rush against the force buy and painfully died one by one as NAF was sitting close to the tunnels with his powerful Desert Eagle. Evil Geniuses was saved by Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold as he won a 1v1 clutch against Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski in the third round and they were able to score two more after that.

Liquid, however, were the better team once they had all the rifles and an AWP in FalleN's hands. NAF put up one more ace in the half and his team chained seven together, moving over to the T side with a 10-5 score. Evil Geniuses found a glimpse of hope as they won the second pistol round too, but Grim and NAF worked well together to break the CTs' economy right away.

Evil Geniuses won only two more rounds in the half, one of which thanks to tarik's triple kill on the B bombsite, but Liquid reacted quickly to break their rivals' economy once more, leaving no room for a comeback. Meanwhile, NAF continued to perform as he finished Dust2 with a decisive 31-10 K-D, now averaging the tournament's second-highest 1.33 rating.

BLAST Premier Global Final 2020Best of 3 Evil GeniusesMatchpage 0 2 22nd January 2021 Liquid 12Inferno 16 8Dust2 16

Evil Geniuses	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Ethan 'Ethan' ArnoldEthan	32 - 37	-5	64.8	0.98
Vincent 'Brehze' CayonteBrehze	31 - 39	-8	66.4	0.96
Tarik 'tarik' Celiktarik	34 - 41	-7	73.0	0.90
Tsvetelin 'CeRq' DimitrovCeRq	24 - 35	-11	60.9	0.82
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguzstanislaw	23 - 38	-15	58.7	0.69

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Keith 'NAF' MarkovicNAF	51 - 24	+27	104.6	1.65
Michael 'Grim' WinceGrim	44 - 28	+16	64.8	1.20
Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFalleN	35 - 28	+7	74.9	1.18
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	33 - 32	+1	89.3	1.17
Jake 'Stewie2K' YipStewie2K	26 - 32	-6	58.3	0.93

Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski Age: 23 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1392 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.68 Natus Vincere #3 Egor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovKirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovIlya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Evil Geniuses #18 Peter 'stanislaw' JarguzTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo Age: 29 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 1346 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.60 G2 #9 Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNemanja 'huNter-' KovačKenny 'kennyS' SchrubFrançois 'amanek' DelaunayNemanja 'nexa' Isaković Keith 'NAF' Markovic Age: 23 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1353 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.63 Michael 'Grim' Wince Age: 20 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 674 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.68 Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz Age: 26 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 0.97 Maps played: 1193 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.65 Tarik 'tarik' Celik Age: 24 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 1383 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.68 Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip Age: 23 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 1328 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.68 Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold Age: 20 Team: Evil Geniuses Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 963 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.67 Liquid #8 Keith 'NAF' MarkovicGabriel 'FalleN' ToledoJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipMichael 'Grim' Wince