Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #23 purp0 Semyon Borchev nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin kamo Kamil Frąckowiak trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Kicks Kimmie Laasner sent MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #2 zekken Zachary Patrone tex Ian Botsch Mazino Roberto Rivas Verno Andrew Maust aspas Erick Santos packing in the second round of the Swiss stage by way of 2-0. They move to the third and final round of the groups, where they will face Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 invy Adrian Jiggs Reyes Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov for a playoff slot.

Two no-nonsense and similar maps out of Liquid paved the way for their victory today. Both Icebox, MIBR's pick, and Sunset, Liquid's pick, started out with close rounds and lots of back-and-forth. Once the sides switched, Liquid would chain together rounds and easily reach the 13-6 and 13-7 scorelines, respectively, that gave them the clean win today.

nAts and Keiko fist bump (Photo by Stefan Wisnoski/Riot Games)

Team Liquid and MIBR are two of the few teams that haven't faced each other on the international stage, as Toronto is the first tournament abroad MIBR have qualified for.

It goes without saying that the Brazilians hoped to make a statement after their debut 2-0 loss to Gen.G Gen.G Korea Rank #5 Ash Ha Hyun-cheol (하현철) Karon Kim Won-tae (김원태) t3xture Kim Na-ra (김나라) Efina Kim Nak-yeon (김낙연) Raxcal Kim Min-seok (김민석) — especially with such a star-studded roster — but they sat on the other end of an equally defiant team.

Liquid, who missed a few internationals in their several years in the sport, have struggled to piece together deep runs at Masters and Champions. Most recently, they sport back-to-back group stage exits at Champions Los Angeles last year and this year's Masters Bangkok.

Their lives in Toronto were made especially harder, having to play with their sixth man in the opening round against Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #8 whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) rushia Wang Xiaojie (王晓杰) nephh Marcus Tan yilai Gu Yiming (顾依铭) Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) bud Yang Renyu (杨韧余) FT Yan Shuaibo (闫帅博) . For their 0-1 match against MIBR, though, nAts was finally back and the expectations were high as the team transitioned to an impromptu six-man roster for Masters.

The Dark Horse met those expectations right out the gate, with paTiTek scoring a 3K in the first pistol round. His team couldn't put together a great streak in the rounds that followed, ending up at a 7-5 half in favor of the EMEA reps.

The attack side heavily favored Liquid, though, and they quickly climbed to map point. They brute-forced an A take with Viper's Pit, but seemed to be in over their head. MIBR's xenom and cortezia whittled down their opponents, leaving just one, the Pit's owner, nAts, standing. He managed to find three while enveloped in the poison and his 1v3 gave Liquid the 13-6 win on their opponents' pick.

Despite his clutching, nAts was actually third on the board in terms of rating and tied for second with kills. The best-rated player was keiko at 1.27, closely followed by MIBR's Verno with 1.26. Liquid's IGL stood out with his four opening kills, second only to penny 's six on Jett.

Liquid's Sunset pick followed a similar story. Liquid opened with a strong pistol round, but struggled to convert it to a big streak, allowing MIBR to hone in and claw some rounds back. The Brazilians took a timeout in the final stages of their defense, allowing artzin to pull out a 4K with a collateral for the 6-5 scoreline.

A 1v2 from Serial prevented a tied halftime, and gave Liquid the momentum to do much of what they did on Icebox: take clean and strong rounds, give up few advantages, and chain as many rounds as possible.

It didn't take Liquid long to hit double digits. MIBR found two rounds at that point, narrowing the gap to 11-7, but never got back in the game. Liquid snatched the next two rounds to put an end to the match, marking a decisive comeback on the Toronto stage with a playoffs spot in sight.

Verno again showed great form, topping the kills chart and being the second-highest rated player in the server, bested only by Keiko's 1.39 rating. Serial returned to the server in place of penny for Sunset, allowing kamo to shine on Neon with 159 ADR and six opening frags.

MIBR's elimination is a rough one, putting an end to their first LAN outing since LOCK//IN. The team returns home for Stage 2 with no map or pistol-round wins to their name, and just 19 rounds won across four maps.

Their year isn't over, though. Their Stage 1 run awarded them with six points, placing the Brazilian roster third in the regional standings. They sat under Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #7 Reduxx Yassin Aboulalazm Jerrwin Gurjiwan Gill Victor Victor Wong stand-in johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid cortezia Gabriel Cortez JonahP Jonah Pulice and G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #4 jawgemo Alexander Mor BABYBAY Andrej Francisty trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio leaf Nathan Orf coming into Toronto, the only two American teams still standing, placing them in an optimal position to qualify to Champions during Stage 2.

Liquid, meanwhile, seemed like a different roster out on stage today. While nAts has returned to guide the team, they are taking full advantage of an impromptu six-man roster that bore fruits today.

Their run is far from over, though. The Dark Horse must still stand before Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 invy Adrian Jiggs Reyes Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov tomorrow for their final test. The final round of Masters Toronto's Swiss stage is tomorrow, at 12 p.m. EDT.