ENCE caused one of the biggest upsets in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene over the past few years, as they defeat the World No.2 team in the standings, Liquid, in two straight maps.
After barely making it in and through the New Legends Stage, ENCE met Liquid in the quarter-finals of the IEM Katowice in a battle between David and Goliath. Liquid were definitely huge favourites to even lift the trophy here in Katowice, so the expectations level was very high, especially after they managed to beat Astralis at the iBUYPOWER Masters a month ago.
The first map was Mirage, which was ENCE’s pick, but also used to be a comfort map for Liquid. However, the Finnish team proved many to be wrong as they made Liquid to look confused. The Americans had no answer to ENCE’s tactics, although they somehow managed to take seven rounds on CT side.
The second half started with ENCE on the CT side, and they looked very powerful with 3 or 4 AUGs on their hands along with Allu’s AWP. Mirage ended with ENCE winning comfortably 16-11, but everyone expected Liquid to win the second map, Inferno.
.@ence fans right now ? #IEM pic.twitter.com/eJMmnTAfTc
— Intel®ExtremeMasters (@IEM) February 28, 2019
Liquid seemed to be in control of the second map, as they had a 10-5 lead at halftime. In addition, Liquid had 7 match points at some point, leading the score 15-8. The North American team made some weird decisions at this point, as they made a couple of half-buys, and ENCE punished them for that, winning round after round. The Finnish team’s effort paid off as they managed to force overtime, in which they would pick up two rounds in each half to send the North Americans packing.
ENCE will now face another giant, Na’Vi, in the Semi-finals of the IEM Katowice 2019 on Saturday at 15:00 (UK time).
