Masters Reykjavík: Team Liquid advance and eliminate Team Vikings in 2-0 series

Approaching the final days of VCT 2021 - Stage 2 - Masters Reykjavík, the remaining five teams are fighting to get a chance at the Grand Final on Sunday. The second match of the day finds us with an elimination match between Team Liquid, who has battled their way past multiple teams after being knocked into the lower bracket by the recently eliminated Version1, and Team Vikings who recently got bumped to the lower bracket by a dominant Sentinels team.

This matchup started on Team Viking’s choice of Ascen, a map that both of these teams are comfortable playing. Team Liquid starting off strong with Elias "Jamppi" Olkkonen picking up a four kill round on the pistol and following this up with an ace on the second round. Vikings managed to pick up the third round in a scrappy affair that came down to a 1v1 situation, however, this win didn’t stifle Liquid as they followed this up with two rounds of their own, placing the score at 4-1. The remainder of the half was quite back-and-forth, but Liquid managed to steady their pace and pick up the final three rounds of the half, which ended the first half 8-4 in favor of the European-squad.

Moving into the second half, Liquid came out strong once again and found success in both the pistol and the following round, placing them in the double-digits and close to finishing up the map. Team Vikings did manage to fight back, as they picked up three consecutive rounds, including a flawless, to narrow the scoreline to 10-7. However, Liquid were able to hit map point after taking the following two rounds, meaning that Vikings would need to find five in a row to take this map to overtime. Though the Vikings did manage to pick up the next two rounds, they eventually fell to Liquid in the 21st round and Liquid took the map 13-8.

Moving into the second map of Haven, Liquid’s pick, we saw Liquid pick up the pistol round on their defensive side, however, Vikings were able to immediately get on the board by forcing into the second round and clutching up a 1v1 scenario. After back-and-forth rounds, the scoreline was even at 3-3 midway through the first half of the map. Travis "L1NK" Mendoza and Dom "soulcas" Sulcas combined for back-to-back three kill rounds, allowing Liquid to jump ahead to 6-3 on their defensive side. Ultimately, the half ended 7-5 in the favor of Team Liquid as they moved over to their attacking side.

Team Liquid kicked off their attacking side dominantly as they picked up the pistol, and they did not slow down as they managed to pick up six consecutive rounds. Team Vikings were unable to slow their momentum, and Liquid stormed to a swift 13-5 finish - including a knife kill by Jammpi and closed out by a Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom 4K.

This result will set up a rematch of the VCT Masters 2: EMEA Grand Final between Team Liquid and Fnatic, where the winner moves on to the lower bracket final, and the loser is sent home. Team Liquid previously won their last matchup in a tight 3-2 Best of 5 series. Unfortunately for the Brazilian-side of Team Vikings, their Masters run ends here - though they put up a great performance taking down X10 Esports in the upper bracket quarter-finals and represented themselves and their region well. We look forward to seeing Team Vikings in future events!