YeaH! Gaming: fk1, SpaWnsss, Yoona, gCR, and Revo1tzz
Team Liquid: ziG, Nesk, S3xyCake, Bullet1, and psk1
In a match with high stakes, Yeah! Gaming impressed against a strong Team Liquid. Liquid kicked off the ban phase by taking out Bank, Kafe Dostoyevsky, Consulate and Border, while Yeah! removed Coastline, Chalet, Oregon and Skyscraper from play, leaving Clubhouse as the remaining map.
The first and second rounds were very similar. Both Yeah! and TL opted to defend CCTV and Cash Room. Previously considered non-viable, the rework to Clubhouse added more balance to the map and converted one of the toughest sites to defend into a tricky site for attackers to penetrate. This was the case as sturdy defenses caused both teams attacks' to stall. The teams continued to trade wins on their defense rounds until Team Liquid broke the curse with a well-executed late push, giving the Season 7 Pro League champions a 3-2 advantage. Continuing their momentum into their defense round they survived a 2-4 situation by denying the plant with S3xyCake's Yokai.
But then the impossible happened as Yeah! Gaming clawed their way back. Clutch by clutch, Yeah! Gaming won three rounds in a row forcing overtime. Yeah! lengthened their round winning streak by stomping Team Liquid in three consecutive rounds again to finish the match 8-5.
With this victory, YeaH! Gaming gets a spot in the BR6 Finals in Rio de Janeiro, while the favourites, Team Liquid, fails to get to the LAN event, finishing in the 5th position. Liquid will need to regroup and figure out what went went wrong so they can assert their position at the top of the LATAM region table.