In a do-or-die showdown at EMEA Kickoff, Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #15 purp0 Semyon Borchev wayne Wayne Chang MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin kamo Kamil Frąckowiak defeated Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #5 Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish ComeBack Berkcan Şentürk Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius in a statement 2-0. With this result, Liquid extends their lower bracket run, while MiniBoo scores his first win against his brother Boo and the rest of his former team.

The series began on Liquid's pick of Abyss. After both teams lost 13-2 to Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #31 dos9 Zhumagali Dastan LewN Burak Alkan sheydos Bogdan Naumov Avez Hazem Khaled SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin in their last Abyss showings, both switched away from double-Initiator to more meta Waylay-Yoru looks.

Heretics started out in control, converting the bonus round off of a 1v2 postplant from Boo and taking advantage of the open space left by Liquid in Mid to go up 3-0. kamo broke up the streak with a Sheriff ace in round four, but Heretics still extended their lead to 5-1.

kamo deals with all five Heretics members on his own.

Liquid equalized to 6-6 in the latter stages of the half, finding success leaning more into retakes and taking the fight to Mid. Heretics picked up a second pistol round, but kamo flipped the momentum as he won a round on his own once again with a Bandit 4K in round 17. From there, the map was back-and-forth, but Liquid's site hits and strong economic advantage helped secure the win in regulation as they ended Abyss 13-11. kamo finished the map with a monstrous 29/17/6 KDA, 232 ADR, and 1.85 rating as Yoru.

On Bind, Liquid made another composition swap, bringing out a well-prepared and exceptionally aggressive Waylay-Neon pick for a 11-1 attacking masterclass. MiniBoo was unstoppable on Neon, disrespecting Viper and Brimstone mollies and constantly opening up sites for his team, who followed up behind him every single time. Even Heretics' ultimates found nothing as Liquid sidestepped them with ease.

MiniBoo ran rings around his ex-teammates on Bind.

A pistol for Heretics only prolonged the inevitable as Liquid closed out the map 13-3. MiniBoo topped the scoreboard with an unbelievable 22/7/6 KDA, 233 ADR, and 1.94 rating. Right beside him, nAts put on another signature nAts Bind performance with a 21/9/3 KDA and 235 ADR.

Liquid now breaks into the top five in EMEA with a third lower bracket win, leaving Heretics behind in sixth and securing a match against the loser of FNATIC versus Team Vitality on Saturday, February 14.