Team Liquid are through to the quarter-finals at ESL One Cologne after defeating mousesports 2-0 (16-11 on Cobblestone and 16-6 on Mirage).

Cobblestone was the first map of the series, and it began with Liquid winning the pistol round as CT thanks a trio of kills by Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella to deny Johannes "⁠nex⁠" Maget a sensational 1vs3 clutch with only seconds left on the clock.

That win eventually turning into a big streak for Liquid as they stormed to a 5-0 lead, but then mousesports' offense came to life, with Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač coming up huge to help his team to equalise the score. But then the tide swung back in Liquid's favour as the North American giants adjusted their defense in the dying stages of the half to secure a 9-6 lead heading into the break.

Liquid secure top-eight finish 

Liquid picked up where they left off and won five of the first six rounds of the second half to increase their lead to 13-7 and put an insane amount of pressure on mousesports. After calling a timeout, the Germans strung four rounds together, but then Liquid secure back-to-back rounds to put the game to bed and appease their fans, who were starting to have flashbacks from past struggles.

Next up was Mirage, where mousesports got off to a great start on the Terrorist side following a straight B push, with Denis "⁠denis⁠" Howell getting three kills to his name. The German team went on to add the following anti-eco rounds to take their lead to 3-0, but then they were surprised by Liquid's aggressive strategy in the first gun round.

That was the start of a fantastic period for Liquid, who continuously kept the mousesports offense in check, which saw them take 11 rounds before the end of the half.

mousesports denied a playoff spot 

mousesports found a lifeline after the break as they picked up the pistol round following a poorly-executed split by Liquid, but the North Americans hit back in the third round and put together a string of rounds to lock down the map 16-6.

ESL One Cologne 2016Best of 3 LiquidMatchpage 2 0 7th July 2016 MOUZ 16Cobblestone 11 16Mirage 6

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0	48 - 30	+18	101.7	1.46
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	42 - 31	+11	93.2	1.34
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	41 - 29	+12	91.4	1.27
Josh 'jdm64' Marzanojdm64	28 - 26	+2	50.9	0.94
Spencer 'Hiko' MartinHiko	27 - 33	-6	72.6	0.93

MOUZ	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNiKo	36 - 37	-1	92.2	1.17
Chris 'chrisJ' de JongchrisJ	32 - 35	-3	68.6	0.99
Timo 'Spiidi' RichterSpiidi	29 - 36	-7	61.4	0.86
Johannes 'nex' Magetnex	29 - 37	-8	72.1	0.82
Denis 'denis' Howelldenis	23 - 41	-18	52.6	0.59

Denis 'denis' Howell Age: 21 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 0.95 Maps played: 490 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.71 Nick 'nitr0' Cannella Age: 20 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 380 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.69 Johannes 'nex' Maget Age: 24 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 505 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.66 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač Age: 19 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.18 Maps played: 396 KPR: 0.83 DPR: 0.70