Liquid, FURIA Impress In DH Open Summer NA Semi-Finals

Team Liquid and FURIA have delivered solid performances in their semi-finals matches against Team oNe and Chaos, respectively. The two are now set to clash in the Grand Finals of DreamHack Open Summer North America on Sunday.

TEAM LIQUID 2-0 TEAM ONE ESPORTS

The Brazilians were definitely handed a tall order going up against the best North American team. So far, the roster change appears to have worked out well for Team Liquid. They have won all of their matches so far, Michael “Grim” Wince constantly being one of the top performers. Team oNe had to find a weakness in this composition and unfortunately, they were unable to do so. They picked into Dust 2, which, in hindsight, was probably a big mistake. Right now, you want to exploit the fact that Liquid have changed up their leadership structure. Instead, oNe opted to go onto a map that practically plays itself. Most importantly, it favors individual players more than it requires a sound strategical framework. Expectedly, Liquid came out on top 16-12. Keith “NAF” Markovic posted a 1.30 rating.

This momentum perfectly carried over to the second map, Inferno. Liquid let oNe have the pistol round and patiently waited for their first gun round. As soon as they were able to fully gear up, they tore through the Brazilians and delivered 11 quick round wins on their T side. With such a dominant display, oNe were unable to recover after the half-time. A 16-5 sealed the deal for their DH Open aspirations, as all of the Liquid players recorded above 1.20 ratings.

FURIA 2-0 CHAOS

Joshua “steel” Nissan and his compatriots have fought hard to get to this point. Being in a group with Team Liquid forced them to compete for second place, which they were fortunately able to achieve. Their upset over MIBR at the cs_summit 6 Qualifier still remains in distant memory and we remember how Nathan “leaf” Orf tore through these Brazilians with ease. A whole controversy evolved from this match, as the community found it hard to believe that such a performance had been possible from the young player.

Playing like this, Chaos would have won the match with ease. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t get into the match at all. Particularly Jonathan “Jonji” Carey, who had played beautifully up to this point, completely broke down on the first map, Nuke. On the second map, Inferno, leaf actually joined him on the bottom of the scoreboard. A 16-8 on Nuke and a 16-11 on Inferno ended the tournament run for Chaos, who are probably disappointed with this finish. With a little more performance out of their usual star players, they could have made this match-up competitive, if not won it entirely.

We can now argue which team was more convincing in their respective match, or whether Chaos and oNe are actually on a comparable level. However, all of this is pretty much useless going into the Grand Finals. Team Liquid just haven’t been tested so far. We don’t know where their ceiling is at the moment. This means that we could see them explode in the Grand Finals, or we could see FURIA overwhelm them completely.

The Brazilians have tenure and experience in their five-man composition, which should prove to be a huge advantage if the match gets heated. However, Team Liquid features insane individual players and Grim has certainly been able to keep up. With such prowess, Liquid should be able to defeat them on the basis of their individuals alone.The Grand Finals will kick off on Sunday, so be sure to tune in and witness this exciting conclusion to DreamHack Open Summer!