BETBOOM punched their ticket to the IEM Beijing playoffs at the expense of Liquid in a three-map series that went the distance with back-and-forth action all the way down to the final round of the Mirage decider.
The opening map of the series, Liquid's Anubis pick, was the most one-sided, but in BETBOOM's favor. Kirill "Magnojez" Rodnov had a field day, posting his highest-ever rating at a Big Event, a 2.40, off the back of seven multi-kill rounds, a 1v3 clutch, 7-2 Op. K-D, +14.14% swing, and 21 kills in 18 rounds.
The wind was in BETBOOM's sails as the series headed to Nuke, where they dominated on the offense to take a 9-3 lead at the half. Liquid didn't let up, however, and after winning the crucial T-side pistol round, mounted a comeback that ended with Georgi "Jorko" Mitev and Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski getting all five kills in the 24th round to settle it 13-11 and force the decider.
The final map of the series lived up to the previous Nuke with Liquid getting ahead early on with a red-hot Jorko, although BETBOOM turned an early 2-5 deficit into a 7-5 lead at the switch.
The second half had several big moments, like a Jorko AWP quad on A tying it up 10-10, but it was Aleksandr "zorte" Zagodyrenko's 23rd round ace that broke up an 11-11 tie to put his team on match point and leave Liquid in a dire financial situation, swinging the map in his team's favor.
Low on time and up against a B plant without a kit in the final round of regulation, four Liquid players tried to force their way onto the site but were mowed down by Magnojez to end it then and there, eliminating the international squad from the tournament.
Over on the B stream, MOUZ took out PARIVISION in two maps in the Group A playoff seeding match starting with a one-sided Ancient in which a 4-2 lead ended up being a 13-2 victory following a nine-round streak. Lotan "Spinx" Giladi dominated the map, posting a career-high 2.59 rating.
The series then went to Mirage, where MOUZ looked like they were once again going to trample PARIVISION after taking a 9-3 lead on the T side. The Russian-majority squad came alive after the switch, winning four in a row and bring it within two, but a series of back-and-forth rounds was enough for MOUZ to claim a 13-9 victory and a spot in the semi-finals.
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiPast 3 months
Kirill 'Magnojez' RodnovPast 3 months
Liquid
Keith 'NAF' Markovic
Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski
Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa
Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou
Georgi 'Jorko' Mitev
Viktor 'flashie' Tamás Bea
MOUZ
Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás
Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi
Dorian 'xertioN' Berman
Oldřich 'PR' Nový
Adrian 'xelex' Vincze
Dennis 'sycrone' Nielsen
Georgi 'Jorko' MitevPast 3 months
BETBOOM
Kirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov
Aleksandr 'zorte' Zagodyrenko
Pavel 'S1ren' Ogloblin
Daniil 'd1Ledez' Kustov
Kirill 'Magnojez' Rodnov
Artem 'Fierce' Ivanov
PARIVISION
Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov
Evgenii 'FL1T' Lebedev
Dzhami 'Jame' Ali
Vladislav 'xiELO' Lysov
Ivan 'zweih' Gogin
Dastan 'dastan' Akbayev
Lotan 'Spinx' GiladiPast 3 months
Aleksandr 'zorte' ZagodyrenkoPast 3 months