Eternal Fire stopped Liquid from winning their first trophy with the new lineup.
Eternal Fire defeated Team Liquid 3-1 on May 23 to win the CCT Global Finals and run away with $250,000 in prize pool.
The online tournament was a great opportunity for Liquid as only a handful of tier-one teams attended the event. Even though the American-European project defeated OG, AMKAL, ENCE, and Astralis to get to the grand finals, the defeat to Eternal Fire won't do any favors to star in-game leader Casper "cadiaN" Møller, who is reportedly facing a possible removal after the conclusion of IEM Dallas in early June.
Eternal Fire vs Liquid: Match recap
CS2 fans expected Liquid to put up a good fight against the Turkish side spearheaded by the star İsmailсan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş, especially after Liquid eliminated Astralis in the semifinals, but instead, Eternal Fire absolutely demolished them in the first two maps.
The Turks started the series doing Liquid dirty on their own map pick, Inferno, with a fast 13-5 victory. Though cadiaN and co. showed signs of life in the first half of Anubis, they weren't able to get their defense rolling against Engin "MAJ3R" Küpeli's tactics and lost by 13-10.
Although it looked rather unlike Liquid to react on Dust 2 of all maps as they had less time to practice in it than Eternal Fire due to playing in the ESL Pro League Season 19 Playoffs, they bought themselves a lifeline in the series. Liquid were 3-9 down after an atrocious CT side, but recovered when they switched to Terrorists and went on to force overtime and run away with the victory.
While it wasn't the greatest CS2 match of all time, it's undeniable Liquid and Eternal Fire delivered entertainment to fans. The players kept giving everything of themselves on Nuke and we got another overtime. Just when fans thought Liquid would bring them to the final map, however, Eternal Fire reacted in overtime and stole the map from Liquid's hands to secure the trophy.
XANTARES and Calyx were the best performers for Eternal Fire as they fragged in all four maps of the series. It's hard to judge Liquid's individual performances in such a one-sided loss, but Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis had a subpar series once again this year.
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What does this result mean for both teams?
Even though Liquid had their best tournament since the organization picked up cadiaN, Russel "Twistzz" van Dunkel, and Felipe "skullz" Medeiros for the 2024 season, the loss to Eternal Fire in the grand finals won't likely take any pressure away from cadiaN's shoulders as they were theoretically favorites against Eternal Fire. According to head coach Wilton "zews" Prado, Liquid weren't "anywhere close" today in comparison to the rest of the event.
As for Eternal Fire, winning CCT Global Finals reassures their position as a team on the verge of breaking into tier-one and becoming really competitive. The Turks were a great surprise in the PGL Copenhagen Major in March as they made the playoffs.
CCT Global Finals standings
Position Team Prize Earned | 1st Eternal Fire $250,000 | 2nd Team Liquid $100,000 | 3-4th GamerLegion $50,000 | 3-4th Astralis $50,000 | 5-8th AMKAL $12,500 | 5-8th BetBoom $12,500 | 5-8th Aurora $12,500 | 5-8th ENCE $12,500 | 9-12th MIBR - | 9-12th paiN Gaming - | 9-12th Fnatic - | 9-12th SAW - | 13-16th BIG - | 13-16th OG - | 13-16th Gaimin Gladiators - | 13-16th PARIVISION - |
With the conclusion of CCT Global Finals, the next big CS2 tournament is IEM Dallas from May 27 to June 2. Liquid will attend the home event alongside the likes of MOUZ, FaZe Clan, Natus Vincere, Vitality, Spirit, G2, Complexity, Virtus.pro, HEROIC, and Falcons.
