After taking down Xtreme Gaming in the first round of the lower bracket playoffs at the ESL One Berlin Major 2023, Team Liquid, one of the top favorites of the event, avoided a shock early exit. It was the drafts that proved to be critical in the series, as the team with the better lineup won the games. Liquid bounced back from a strong Xtreme game one victory with clear lineups and executed its strategies flawlessly. The midlaner for Liquid, Michał "Nisha" Jankowski stepped up in the second and third games on two Spirit heroes, helping the team advance to the next round of the lower bracket.
Team Liquid vs Xtreme Gaming: Match recap and highlights
Recap
Game 1 had an equal laning stage performance from both sides, with just one highlight being Kaka's Lion dying five times in the first eight minutes. Both sides resorted to farming before kaka selected Blink Dagger at the 19-minute mark, signaling the start of Xtreme’s aggression. The team made Nisha its major target and quickly won a teamfight. The constant pickoffs continued for Xtreme, allowing its cores to become significantly stronger than Liquid's, which were continually starving for farm either to deaths or map shrinkage. Xtreme won the game one in 54 minutes.
In game 2, Liquid selected a superior draft with excellent lane counters versus Xtreme's heroes, with Void Spirit facing Puck in the midlane and Monkey King against Underlord in the safelane. Liquid merely needed to use the draft advantage to top execution, and when it did, the team proved to be a dominant triumph with 28 kills to Xtreme's four in 27 minutes.
In game 3, Liquid went for a stable draft once more, while Xtreme went for an out-of-meta carry Marci. The laning stage saw little activity, but brief skirmishes that followed saw Liquid come out on top despite the fact that both sides lost bodies. Not typical of a player of his caliber, Paparazi did not provide the best initiations on Storm Spirit for his team, and there were some botched attempts from Xtreme while Liquid remained firm. Liquid's lead continuously extended until it proved too difficult for Xtreme to take a 5v5 fight and it lost in 41 minutes.
Highlights
Here are some highlights of the series.
With the victory, Liquid not only keeps its Berlin Major journey alive, but it has almost secured a slot at The International 12 later this year.
At the same time, Liquid, who hadn't lost to a single team outside of Gaimin Gladiators in the past months and had been utterly dominant, lost first to OG in the upper bracket, followed by a hard-fought win against Xtreme in the lower bracket. As Liquid's streak begins to wane, it will be interesting to see how the team performs in the upcoming games. Aster will be its next opponent in the lower bracket on 3rd May 2023.
Meanwhile, a middling performance by Xtreme sees them exit in the 9th-12th place without receiving any prize money or Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) points.
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