After Team Liquid’s In-Game Leader (IGL) nAts announced he had visa issues and wouldn't join the team in their first match against BiliBili Gaming, Team Liquid found themselves in the losers' bracket of the Swiss stage and would have to climb their way up if they wanted to keep their playoff dreams alive.
The team lacked leadership, and it wasn’t until nAts released on “X” that he would be joining his team in Toronto.
He arrived June 6, and announced later that he would join the rest of his team and return as the IGL.
That means for Penny, he would no longer be the temporary substitute, but now the main substitute.
Running a six-man roster for the rest of the tournament would prove to be a great strategy for the Dutch team, as they would get a new duelist, and Penny would share the role with Kamo.
Penny would be the substitute for Serial, making Kamo fill in between the roles of Duelist and Sentinel, depending on whether Serial or Penny would be in the match.
Heading into their match with Made In Brazil (MIBR), both teams wanted to get a win.
Team Liquid was trying to showcase their new look team on the international stage to prove that they are meant for glory, while MIBR wanted to prove why they deserve to be on the global stage after years of never making a VCT major.
It would be Team Liquid showing up with the proof, as they would go on and beat MIBR.
MIBR would have the first map pick, with Icebox, and Team Liquid would start on the Defensive side, while the team from the Americas region would begin on the attacking side.
Penny would play Duelist as Jett while Kamo would play Sentinel as Chamber.
MIBR had some trouble trying to gain some momentum, as they would only win three rounds in a row before Team Liquid would start gaining momentum.
Going into the half, it was be 7-5 in Liquids' favour. Aspas, MIBR’s Duelist, would struggle as he would have only 5 Kills, 10 Deaths ,and 3 Assists.
As for Team Liquid, Keiko led the team with 11 Kills, 7 Deaths and 3 Assists.
Entering the half, Team Liquid would get two rounds, extending their lead, but MIBR would show some fight as they would get another round.
Unfortunately, that would be MIBR’s last-round win on Icebox as Team Liquid would go on to get four wins in a row to close out the match 13-6 with IGL nAts being map MVP with 15 Kills, 13 Deaths and 5 Assists.
MIBR was on the verge of elimination and put up a fight.
Going into Map Two, Sunset Team Liquids pick, Penny would be subbed out for Serial, who would play Sentinel as Cypher, and Kamo would play Duelist as Neon.
On Sunset, Team Liquid would start as attackers and MIBR would be on the defence.
Like on Icebox, the first half would be Team Liquid leading with a score of 7-5 rounds, while on MIBR’s side of the half, it would still be Aspas struggling with 5 Kills, 9 Deaths and 2 Assists.
Unlike Icebox, it would be nAts and Serial leading Liquid, with both of them having 11 Kills.
The second half would start, and Team Liquid would win three rounds to start, but MIBR would start a back-and-forth.
Though MIBR showed life, it would be Team Liquid who would drown the Brazilian team with a score of 13-7.
Map and match MVP would be the returning IGL nAts, who had a total of 33 Kills, 27 Deaths and 12 Assists.
Team Liquid would now advance to a do-or-die match, and awaiting them would be the Pacific team Paper Rex.