INSANE MATCH ! LIQUID VS GAMBIT | VCT 3 EMEA Challengers Playoffs AUG 19 2021

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bufN_jsipw"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]this pistol of just super slow defaults to start it as they poke for map control yeah it looks like liquids comp as well has almost just turned this into we're gonna try and completely just boom our opponents off of individual skill like we've seen them go for these like very tactical deep compositions in the past and now they've gone yeah you know what scream on jet saw cast rays let's just win this on jaws exactly and sulcus could be instrumental in some of the slower rounds that delay that you can have on that b side it'll really limit gambit in terms of what they can go for now we've seen them at the start of this round one player bna and the rest going for mid control and it looks like everything's about to come to a head down here in vents where team liquid were waiting for that drop play we've seen it from gambit before and clearly liquid have two 50 seconds left on the clock but this is looking rough now for gambit couple of players down they've not been able to take the control that they wanted and the remaining players looking to try and split in on to this b site now red guy's got a lot of positioning for somehow they don't actually know that he's here but he doesn't manage to connect the shots luckily chronicle is alongside him to find an extra kill but this still puts them in an awkward spot they need to get rid of soulcast to even have a chance 30 seconds left there's the blast pack out to try and do some damage he knows there's players coming on both sides and nothing he could really do about it redgar left on that six hp eventually dealt with but the trade is quick for chronicle that's another and almost in for all four that would have been a spectacular round for him here in the pistol the gambit do end up falling and really you have to look at that vents play from liquid and how it started they give up the mid control they don't take a fight that they don't feel like and they wait in vents with two players reading perfectly what gambit we're looking to do i think we've seen a few teams do that i think it was even giants at one point threw that in as a read versus guild where they were just like okay would they keep trying to take this map control for free so we're just gonna like throw in a couple of double stacks every once in a while just to try and out brain them so yeah i i like it in a pistol round especially having a read like that is absolutely huge because these are the rounds that pretty much any team we put it down to a 50 50. like really can go either way this push that team liquid are looking for now these guys obviously have a lot of specters to play with here the weaponry advantage is there they're aiming very early on to get that blade storm online scream picking up the ore but he does get damaged significantly not able to continue the fight push forward to take those duels for more orbs a little crossfire in play for lincoln yappie here even if you saw a gambit break through and run in it's unlikely they managed to deal with them but the real threat comes from the heaven split that they're contemplating as they start to move back though they're leaving vents and that's watching for the push oh that timing is so terrible i don't know if it's gonna matter at all though because they're currently walking into the double stack of scream and soulcast with utility being pushed into their favor sure maybe it will catch one of the final kills but i i'm almost certain the realm would be done by the time that jumpy actually comes around the corner and all it really means is it should be at least that little bit cleaner now chronicle he gets one kill here that's absolutely fine i i would even call that a decent round and there you go two kills in a round where they were flanked and they walked into the double stack of duelists i'm taking that if i'm gambling generically yes but scream took those fights as aggressively as he did on low hp to get the bladestorm online and now he has it so that's a huge upgrade for very little reinvestment he has to buy shields and then that blade storm and that's pretty much it so really it's only the one guy having to re-buy and if there's even a pistol floating around they'll just pass that so the economy isn't actually going to be dented too much and i think liquids still come in with a very strong uh very strong hardware sorry lost lost of myself in that replay for a moment so i saw scream like the spray that he had was so unlucky because he probably could have gotten both kills and remained with the weapon just that all the bullets went like through their legs well this is a important round for gambit financially they have a huge advantage but it's this blade storm that worries me a little bit the one thing the scream could just pull out ridiculous kills on and while that is already gone one of the players we normally watch especially when it comes to the defensive side but i have some problems here now they've just gone in there to almost just destroy the trip that's something that a lot of teams will do generically just so that that information is not going to be garnered later in the round and potentially play a part in their demise the issue though they still need to try and find a way back in here and it seems like heaven's one of the spots at least for now that has been left a little bit open a couple of times i assume that that's being watched by the cam but if it's not then that's a lot of space that they can take for free nice little watch by yampi the pistol that was in play manages to get a reward five versus three at this stage you know gambit have those rifles that we talk about and they pretty much have to go b right their spikes sat outside of it and the rotate would take too long as they drop onto the site sulcus catches them one away from getting another nade online and a challenge from shadows he's gonna have two players actually facing into him but they managed to overrun the site with scream and sulcus down cryptics is the only man left to defend his link rotates to help nicely done by liquid three to zero on the board and they had spectres up against a full buy and they made it look very easy yeah i'd say surprisingly easy especially when you think about the utility that's actually available for liquid to delay it it's not in comparison say for example if you look at the other side where you've got your asterisk you've got your vipers you've got your skies even being able to slow people down the majority of that was just a little bit of aggression and then gambit taking the round so slowly that they had to take a more gambly push towards the end so liquid do an incredible job huge boost of finances and now we're going to see a bit of an investment here days he's screaming an opportunity their defo looking to survive on 26 hp the slow's gonna go down that stops the push the gambit we're looking for and they've given up all map control team liquid quickly seized it by sending yampy down middle and well gambit are boxed in but they're still gonna hope that a mistake is made that somebody on the team liquid side pushes forward and gives an opportunity for a free kill screen very nearly did getting tagged up and looks like he's really hungry for these kills he doesn't have the dash either so it's not even like he can just quickly get out of there unless he's gonna pop two heads before he does it which it is scream but i would say that it's a little bit unlikely are they actually going to check the corner they're not they actually just expect him to have fully retreated and if he gets that kill he actually does dash out of there but regards quick enough on the trade and honestly for gambit that's okay considering the weapons in it yeah that's great when team liquid decided to take a disadvantageous duel versus weaker weaponry especially then obviously facing into the three now on range though it's not quite the case yet redgar still able to get the spray in onto sulcus this is getting a little bit scary for team liquid after such a good bonus round in the previous you really need to be walking away with this pressure on link his teammates nowhere nearby and he is cleaning up house that's the last alive on 45 hp solo man going in for the plant but he's being rushed down unheard the steps oh he's being played on the clock but he isolated cryptics he's free to plant he knows it and yappy although he's closing in the distance slowly won't catch nats until it's a little too late he's already made it around and now knows where yampi is this is going to be a game of chicken which side do the players decide to go on yampi trying to catch an angle and there it is but nets gets away with it all three kills and gambit claimed the round right back with just pistols and specters a devastating blow to liquid see there was in my head as they were running into the site i was like okay i'm guaranteed lingers too like that that that's always the thing like i feel like whenever he's on a site and there's not that much time left he's always gonna get two kills every single time and in that at that point i'm like it's over that's it done and i had a lapse of judgment because that's just unbelievable in the clutch the timing of that kill to get just a little bit more aggressive and bait in the plant was so perfect and sure you can look at it from the other perspective and say you know if liquid play that as a team there is absolutely no way he wins that but just a fantastic clutch in a round needed if anything because they were off to a pretty slow start and a couple of risks made by team liquid you really see the punishment there interesting that yampy is playing the operator with an omen while screams on jet and we mentioned scream as a non-opping jet but he never mind the offbeat one of any weapon now taken down right at the start of this round now rez is online but a little bit too difficult to get around there just yet seekers showing that there's still a two-man a-hold and they're running right into yampy thinking that it's clear i guess or that they'd at least get towards the site before taking contact the aggressive nature of yampi once again catching teams off guard yeah i assume the direction of the seeker just baited them just like oh there's no one on b and just start running into the site that has definitely gone as badly wrong as it could have done actually young pete i'm just going to try and fake them out with the tp still though they have got a lot of control around a in fact they have all the control around there it seems like there's a full rotation just playing this as a retake because you mentioned it's a little bit difficult to get the res while they're going to commit everything to bring scream back online it's worthwhile to have that man advantage on the retake and here's hoping over on the liquid side that gambit decided to get a bit too aggressive you can already see that chronicle has gone deep into screens and i think he popped his ultimate there right and now he's just taken down right away and i presume that was even through it good job by depot i don't know how he gets to leaving that's in a winnable position the 3k in the previous round now they call on him once again time on their side in fact it's the same players of cryptics and yampi to try and clutch this one out they're moving towards the site the steps are heard and that's starting to creep behind them it looks like they're blissfully unaware of his position and that's the spot of them this could be huge only a pistol on yappy to defend the defuse inside the cage for another clutch back to backgrounds for gnats as gambit climb up to two it doesn't even break a sweat this is this is what just infuriates me he's just a stone cold killer like look his reaction right now he's like yeah like guys if you could just like do a little bit more so i don't have to keep clutching out these rounds and just ridiculous like he genuinely is just like he's got less reactions than the finns which is impressive in itself because that's what we always talk about if anything jumpy's the guy that like breaks that rule with just how emotional he seems to be in these moments but that is now two rounds for gambit and two clutches for nats i'm hoping for their sake that that is gonna change some way throughout this map otherwise but he's gonna have to probably have the best statistics we've ever seen in a match i think this is where liquid just need to slow it down a little bit in their own head in fact i'm surprised to pause well maybe not didn't come in here because they have sheriffs but if they don't call a pause before the next buy round i will be quite surprised and the reason is these rounds they've lost have been of their own accord okay nats has done a spectacular job clutching out on the side but look at that last round yampi has an off and instead of him being the diffuser cryptics goes for it leaving yampi to swap to his pistol to try and take that fight a classic not exactly going to be ideal and then the round before where scream takes the fight on top ramp knowing they're against an eco and that he's already used his dash sure he got a kill for it but dropped afterwards weapon retrieved and then they lose the site which you know they really set up the scenario for that clutch to come through that could have been so huge look it's the worst thing really when the first guy doesn't check the corner but the second guy does you are raging at that point a tank from the cam actually straight through the smoke can spam it cause well the cosmic divide up i'm surprised they even use the camera there i suppose they want to see it make sure it's not a fake cheeky they're in a cage through i don't know how much that's really gonna help them there's actually nobody watching the other side of it though screams able to go through we've also got the alt the showstopper finding another pick this is just pistols in this round and somehow this is already becoming very costly indeed scream has just taken down nats as well it leaves just two remaining that's not here to save the day this time but a good play by shadows buys them a chance one opportunity there's a poll online it's going to be a stun instead actually as red guard spots he's not on it halfway defuse just about and scream has the blades out the shock not connecting down to the sheriff times so low he has to hit the shot now and it is too late redgar closes this one out and gambit push up to three rounds a really good attempt by liquid though all things considered yeah they use a few alts which again for their ultimate economy is going to be quite bad but they've done a lot of damage they've kept gambit on the edge and i think it's definitely worth it and that especially in the way that that round started as well it it just looks uncomfortable like gambit every single round they've won so far has been a clutch it's been shaky so i'm i'm not feeling confident for them i do wonder if it's just those jitters we see though like they were a team last time in the mea that we were expecting to qualify they didn't now we're looking at them again and sure that the only team they've lost to so far is ascend who i think everybody is considering the best team in the region right now that's fine but they now need to show the okay we can actually qualify for one of these events because otherwise well there's this thing called the last chance qualifier and if they can't qualify for anything else how are they going to do it in the last chance well true maybe like a third time lucky type thing you never know again gonna go for that vent control this time a little bit more intention behind it on the gambit side moving towards the a site ramp is now theirs and this leaves link by himself spotted by the seekers as well as he's revealed down below he opts to hold his position as teammates rotating to help but they get isolated first and now as they come through the smoke only the one cryptics luckily i think spraying his smoke himself manages to trade but defoe's up close to punish and poor old yampi operator in hand and you really could consider a save but it looks like he's not gonna go for that instead retrieving his fallen comrades vandal as he moves towards this site and with the damage done here tom 69 hb on defo 85 for redgar this is a much more winnable clutch than it looks like a shame he doesn't have paranoia still on oh he's seen the barrel he spotted the barrel oh the next kill's free if he can snap back he knows exactly where he is but he's not quite gonna get it the clutches only go gambits where i should have known you know what at least redgar can put another earring in now i know astr's already got a couple but i'm pretty sure yampi just pierced the ear a little bit on that final shot it was so close those are the rounds three to four amber steaming back into the lead and considering how liquid started this they did everything right they won the pistol they managed to beat down the second round easily enough then they win when they only have the weaker weapons themselves their own bonus is huge and yet gambit find the most unlikely of openings and you would love to think oh it's just a hiccup right oh they lost that one round versus the pistols it's whatever but at this point we're seeing so many flaws on this defense exploited again and again by gambit that okay the pause has come in possibly a little bit too late i do also want to add in the fact that they have lost four 1v1s in a row at the end true i feel like we can't harp too much on liquid when that is the way that they are losing like sure all of them are like 1v2 1v2 2v1 whatever but it all ended in a 1v1 and every single one of them has gone gambit's way now as i said that is not sustainable it shouldn't be at least but somehow they're managing to prove it wrong again but i think the thing is that it's it is like 1v2 it's these constant exactly and if these mistakes are mitigated at the start of the round well then all of a sudden they are actually just one rounds as opposed to winnable but that's why the pause comes in liquid discuss their options again i would have liked to see it before that previous buy round because i think they were already clearly being uh their flaws were clearly being exploited but at least now it's called it probably doesn't have that much impact in this round they're playing with sheriffs they're playing with a guardian the intention is definitely for the next but that said they can do a lot of damage with these rifles or with this rifle with these pistols it seems to be a similar enough hold a little bit more tame towards hey but look at this push from yampi again great position in the early stages and oh that's another earring for redgar i i think at this stage gambit are starting to predict this and this is something that's always been the case on their attack that's why almost this composition seems a little bit peculiar from liquid is gambit love a default maybe more than any team we currently watch like that they absolutely love a default so to play a composition with double duelists that revolves quite a lot of aggression well we've seen teams attempt it before and it really hasn't worked that well so we'll see if they can turn things around as i said a lot of these rounds have been incredibly close but if you're trying to play against gambit on clutches as well that's another thing that they thrive in soulcase give me the last man standing now he has picked himself back up the guardian i think the plan for scream was okay i can buy a guardian into this round and potentially get myself closer to the blade storm and then it doesn't really matter so much that hasn't happened so bringing this into the next could actually be a valuable upgrade it just depends how much cash they've actually got left unfortunately there'll be nothing for sulcus either as a fifth rounds found by gamut four players a live credit's starting to really rack up and their default play i think revolves around the fact that they can consistently find themselves in a position that if they spread out it's not like shadows or death oh or red guard that's or anybody i should say chronicle as well if we're naming the whole team um it's his birthday a few days ago how can you do that to him or sulcus or or crypt um but it's not like on gamut you look and you think oh this one player he's the guy that has to entry right he's it doesn't exist this team is very well-rounded they're all capable of finding those duels finding those entries and the important part about that is that when they spread into this default everybody is looking for the gap and everybody has the the permission almost to go and exploit it if they think they found it and we see it constantly here it's going to be defo a lot of the time taking the control over mid and over vents i mean it is literally his role to do this but then you'll see it some rounds like over towards the b side what we're seeing here they're thinking that there's a little bit of an opportunity at least to remove cypher utility and potentially take a duel and their spidey senses seem to be tingling about that corner because even though cipher's on the backside they're very suspicious as they walked towards the site of scream up above well that links in quite heavily to one of the composition changes we actually saw you mentioned deffo we actually saw him play sky recently didn't work great so they've actually tried to utilize him a little bit more to set things up red car's gonna go walking in almost trying to maybe sell a bit of a bait by the looks of things that the rest of the team now attempt to try and push into a but the whole of liquid is rotating they need to move fast god they're certainly on the way the steps being heard by shadows looks like he's ready to cut off another rotation but they're not able to find anyone team liquid wisely stalling on this and not taking fights evidently having learned from the previous engagements that going out fragging and playing your own game as they so eloquently put it is not always the best way to go with this tighter light round gameplay they have managed to get themselves back up on the horse or sorry i know he's just been warbagged at the very end of the round and you spoke of zest your speaker bloater i know that's one of his favorite turns of phrase he wasn't here to shout it unfortunately but yeah that's a a big kill making things more costly especially again we go back to the way that gambia have been winning these rounds they don't have a massive amount of cash now there's going to be enough credits that they can actually purchase back into this one but you then even look at the ultimates and at least the valuable ones are all starting to come online for liquid in fact every single one except the showstopper is only one away so this could be a pretty big round pretty big turn around as well considering the way that the last five rounds have gone now the question is for for team liquid you know obviously they find that previous round but is it repeatable at least the way they won the previous you would imagine so but now gotta go back towards what has worked for them so many times moving towards this a site scream is again in the corner where he was dropped and gave a rifle over to them but this time he has the dash and that's the very important part of this he has an escape and doesn't need to take a 1v3 or 1v4 fight after the initial in fact he might not have an option to take any fights up goes the cosmic divide and they're rushing straight in pulled back though bungie jumping into sight is the jet of depot and the trades are in scream coming down behind them on the ramp can't be still on site now able to get right out of there with the shrouded step just about surviving gambit taking heavy casualties on the way in but they do end up with a plant this is where they've been most dangerous these after plant positions is where liquid have struggled getting back into the site that nade is so strong though it's gonna clear the back and it's left all onto shadows it would need to be the craziest clutch so far and although he's managed the first the other two players looking to come around the corner can't quite connect running out of bullets in the clip as well he'd need some instant headshots here and scream will not allow it a big round from him a fifth on the board for liquid and now even money again is gonna be the problem for gambit you know tom i hate to say it i really hate to be that guy but in that corner if he has an odin he wins i'm kidding i'm kidding we're at five to five we're tied up and team liquid have finally found a solution to the problem gotta say right now yempi is is really selling me on this omen operator i mean i can i can feel some upcoming articles coming out already i mean they've got to be moulding watching that not only the omen but offing and making it work and you'd love to see it oh yeah clearly it's the best agent for operator play definitely not jet yeah we started with rays we went to jet and now the new meta defined by yampi oh devil's already in but they're ready link is primed and waiting to take that kill and as he goes back towards the site cryptics is just using his util this trap wire in his cage to completely ruin their day i think even a camera tag going in good night and sweet dreams to chronicle he's being rushed down and despite the first going his way i mean he is against the entirety of team liquid not an easy fight to win as six comes on the board for team liquid at long last they are back in the league last round yeah that was a solid hold and a solid read not only having the scythe utility but also sage it just that that was impossible to get through like you needed a a miracle to be able to find those opening picks and they had all the counter utility ready and again i'll always sing the praises of link when needed i think he's one of those players who's just so good at a sight hold because he's very very difficult to kill like he did it did why work so well on the lurk as well it's like he always seems to find the right timing the right angles to get through it's just frustrating to play against now gambit they invested a bit into the last round but ultimately this is where the investment comes through now six rounds on the attack really isn't too bad for them we've seen some better score lines at least recently got that blade storm online they also have the seekers and the vipers pit potentially to put into this round but there are some pretty good alts on the other side too things are looking up for sure over in the team liquid camp but can they deal with this sort of stuff when you've got chronicle having that viper's bit to play onto a site it's just getting there that's really going to be the issue and for now at least they're favoring the a site where there are a lot of players regrouped up and the broken track wires probably going to confirm that it sticks that way one seeker on its way towards the b side but of course there are two players here yampi something a little bit too far away to be tagged up by that deep flash oh they're committing to this fully and sulcus knows it the read at the right time and sure he's not going to kill anyone with it seconds left but it's doing its job it's stopped the push completely he's going to just fire it down mid and if that actually went down it would have killed him it would have gotten nats in the corner so he is incredibly unlucky that he clipped the edge of the wall but it's bought time for screen to rotate in and take a nasty double gambit of 10 seconds to get to the side and it's all on to chronicle he can't even get to the spike on time the half's already over and team liquid have claimed a seven to five the question is and chronicle pad the stats and now he can't god sick ram from liquid and as i said like i think that the way that liquid are able to delay so much with utility that i don't think is necessarily there it's impressive like sarcasm has done really well with the timing of his nades his blast packs and even the ultimate in this round as you said it was utilized even without getting a kill just making sure that they have to go down to the last few seconds on the clock making sure that for that you then scream in position to just do some extra damage that's a really well played round by liquid and gambit hey if you're looking at clutch statistics they are winning this game by a long shot but they are still a couple of rounds behind yeah i think they've gotten the bare minimum done realistically like they're hitting their five rounds even if they had the the four maybe but the fact that this is gambit it's it's a little bit worrying honestly because the lead that they managed to find early on exploiting all those weaknesses it feels like the rounds that they found were because liquid made big mistakes as opposed to them finding a lot of uh innovative attack rounds and now that then puts them in a position where you know realistically if liquid have sort of gathered themselves and they don't start out on the attack do gambit have what it takes to stop them at this stage i will say when it comes to watching gambit play i've always been more interested i guess is the word in the defensive side and i think that they have a lot of ratty setups i think they're very difficult to break down and i think this is where we should see the strength of this roster but i also think that again the double duelist has been thrown in for liquid might even be for this exact reason like we're gonna try and use those individuals to get us those openings and witness rounds that we shouldn't necessarily be able to do and they're already looking to take quite a bit of control in mid and actually the one leading the charge snake by down is going to slow them a little bit chronicle even able to pick up one who's taking double damage but chronicle gets rushed on right afterwards this is a little bit scary now for gambit losing out their viper and a lot of their mid control they quickly rally but yami somehow is watching that smoke as they come on through the flanks though that's early up behind and well look at this he's able to take the double of zeppo sprays away that's just gorgeous i mean nats actually basically stole that first kill of time because you had defoe coming in on the flank and he shot but the guy was already dead this is as said like we've already seen him like i think most of his kills came from clutches now you get to see him on his better side if anything i think she does like he got kind of owned there by the fact that the paint show went in behind so he had to push through take a risk but this is what i mean about the setups like not even necessarily the positioning of all of the utility that's always nice it's the fact that i feel like nats is just one of the best players in the world of the timing of his utility when he uses the cages when he isolates the different players because if that cage is too early or too late he gets pushed from both sides and he doesn't stand a chance exactly nance is a very scary player to to play against and look at how they're approaching this round they're changing it up massively knots is supporting into wards mid this time as they crunch down with the specters and these players attempting to seize control i mean where did liquid go from here this spike still in their possession easily but it doesn't really seem to be any opportunity for them to find kills i mean towards the a site you've got astra stars to contend with and obviously jet up top watching from afar b is a bunch of cipher utility that you have to fight through plus shadows being there with the flashes there's no easy way in well yeah that that's basically the opposite of these two compositions is that i would almost say that gambit have so much utilized too much like they've got so much stuff that they can put down throughout the rounds that i i feel like liquid are either gonna have to run through some of it in later rounds or they're gonna end up like this where it's like 20 30 seconds up on the clock when they're trying to go for an execution and that's always difficult to make anything work and especially in this round where they don't have much to play with really solid round from gambit not a single player lost most of them not even losing any shields either so they won't have to go for much of a reinvestment at all and this is going to be as pure a bonus round as you'll see you know though what we were saying earlier right starting out this half the question uh looking at how the rounds were won by gambit in particular i mean honestly they didn't quite look like themselves they with those clutches that as you said often came into those 1v1s we could easily be looking at team liquid up on 11 rounds at this stage that's the way to put it they didn't win a single clean very true attack which is well you're not gonna be happy with that but if you win five rounds on the attack and you're a team that's known for their defensive sides they're probably not gonna be too worried about it i just think that in other maps in other series maybe in the future you don't win all of those clutches and then maybe you're in a much worse spot what can that see with that cam that i'm missing because he's they have a player watching heaven they have a player watching me but he's sat in his cam right now and just just sat outside b main i mean that is a big risk and okay so we can just about see around the corner so just kind of pay off to get that early information and then allow shadows to instantly flash still i feel like there's a moment in that there's a good timing for team liquid if they just swing they kill two but hey it sort of pays off they end up with deep b control after the flash realize that no one's there start to rotate around to the a site where now there's a four-man stack it looks like liquid all right exactly they're faking it out they're looking to go towards this b site where nats currently resides he's able to isolate one is cage providing perfect cover as he repositions towards the side but sulcus will catch him buying enough time though as his teammates are now just outside of b but the wall stops them completely that wall was so important it might seem like nothing because it took them literal seconds to break it but they were about to pop flash out and deny the plant if that wall didn't go up now we're going to see the concussive at least one of the players but chronicle is going to get called out bear in mind this is a bonus round still so any damage is going to be valuable but soulcast he might get more value himself he's looking to get a show stopper maybe in this round alone already up to four kills and defo left with well very little the marshall's not gonna be too useful here and if anything he might just want to die like the the value of holding on to this is not gonna be worth it yeah absolutely dive onto that spike there's no time left to get the defuse so there he goes just getting that extra little bit of cash up for the next round now at eight to seven team liquid have got a comfy full by but the thing i want to look at more so is the fact that sulkas is now just one away from his ultimate not showstopper i mean in terms of getting kills it might not have necessarily been huge in the previous half but it definitely had its impact this time around though on the attack i imagine it's going to be much more aggressive it's going to be looking for a body count yeah i i would be surprised if this early round is not just battling for an orb i think that's exactly what they're gonna be doing just go straight in try and find something and there's actually a star on top of it so they've got to be very careful i think this is something that well if i can read into it i can almost guarantee that red guy can read into it and he is watching and waiting trying to make this a little bit more awkward but sourcast has got away with it anyway and here it comes but the bull is there in the kill although sulkas gets it from the grave scream is down as well sprayed through the smoke nuts able for a double leaving yampi all alone a one versus four and it's not likely to work out he has to hit some incredible shots if he's going to be getting away with this one and already you've seen a player sneak into the back corner if he seems ready for this and no one else is there to really support nets they're looking at the other angles it doesn't matter if this dude doesn't honestly think he could pull off the best ace you've ever seen like a one versus five where he's got his eyes closed and he's only using like a classic and he'd still just be like yeah no that's cool all right next round let's come on let's keep going it's unbelievable such good value one enemy remaining such good value and to a certain extent you almost wonder you know that first star that was put down slightly deeper i was imagining that what was going to happen was that you'd have a gravitational well and then you would follow it up with a smoke so you can actually peek and spray through without their teammates that aren't caught by the well um being able to fire back but instead he uses a smoke first which is essentially conceding that old torb obviously he can spray through but uh he's using a vandal so even then it's going to give an opportunity for them to spray back and then the fact that the well is used instantly i it almost seems like to a certain extent they planned that maybe it wasn't necessarily for that ultimate perhaps it was to stop scream from dashing out and finding so much space or a bunch of other things but it seemed like on some level that that was the exact intention from the start of the round and it worked out liquid playing into the palm of your hand that goes there yeah well intelligent play from regard whatever the plan was initially because he finds two kills versus scream and an ultimate like you're gonna take that all day long and now you look at the purchase that's coming in there it's actually gonna be a hero rifle invested here for scream again this is the same scenario where he gets one kill and dies or gets an old orb and dies and it doesn't matter anymore he's gonna have the blade storm so this hero is absolutely fine it's not really risking anything at all now after getting that they're gonna break a little bit of utility but all five players are now in b main i feel like they almost have to push because of the amount of map control they've currently given up this is such a high percentage play as well if screen gets a kill he's going to be able to drop that weapon over to a teammate and play blade storm if they can just find that entry into sight but again the astra utility comes in to slow them down the wall already used but it's also very close to breaking defoe holding this with an operator doesn't have his dash to play with so he'll just be backing out immediately after the first and that's gets caught this is where they might consider a fuller investment and link has taken shadows this is ridiculous team liquid now having control of the site and indeed that blade storm's still online we're waiting to see if it gets popped up oh yeah really not having a good time coming up on the flank as he gets taken down the numbers equalize and a big play is needed by uh presumably cryptics or scream with those rifles already the utility is going to start falling in to try and clear out some of these angles try and deny some of the peaks and give them some space back into the site it's the peak from screen though you wanted a big play well both players get kills almost instantly and scream will close out the round didn't even need the blade storm in the end the hero rifle was enough things are definitely heating up here for team liquid with just two rifles and yeah not not even dropping the rifle to play the blade storm i love that as well because he's gonna have it for this round exactly exactly he'll just handle the round i mean it doesn't matter [Laughter] drop did you say drop what's that you mean drape i don't oh wow nine to eight the lead for liquid it started out well on this map of the 3-1 lead and then gambit seemed to be running running away with it but we're in a back and forth nature here trying to destroy that cam he's eventually gotten it at least you know although you're hearing that sheriff spray away from red guard just look at what gambit are working with aside from that it might almost low liquid into a false sense of security yeah i think looking over at the finance of their opponent the beginning of the round they could probably guess that there would be some sort of investment like it wasn't too bad a spot they have themselves the seekers as well like there's a lot of value that they can get out of this round and it's an important one at that especially for liquid i would say because things have been a little bit tight so far the defensive hordes from gambit have been good their utility usage has made things very awkward and well the information they're actually gonna garner here is not actually that fantastic like they know that there's a lean towards the a site they also know that there's some players in mid which basically means as of right now liquor can go wherever they want 30 seconds they see nothing inside of heaven as they start to move forward there's a trap wire spotted but it's defoe catching link that no fake is going to be sold this time around still plenty of presence towards this a site as liquid look to push in they have to contend with nats on the back side and that's always going to be a problem but how is he even up that high scream jumping from the top rope managing to damage him up and cryptics finishing off here we go an even 4v4 retake gambit we're winning these every time over on the attack on this a side but now it's team liquid's turn they've managed to spread the wealth a little bit with some of the weapons that they currently have clearing the back lines making sure that there isn't going to be anyone coming in on the flank and there isn't they're all locked into the site which could make things a little bit more difficult for them the close flashes will find one but actually it's the kill from jumpy already shutting out red gun i believe he was the man without a gun the remaining players may just look to save or they may look to hold liquid into the site make this a costly one at least as liquid start to increase their lead that a little bit more but actually three of the players are going to escape and they're getting out with the weapons i mean with one of them being shadows on a specter not able to retrieve his teammates rifle is it's not the best but desperate times and now they're gonna take attack i think it's a good spot to do it because this is one of those situations where financially you're in a weird spot it seems like they're actually going to invest into this one and it means the the majority of what they're going to have is weaker weaponry now their loss bonus of credits is going to be building up after liquid get a couple of rounds in a row but even still the likelihood is if they invest into this one which they kind of have to based on the rest of their teammates they're not going to have a buy in the next it'll be mostly pistols and then you're looking at liquid potentially getting to 12 rounds and gambit what i believe is currently their map choice potentially slipping away so this is a horrible round really for gambit because it's one that they don't have the best weaponry and they have to win and then on the other side considering we've seen these investments liquid have done well so they've been able to build up a little bit of extra cash with the hero win and now you look at the finances and they're in a very good spot you know they're definitely sitting pretty red garb going to actually play with a bucky let's wait the eight seconds and see until until he has the option to sell it i'm not gonna say a word but it seems like he's actually going to stick with it so all right i'm intrigued to see how this one will work me too here it is uh all together a strange setup viper's pit used on b mid being held by a bucky for a moment their team liquid didn't seem to be too deterred by that pit but they have started to rotate back around to move towards a main grouping up there is a five it looks like a heavier push shadow's not able to get the information checks the left corner instead of the right which would have given him a lot of information of course no way for him to know that so they hold and the problem here as well is that your first rotate in is going to be redgar with the bucky so these players on site pretty much can't die he can help hold heaven but he's not going to be able to retake slowed down at least by the cages but this is a fast push and that's going to be ready for evil snaps back in time he basically needs to be a hero for them once again but this is what this man seems to do best already finding two kills on the site his third comes up as well they just can't deal with this cycle four kills he was alone for the majority and shadows is there to close it but can anyone stop this man still no reaction by the way he can play every part of the map that's the worst part it's not like oh that's his ankle beat no you don't know he could be anywhere he's had his hands his trap wires all across the map and on that back side he just this is his comfort ground the a side i don't know what it is but he can clutch out here he can stop pushes by himself he's so fun to watch 30 seconds left you imagine how much different this game would look if nats obviously he wouldn't have his utility but if his ulti was something like a show stopper oh wait we'd be amount of there's no doubt but he's given that lifeline that said that round was so crucial defoe has been having a bit of a rough time and it's not looking like it's gonna get any better and this time they have isolated the players on this a site that's still standing but he will fall and now it's on to shadows one versus four i'm not going to hold my breath on this one mitch because i'm not believing in this couch yeah i think liquid made the right choice in committing the rez in this situation it just guarantees that shadows isn't really going to go for it poking to try and find a player exiting is pretty much his best scenario so saving this weapon he's actually getting a little bit close i mean that's a that's a joke he gets out of there with two health well that was almost the freest upgrade of uh of yampi's life that said he found one behind him which is walking to link oh he's shift walking he's got his weapon out it seems like shadows is ready there's no way he checks his right corner sure he'll go that far he doesn't need to i i actually can't believe he got away with a gun that's probably the biggest surprise of this round but there was a moment when he first saw the judge that for about a millisecond he tapped s and that well i presume that's the bind he's using and so he stepped back just a tiny bit i don't think he even stepped he shuffled a tiny bit backwards if he didn't do that he was dead yeah i mean like one millimeter closer you are gone that is incredibly lucky again we're in a situation for camera that's been the main issue for them in this defensive half is it's been so back and forth liquid have managed to win rounds with not the best of purchases and so financially throughout they've just been in the bin like they've not i don't think they've actually had a full buy in in about five or six rounds which is just ridiculous like it's been so back and forth that they've always had a spectre or they've always had a pistol there's not been a round where everybody can purchase now luckily for them here they do have a bladestorm and that could be the difference maker because we could see at least a few rifles coming in for the remaining players sure you're still gonna have not the greatest of purchases but it will be enough that they could in theory win the round whereas without it i i wouldn't be i wouldn't be gambling on them at least this goes here yeah it would uh be a pretty big gun but that was the that was the joke you went for no are you proud are you annoyed not really i'm just asking if you're probably sound annoyed you sound kind of annoyed so i'm proud like a defo popping those blades right away i'm gonna be able to spam this but that cloud burst about to disappear and from his angle scream stands up he can see him oh they are just so close yampi's dropped towards a that was a big fake big posturing and here's defoe's chance that scream shuts him down right away the dash in negates that gravity well the rest of the team slowed up but just for a second as the easy control over the side implant comes into play team liquid man advantage extends even further with scream but chronicle bulldog in i mean a bulldog judge retake it it doesn't really get much worse than this yeah i'll be a bit upset if they win i won't lie i like there's a part of me that wants to see this team succeed but there is a part of me that wants to see them completely fail with this purchase because it shouldn't work and chronicles upgraded so that's at least something the judge unfortunately that doesn't do any damage so it is going to be a 12 for liquid and again they change your pace to just avoid a lot of this utility i also think that from what i've seen over the last couple of times the gambit played this this this is not defoe's map like he has been struggling like every single aggressive play which is basically the point of having the jet like play aggressive have some opportunities to get out of there like we saw from scream on the previous half it just hasn't worked like he's been caught almost every time in fact it's been scream who's been catching him out in the majority of cases so i i think he could have been the difference maker unfortunately in this map it looks like it's gone the other way you know bulldog and judge remain this time around the gambit of bottom back up and they're playing with spectres as well we see that same setup from before and the more i look at this the more i see like that camera has such a wide angle that i think it would just they've obviously tested it as the other thing it probably gives them exactly the right timing to pop this flash let's see if team liquid can punish it there's the flash the peak and at least one kill and that's quickly able to trade this is perfect on a round like this but as nats falls the b side is now wide open for the taking in fact defoe can't even do anything to stop them because he's got to judge so although he was in heaven he's not on the b side he's not holding the b side at all still liquid are rotating now they're making their way towards this a site and if oh and that smoke that smoke tells defil there's probably people coming his way so he's going to stay he's not going to rotate to the a site so that judge and the bulldog kept over there redgar has to go nuclear for them to have a chance of remaining in this map yeah even once they they like push through here it's going to take such a long time for the remaining couple of players to actually make that rotation so now will he have known absolutely anything just try and run past him now he can try and just buy a little bit of time a second kill be huge and he's actually gonna get it that's a spike down in fact you spoke of nuclear well i think red guy's even undone that that is incredible with a specter in hand and trapped in a corner as well we saw even scream there to start out this map and he got destroyed and that was versus worse weapons when he had a vandal 30 seconds left i will say this redgar's long-range specter play and we saw it on the attack side as well when they went up through heaven and that long-range kill that he found remember who it was his spectre is so good like that last kill there that wasn't even typical red guard you remember like we've seen it before just get those triple dinks out right away a lot of pressure being applied by liquid in the early round and sulcus is very successful yeah they've really been liking these paranoia like blast pack combos like they've even thrown in a couple of times just to try and bait people into rotating a little bit but right now that kill is everything like they've pulled one of the players that has a lot of the utility available they've also forced a rotation already now i'm sure there is a a camera available for gnats and an aggressive position from deafer but i said defo he's been a bit of an underperformer so far in this map so to leave him as a solo hold is a scary concept and well it seems like at the moment gambit is still talking through how they're actually going to play this one it's going to be gnats that eventually falls back and well that might be the right call because it does look like liquid are going to try and pressure that b site man advantage show stopper i mean everything is going their way right now we know about this showstopper play to entry b it has caused some problems in the past this time up against the operator again who collapsed them right away down and out liquid now lose the man advantage to make a push on to the side coming along through maine yampi gets spotted and he's not even gonna get the first at this point link basically can't get it oh wow oh that's that's that's where you punch your dick right his cam is here it's here it's here it pops tags you and then you break it it's like well what's the point you might sort of had your back to it at that stage oh that's infuriating and yeah i said def has been quiet that is a big turn around yeah sure there's a little bit of luck with the players lining up his positioning his ability to get out of there those are the sort of plays that gambit have been waiting for all the way through and now at crunch time 12 to 11 wow it's pressure under pressure can we see gambit take this one to ot their map choice look to try and bring this one back into their favor and put the pressure on to liquid because although sure liquid are one of those teams that uh well actually both of them already teams confirmed for the last chance qualifier they have the opportunity to qualify straight through to champions if they manage to get out and go to berlin and also both of these teams want to compete in berlin let's not take away that fact as well it it may seem like this whole year has been building up to champions but to miss out on lan events when there's been so few i don't think there's any team that wants to be doing that oh the boombox gonna give away the operator position they're looking again to push out to this b-side the showstopper used up in heaven it's a jet that he's chasing after not gonna be an easy kill by any means the updraft he keeps alive but defoe can't get the shot off in time operator for sulcus 5v3 this is the round the gambit needed to try and fight back in overtime and it's going to be an uphill battle getting onto this site needs to be again one of those clutch rounds they pulled off many and this man was at the heart of most of them if not all of them but this will be the toughest one yet a three versus five retake pushing into the b side so many angles being held soulcast already getting one that's shadows though they've managed to find two back now the paint show is gonna do a little bit of extra damage nats will just about survive and now it's all onto shadows but he gets nothing done liquid will close out split and take themselves an advantage in the series 1311 one crazy tight opening map but lick would take it in the end and it certainly wasn't without its trials and tribulations you saw the start of this map go liquid's way and gavit quickly get to see gambit start on that defensive side so at least you can be happy yeah i i think that we can definitely see them thrive here it would just be interesting to see what liquid have to offer we know that they've gone back again to this double jewelers something that seems to be working out quite well for them i've really enjoyed sarcasm's raise on this map and i'm gonna quote big boy boaster that you need to play a raise when it comes to bind and honestly but seeing how well saulcast does i'm definitely starting to agree with that sentiment we're looking like we're getting an a split though fairly quickly and the straight dash in from yompi oh a close fight for chronicle he's going inside this smoke to duel the power of the right click winning over the frenzy this gambit looked to get back into this site with a man advantage they will concede the spike plant too spotted inside of lamps defo wanting to pursue can't really afford to especially with that molly down now it's time to back off and look for another way and they have plenty of time to get this done really just buying time for that flank to come in got nats on the way up behind the shadows falls oh no the whole team is crumbling and the flanks even being spotted a disaster of a round with mats going down it is 1-0 team liquid getting away with a 4v5 retake attempt on gamut's part and flawlessly yeah it was like that the wall that they put down created this just filthy crossfire that they had and the only person that seemed to be able to break that would have been that but they kind of go like obviously you see that the trip i think actually gives away his position so there would have been somebody watching it anyway but like i feel like if they just wait a couple more seconds it's a bit more of an awkward fight instead they just go running through and basically just go straight into a blender so what played obviously scream getting himself three kills is always going to be hugely beneficial it's something we talk about every time we see him play sage and while here comes that pincer plane but it has been spotted however mitch it's still working quite well the gamut we're one of the first teams to actually start using this i think alongside the likes of fpx within europe and uh you're seeing the value that it brings even far after the um tp split came into play i mean spike played we saw that uh many many moons ago wait i remember them doing this in buy rounds versus fnatic the first time they were trying to qualify this is yeah they've done this a lot they're trying to do that in the last game and they did it in the same fashion i'm pretty sure they lost the pistol on defense and they did this exact crunch play maybe a little bit to read into there but liquid didn't it doesn't seem to matter though they still managed to mop up the rest of the forces but tom you surviving with two players in this round isn't necessarily a big win i don't know a scream seems pretty happy about it it might be because he has 447 acs six kills and almost a rez but and i don't know there's plenty of other i think it's also cause and weirdly i think the sage wall has won them both of these rounds which is i don't think that's something you're going to say too regularly like it's good for executions normally but screams positioning of it in both of these rounds has just funneled really awkward spots for gambit and they've not really been able to get anything done now nats he's been watching this uh this guy on the other team called link and he's deciding you know what i want a little bit of that i think i can play the judge as well as him so i'm gonna go straight into hookah and i'm gonna sit there for probably the entirety of the round entirety of the round you you mean the game right maybe talking about that's judge play okay half let's say half oh he's he's bailing nope he's playing down a little bit lower nope over on the team liquid side seems to be grouping up towards the b side a lot of presence here the drone isn't really going to spot much just one guy up close that means very little of this early stage of the round picked up surprisingly not going to be invested into the press something they can actually utilize in this round unless of course scream gets a kill which you know that is something you can normally bank regard gonna be in a fairly good position but it's guardian to play with and they're gonna get nice and close and that's what that gun falls apart in fact the whole round does three entries coming in they had a decent position who could control and nothing goes the way of gambit it's starting the same way mitch a slow start again that was very similar to a jet dash what we just saw from sulcus the funny thing is he doesn't even find a kill for it or a death i think that's been the the story of his game so far if i'm not mistaken he's zero zero zero he's it's just kind of existing at the moment but using himself as a distraction jumping into the side his teammates easily take those duels onto players that are trying to deal with sulcus there's pretty much no choice but to save for gambit they have opted for that making it all the way into the attacker's spawn and team liquid being in quite early days if they're excuse me of their economy as well they don't really want to hunt them down this is going to be a massive boost for their economy as well as you mentioned like surviving the last one with only a couple of players alive to come back into this one with a bonus there actually had a rifle or two in there as well this is massive for them because they've now been able to retrieve some extra weaponry they've had a boost and it becomes a little bit awkward for gambit because they're in a spot now where sure they could try and drop a couple of weapons over and go for another sort of force by s ground but this was the main thing that bit them in the last map was the fact that they seem to have so many weak buys that they never really like had every single player able to pull out a rifle so i'm hoping for their sake that oh please though that's a lot of buggies that's too many that's two too many buckies gambiter's strange team i'm not i'm not sure what has spawned this obsession with the bookie but we'll see if they find any sort of reward with it where they play they're playing one on long and one in hookah and the hookah player has just pushed all the way up i presume the viper wall is up right now good shot by chronicle quickly connected second old dorbz for soul cause both have been the orbs that he's taken this is the slowest forming pizza we've ever seen in our lives he's got slow-cooker yeah exactly it's the slow cooked pizza something that i'm not sure exists maybe it does probably somewhere in the world but for now at least it's not going too well this round actually slightly turning back especially considering that they've utilized the res they've now got 40 seconds to try and pull this round back again now there are still two buckets so let's not get ahead of ourselves and say that oh yeah this is going to be an easy victory for them especially if they walk into the b site you are only facing buckies or if they go hey they're up against rifles the benefit here the retake would only be bookies i guess being spotted out on mid that fake in towards hookah isn't gonna sell anything at all good shot by shadows the spray continued and he catches link afterwards ten seconds to get that spike planted they have to deal with shadows now and they do there's an opportunity but they decide against it opting to save the weapons instead and the first round will be found for gambit again on the tom i mean we start this out and you say hey oh look this is why they're losing because they've got so many weak buys and that's the round they win yeah but that's almost the thing that they didn't actually invest fully in this round so it almost played into the point that why were they doing that before when they can still win the round without investing like that that's the thing doesn't make sense because it was two save rifles and then the rest only bought well buckies so they didn't even need the investment they just had to save and well shadeless is someone that was highlighted very early in the tournament by redgar himself as the player that they almost rely on sometimes to win them games if he has a superstar match the map is theirs but that's one hell of a star and playing an agent which again we've sort of seen switched around like something they clearly want to be playing but it was initially defo this is so risky from that's punished very early on wanting to try and challenge for orb control and it has been bitten prepared oh look at this this is a full a play orbital strike smokes off to cover the side they even blast back in shadows is up close but he's i'm pretty sure they heard him lost track of where he's gone amidst all these smokes as he comes out towards the back of it sulcus is already gone what was that straight through the smoke and the boxes yampy is gone he's out of here but more is needed the flank play good for one definitely needs so much more pull his team back into this one the smoke down it's such an easy spam for them but the flank oh no ch<br><!-- wp:image {"id":1776,"sizeSlug":"large","linkDestination":"none"} -->rn<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img class="wp-image-1776" src="https://en.videoencontexto.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/INSANE_MATCH__LIQUID_VS_GAMBIT__VCT_3_EMEA_Challengers_Playoffs_AUG_19_2021_0bufN_jsipw.jpg" alt="INSANE MATCH ! LIQUID VS GAMBIT | VCT 3 EMEA Challengers Playoffs AUG 19 2021" /></figure>rn<!-- /wp:image -->[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]