The third day at PGL Bucharest 2025 has ended with Liquid, who debuted this tournament with siuhy, leaving without a win. They have been close on most occasions, but still couldn’t even win a map. Today, they faced The MongolZ in the elimination game, but it wasn’t pretty. Let us break down the series to find out what went wrong for them.
Liquid vs The MongolZ
- 11-13 on Mirage
- 7-13 on Anubis
A classic NA Choke on Mirage
The series started with The MongolZ putting up a 2-0 lead, but the tides turned quickly once the buy rounds rolled in. Suddenly, we were looking at a 7-3 lead for Liquid. And it wasn’t anything flashy coming out of Liquid, just fundamentals done right, with their main focus on taking mid control. The MongolZ had no answer for it. They tried stacking sites when they had limited utility to take mid, but Liquid’s attacks were always multi-dimensional which bolstered through the defences.
It really goes to show that despite changing the IGL, Liquid were still in sync. Plus, the unshackled Twistzz was just doing his job, firing on all cylinders, and you could see his impact clearly. The MongolZ closed the gap towards the end to 5-7, after realizing they needed to be the ones dictating the pace. So aggression in mid and B Apps turned out to be their recipe for success.
And then came the second half. Liquid convincingly closed out the pistol with a win and found themselves sitting on a comfortable 9-5 lead. All doors were closing for The MongolZ, until the classic NA choke reared its head. Yes, I will call it a choke, because it felt like Liquid served a lot of those rounds on a silver platter. And most of these early blunders were basic, with one Liquid player overextending and giving away a free kill. On top of that, they kept leaning hard on their CT setups, over and over, and The MongolZ saw right through it, steering clear every time.
While I don’t want to cherry-pick and talk about NAF’s poor CT side, that was another reason behind the crumble. One kill across the entire half, despite frequent B hits, simply doesn’t cut it. What looked like a promising performance from Liquid unraveled before our eyes, and they let the map slip through their fingers.
Twistzz’s efforts went unrewarded on Anubis
The second map was Anubis, which we all know is heavily T-sided. Liquid had played it before, but they just couldn’t find their footing early on. On the other hand, The MongolZ capitalized, plain and simple.
Now I’d once again like to draw your attention to just how much problems the absence of a seasoned anchor like jks caused for Liquid. Filling his spot, it was NertZ who was thrust into the anchor role. Of all the players on Liquid, NertZ would probably be the last one I’d want to play an anchor spot.
I did mention in one of my articles how much of a struggle it was going to be for Liquid on the CT side, because the switch between siuhy and jks is anything but a one-for-one. But while it made sense role-wise, Liquid would’ve lost their NA slot that gets them into Round 3 of the Major, so it’s fair. Still, he struggled a lot on the CT side.
While the rest of the team looked absent from the server, Twistzz was holding down the fort. Thanks to his heroics, Liquid managed to salvage four rounds on their CT side, which was still defendable in my opinion. But they lost the CT pistol, and that proved to be the nail in the coffin. They did close the gap to 7-10 by stringing together three buy rounds, but the margin for error was razor-thin, and The MongolZ snatched victory.
