Revenge served: Liquid ousts HEROIC from FISSURE PLAYGROUND 2

It is only the beginning of the new season, but HEROIC and Team Liquid have already clashed a couple of times.

Ahead of FISSURE PLAYGROUND 2, HEROIC held a 5-1 over Liquid. The two teams with their revamped rosters first played against each other at FISSURE Universe Episode 7, an online tournament that kicked off the new season at the beginning of October. HEROIC made a remarkable run, claiming the title, but not before defeating Liquid 2-1 in the upper bracket finals. A week later, the South American squad defeated Liquid two more times, in the BLAST Slam IV group stage and in the play-in stage. That meant Liquid’s elimination from BLAST Slam. A week after that, Liquid made sure it’s HEROIC that exits a tournament early.

Liquid cracks HEROIC's Kez code

All three games featured Kez being picked in the first phase of the draft by HEROIC. “We feel confident in Kez,” Igor "kaffs" Estevão, the team coach, explained in an interview with FISSURE, on stage. “I think Liquid also wants it, so we had to first-phase pick it.”

However, the opening game didn’t go as planned for HEROIC, despite Yuma "Yuma" Langle finishing with a 14/6/13 KDA on his Kez. It took Liquid over one hour to find the itemization that would allow them to control HEROIC and take down KEZ. A Divine Rapier on Michael "miCKe" Vu finally gave them the damage needed to prevail in team fights and start the series on the right foot. Despite the loss, HEROIC went on first picking Kez in game two, but paired with Leshrac and Viper, which proved way too much damage to power through for Liquid.

With both teams one game away from elimination, Kez still made it through the ban phase of game three and ended up being picked by HEROIC. They could also secure Leshrac, hoping to repeat the previous game story, but they added a twist to their draft. While Cedric "Davai Lama" Deckmyn played Enigma, a hero he won HEROIC’s first tournament of the season with, Matheus "KJ" Diniz decided to go for a position 5 Huskar. In theory, he could have provided some chaos through the laning stage, but in reality, HEROIC found themselves having to play from behind. Despite a couple of good team fights, and a few clutch plays coming from both Davai Lama and Yuma, overall, their draft didn’t work as planned, and Liquid sent them packing in the eighth place.

Third day of the FISSURE PLAYGROUND 2 will come to a close with Falcons and Team Spirit fighting for survival in the second lower bracket round. Saturday, November 1st will bring two more elimination series and the upper bracket finals between Team Yandex and BetBoom Team.