Liquid crash out of Logitech G Play Connect with 2-3 group record

Liquid has been knocked out of Logitech G Play Connect after ending the group stage with a 2-3 record, as reported by Dust2.us. HLTV confirms the elimination, highlighting that both Liquid and NIP were eliminated as the Polish CS2 event progressed to the playoffs.

The North American team faced challenges with two key absences. Mario “malbsMd” Samoya was absent for personal reasons, with Serbian player Vladan “VLDN” Radević filling in, while head coach Viktor “flashie” Tamás Bea missed the tournament for his sister’s wedding, replaced by Liquid data analyst Jay “DeMars DeRover” Li.

According to Dust2.us, Liquid suffered all three defeats against lower-ranked teams, which is disappointing considering their recent victory in the PGL Masters Bucharest NA qualifier, where they defeated NRG in the grand final after losing to them earlier in the event.

VLDN struggled in his stand-in role, maintaining an average rating of 0.96 across five maps, significantly lower than his 1.11 rating over 83 maps for ex-Zero Tenacity in the previous three months, as reported by Dust2.us.

Review of the group stage

Liquid started with a 13-8 victory against INFINITE on Mirage, but then suffered consecutive losses: 13-6 to Inner Circle on Cache, and an overtime loss to EYEBALLERS on Mirage after squandering a 10-3 lead. A 13-6 win over 3DMAX on Nuke, led by Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski’s 18 kills, kept their playoff chances alive going into the final round. However, their hopes were dashed on Nuke against BBL, who secured a 13-6 victory to send Liquid home.

The early exit does provide one advantage for the team. Dust2.us points out that Liquid can now return to North America earlier than planned to prepare for the iBUYPOWER Masters FML 2026, where they are slated to face Chicken Coop on September 25.