Liquid moved past HellRaisers as Spencer "Hiko" Martin starred in Columbus to end the second day and to qualify for the $1,000,000 major after the best-of-three series (16-4 on de_cache, 7-16 on de_overpass, 16-14 on de_dust2).

Liquid's road at the MLG Columbus 2016 Main Qualifier started with a double-overtime loss to HellRaisers on de_dust2. Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin and company went on to destroy YP to arrive at the decider match. HellRaisers, on the other hand, had a chance to qualify in an overtime match against mousesports but Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač's team came up ahead.

The first map of the series was de_cache and Eric "⁠adreN⁠" Hoag defended the planted bomb in a 1v2 and got his T-sided team started. Liquid got on a roll with Hiko's strong performance and had a marvellous start (7-0). A 2v2 retake by HellRaisers on the B-site on the eight round marked their first round.



Hiko had a 1.99 rating on the first map

Losing the following round hurt the CIS-team's economy and Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk had a 0-12 K/D and a 0.06 rating (11-2). The American team ended the half 11-4 ahead and started their CT campaign on a good note, winning the pistol round. adreN and Hiko's back-to-back 1-on-2 clutches put their team on a map point. A triple-kill by Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella was a full stop and the Americans got a convincing victory on the first map.

The second map (de_overpass) seemed to be a replay of the first one as Hiko, on defense, opened up with three kills, including a knife kill but STYKO bounced back from his lackluster performance and clutched in a 1v3 situation to get the quad-kill.

After dropping five rounds, Liquid got back in it with Aleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev and adreN’s double-AWP setup (5-4). Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný and STYKO got four kills in consecutive rounds to extend their lead to 7-4. At halftime, the score was 9-6 in favor of Kirill "⁠ANGE1⁠" Karasiow and & company.



After a hard time on de_cache, STYKO picked up 32 kills on de_overpass

A 1-on-1 clutch by Hiko in the last seconds of the nineteenth round brought the score to 7-12 but HR answered immediately with one of their own. HellRaisers did not allow Liquid to execute their plan after a timeout and just rushed as CTs to stop the Terrorists on their tracks (14-7). They grabbed the map by getting the next two rounds and ensured a third map.

STYKO had another strong pistol round and HellRaisers secured the first three rounds of de_dust2. Liquid got on a hot streak and secured five rounds but couldn't get the sixth one in 2v1. The teams were exhanching rounds and the score was at 6-5 when oskar stepped up big time and had a 1v3 clutch.



oskar was commanding on the last map but it was not enough

HellRaisers could have gotten double-digits on their T-side but lost to nitr0 on a 1v1 (9-6). ANGE1 & co picked up their four consecutive pistol round and stretched the deficit to six just like in the second match (12-6). Despite coming on top of a 2v4 situation, Liquid lost in a 4v2 in the subsequent round and they called for a timeout.

The talk worked for the American squad who attained five rounds in a row with Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski's incredible 1v1 clutch. They tied it at 13-13, going down to the wire. After trading rounds once again, but Hiko's team got the last two rounds and secured a spot at the major.

MLG Columbus 2016 Main Qualifier Best of 3 Liquid Matchpage 2 1 HellRaisers 16 Cache 4 7 Overpass 16 16 Dust2 14

Liquid K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Spencer 'Hiko' MartinHiko 66 - 44 +22 94.0 1.41 Eric 'adreN' HoagadreN 48 - 45 +3 65.5 1.07 Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0 49 - 57 -8 81.8 1.05 Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE 41 - 52 -11 68.1 0.86 Aleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple 41 - 62 -21 63.5 0.78 HellRaisers K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Tomáš 'oskar' Šťastnýoskar 61 - 42 +19 81.5 1.37 Emil 'kUcheR' AkhundovkUcheR 59 - 49 +10 83.3 1.15 Kirill 'ANGE1' KarasiowANGE1 52 - 55 -3 90.0 1.13 Martin 'STYKO' StykSTYKO 55 - 52 +3 75.1 0.98 Patrik 'Zero' ŽúdelZero 32 - 48 -16 52.1 0.85

Major's updated team list is now following:

With that, the second day at MLG Columbus 2016 qualifier is completed and we will have three best-of-three series tomorrow to decide which teams will claim the last spots.

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