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Slowly but surely, ESL Pro League Season 21 is coming to a climax. One of the biggest tournaments of the season, the Long Run play-offs, where 8 teams will battle it out for the title and $100,000.
ESL Pro League Season 21 play-offs already has 5 teams, and there are 3 vacant spots left. One of them will be occupied by the winner of the Team Liquid vs 3DMax match.
We're trying to figure out who of the Team Liquid - 3DMax pair will be stronger and will get a chance to show themselves in the play-offs, and who is destined to finish the EPL S21 one step away from the play-offs.
Let's go.
Team Liquid uniforms
Let's open the breakdown of the Team Liquid vs 3DMax match with an analysis of Team Liquid's form. In this match they play as favourites with odds to win at around 1.5.
The American club had a pretty productive 2023 season. They played in a lot of tournaments, but high results were rare.
They started the year with a top-4 finish at IEM Katowice 2023, where they reached the top 4. Next was the equally good BLAST Premier: Spring American Showdown with a similar top-4, and then BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: American RMR followed by a top-3 and a trip to the main tournament of the year.
Unfortunately for Liquid, that's where their results ended. At BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, the team made it to the top 8 and that was their biggest achievement of the year.
After making it to the legends stage at the only Major tournament of the season, Liquid played at a lot of big events. These included IEM Dallas 2023 with a top-12 ranking, BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023 with a top-9 ranking, and IEM Master Cologne with a top-12 ranking.
At the end of the season they played at Gamers8 2023, finishing in the top 16 and ESL Pro League Season 18, finishing in the top 20. Closed the year with a second place finish at BLAST Premier: Fall American Showdown 2023.
- Team Liquid roster: NAF, YEKINDAR, skullz, cadiaN, Twistzz.
A string of failures at major championships has caused major roster changes. Such that Liquid in 2024 can be called the "Dream Team", but the status still has to be earned.
2024 began with qualifiers for the American RMR. They came out, which is not surprising. They also tried to qualify for IEM Chengdu 2024, but were not successful: Ledge and M80 made it to the finals of the qualifiers. However, they got a slot and made it to the top 6 at the tournament. The main performance in the 2024 season was PW Shanghai Major 2024, where Liquid finished in the top 8, which is not bad.
In the 2025 season, Team Liquid Long Competed with a top-16 finish at BLAST Bounty Spring 2025: Closed Qualifier and a top-12 finish at IEM Katowice 2025.
At ESL Pro League Season 21 Long Co-headlined with a loss to Falcons, but came up short against FURIA and Eternal Fire. Later lost to MOUZ, leading them to a 2-2 score.
Team Liquid Mappool
Team Liquid's top 1 map for the last 3 months is Mirage. Liquid has a mind-blowing winrate of 92% with 13 games played.
They also played on Inferno, where they won 5 matches out of 7 games. Nuke is also in plus winrate, where the "ninjas" have 3 wins from 5 matches.
The most not favoured map for Team Liquid will be Vertigo. There they have 6 maps and only 1 win.
3DMax Form.
Let's continue the analysis of the match 3DMax - Liquid with the analysis of 3DMax form. In this match they are playing in Underpassdog status with odds to win around 2.
3DMAX's record includes a performance at CCT West Europe Serie #3, which was the debut tournament for the Frenchmen. There they reached the top 3, which can be called a good Long Sogpeg.
Then there was a series of qualifying tournaments and local championships. Among those that can be noted is ESL Championnat National Spring 2023, which was the first tournament won for the French.
3DMAX's performance improved in the second half of the year. Among other things, they won the qualifiers for ESL Challenger at DreamHack Winter 2023: European Open Qualifier and ESL Challenger at DreamHack Winter 2023: European Qualifier. They also won the ESEA Cash Cup: Europe - Autumn 2023 #2.
- 3DMAX roster: Lucky, Djoko, Ex3rcice, Maka, Graviti.
The last event for 3DMAX was CCT East Europe Series #3. There we managed to reach TOP-2, but a little bit was not enough: 3DMAX took TOP-2, losing in the finals to 1WIN.
After 3DMAX played at ESL Challenger Winter 2023. They managed to get into the top 8, which is not a good result.
At ESL Challenger League Season 46: Europe 3DMAX shone. The Frenchmen went over the heads of their opponents very confidently, which eventually translated into a tournament victory with a convincing 3-0 win against forZe in the grand finals.
The 2024 season saw far fewer high-profile victories. 3DMAX finished top-11 at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European Qualifier, IEM China 2024: European Open Qualifier, top-4 at RES Western European Masters: Spring 2024, and top-12 at European RMR A.
Prior to the ESL Pro League Season 19, 3DMAX played at A1 Gaming League Season 8, where they finished in the Top 2.
At the ESL Pro League Season 19 3DMAX debuted as an outsider in a match against sAw, but showed class and won a tough series with extra rounds in each of the two maps. And then there was a match against Fnatic, where 3DMAX made a mini-sensation by beating the "orange" with a score of 2-0, and they beat them very confidently, giving 15 rounds in two maps.
At the ESL Pro League Season 19 3DMAX were quite confident in the play-offs of the championship. The only defeat in the group stage was from Astralis in the match for seeding for the play-offs. However, in the play-offs 3DMax song did not play long: defeat against G2 and TOP-12 in the end.
During the season 3DMax had other attempts to make a name for themselves at the Tier-S tournaments. For example, they played at the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2024, where they finished in the top-24, having been beaten 1-2 by Heroic. They tried their luck again at ESL Pro League Season 20, but this time the result was worse than at ESL Pro League S19 - TOP-20.
3DMax's performance was much better at lower ranked tournaments. For example, 3DMax were champions of YaLLa Compass Summer 2024 and ranked in the top 3 at Thunderpick World Championship 2024 and ESL Challenger League Season 48: Europe.
Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B, 3DMax started with a win over TSM and then, somewhat surprisingly, beat Eternal Fire in a 2-0 basket match. Next up was a win over G2 Esports and a pass to the Elimination Stage.
At the PW Shanghai Major 2024: Elimination Stage 3DMax played to their level: 1-3 and final top-13.
At the Long Season 2025 3DMax took part in BLAST Bounty Season 1. However, they didn't have to play there for long: defeat by Heroic with the score 1-2 and the final TOP-32.
Next - IEM Katowice 2025 and Long Corner from the Play-In stage. In the Play-In 3DMax showed themselves very well: they defeated FlyQuest and MIBR with a score of 2-0 each. In the group stage, Long Corner were defeated against Vitality, which led them to the lower grid. Directly in the bottom set, 3DMax were outplayed by BIG. But they were prevented from advancing further by Eternal Fire, who knocked 3DMax into the top 8 of the tournament.
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 Long They started with a win over Vp. Then they lost to MOUZ and outplayed MIBR. However, they failed to make it to the play-offs with a 2-1 score: further losses by Eternal Fire and sAw brought 3DMax to the top 9 at the end of the tournament.
At the ESL Pro League Season 21 Long Conference, 3DMax unexpectedly lost 0-2 to Tyloo before beating Mindfreak. Subsequent wins over Heroic and M80 took 3DMax to the next stage. At ESL Pro League Season 21 Stage 2, the French beat Eternal Fire and Falcons, and lost to Vitality and MongolZ.
3DMAX Mappool
3DMAX's top 1 map for the last 3 months is Mirage. L4O has a mind-blowing 92% winrate with 13 games played.
Played also on Inferno, where they won 5 matches out of 7 games. In plus winrate and Nuke, where with 5 matches and 3 wins.
The most not favoured card for 3DMAX would be Vertigo. There they have 6 maps and only 1 win.
History of head-to-head meetings between Team Liquid and 3DMax
Previously, the teams have not played each other in official matches.
Predicted result of 3DMax vs Team Liquid at ESL Pro League Season 21
In this match I expect an equal game. Considering who 3DMax played with in the second stage of the tournament, 3DMax look good. I expect an equal fight on three maps.
Bottom line: total +2.5.
paiN Gaming
Nemiga GamingWatch match
