Liquid sweep Wildcard to win iBUYPOWER Masters FML 2026

Liquid have won iBUYPOWER Masters FML 2026 after sweeping Wildcard 2-0 in the grand final, completing a flawless run through the Las Vegas LAN without dropping a single map.

Johnny “JT” Theodosiou’s side dismantled Wildcard’s Inferno pick 13-4 before closing the series 13-9 on Anubis. The result left Liquid with an 8-0 map record across four matches at the tournament and secured the organization the $12,500 first-place prize from the $30,000 event.

Mario “malbsMd” Samayoa was once again at the center of Liquid’s success. The Guatemalan rifler produced 41 kills against only 22 deaths, 102.6 ADR and a 1.62 HLTV Rating 3.0 in the final. His performance capped an exceptional tournament in which he averaged a 1.40 rating across Liquid’s six maps recorded in HLTV’s event statistics before/including the available event history update.

More importantly, Liquid did not need malbsMd to carry alone. Keith “NAF” Markovic finished the final at 31-18 with a 1.48 rating, Georgi “Jorko” Mitev went 32-18 with a 1.34, and Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski added a 1.23 rating. Four Liquid players therefore finished comfortably above a 1.20 rating as Wildcard struggled to find comparable firepower.

Player	Team	K-D	ADR	KAST	Rating 3.0
malbsMd	Liquid	41-22	102.6	74.4%	1.62
NAF	Liquid	31-18	91.5	92.3%	1.48
Jorko	Liquid	32-18	80.6	82.1%	1.34
EliGE	Liquid	34-20	86.7	84.6%	1.23
JT	Liquid	17-27	49.2	79.5%	0.79
fr3nd	Wildcard	24-31	74.1	59.0%	0.92
nEMANHA	Wildcard	20-32	76.6	71.8%	0.86
Cxzi	Wildcard	21-32	56.8	53.8%	0.79
reck	Wildcard	19-31	62.0	64.1%	0.77
HexT	Wildcard	20-29	50.8	66.7%	0.74

Liquid tear apart Wildcard’s Inferno pick

The veto gave Wildcard the opening opportunity on Inferno, but their own pick quickly became the most one-sided portion of the final.

Liquid established a 10-2 advantage on their CT side, leaving Wildcard with virtually no room for recovery after the switch. They needed only five second-half rounds to settle the map, trading two rounds with their opponents before completing the 13-4 win.

The scale of the defeat was particularly notable because Wildcard had already played Inferno twice at the tournament. NRG had beaten them 13-7 on the map in their opening series, before Wildcard responded by defeating Chicken Coop 13-7 during their lower-bracket recovery. Against Liquid, however, their Inferno was exposed far more severely.

Liquid's defense was backed by a massive individual showing from malbsMd. He finished Inferno 20-8 with 129.8 ADR and a 1.98 rating. NAF added a 15-5 scoreline and 1.74 rating, while Jorko went 17-8 with a 1.42. The distribution of Liquid's fragging meant Wildcard had no single player or position they could isolate to change the map.

Wildcard, by contrast, had four players below a 1.00 rating. Danny “Cxzi” Strzelczyk was limited to four kills and a 0.40 rating, while Jadan “HexT” Postma managed a 0.49 rating after being one of the players responsible for getting Wildcard into the playoffs in the first place.

That drop-off was particularly striking for HexT. One round earlier in the tournament, he had produced a 1.55 rating and 38-22 K-D as Wildcard eliminated NRG 2-0. Against Liquid on Inferno, the same level of opening impact never materialized.

Wildcard make Anubis competitive, but Liquid never lose control

Anubis offered Wildcard a much better chance of extending the grand final.

Liquid still established the early advantage, taking eight rounds on their T side for an 8-4 halftime lead. Wildcard then kept themselves alive after switching to the attack and eventually pushed the score to 9-9.

This was the closest Liquid came to losing a map in the final, but they responded by taking the last four rounds to close Anubis 13-9 and the series 2-0.

The second map also showed why Liquid were difficult to contain throughout the tournament. malbsMd remained their highest-rated player with 21 kills and a 1.43 rating, but EliGE stepped forward with 20 kills, 100.5 ADR and a 1.35 rating. Jorko and NAF both added 1.28 ratings.

Wildcard were much more competitive individually than on Inferno. Cxzi recovered to a 1.17 rating and fr3nd posted 1.03, but Ethan “reck” Serrano struggled badly, ending the map 6-17 with a 0.58 rating.

The difference was therefore not simply malbsMd winning another individual duel. Liquid had four productive fraggers on Anubis, giving them enough redundancy to survive Wildcard's best stretch of the series and regain control when the map reached 9-9.

malbsMd completes a dominant tournament

The final continued a pattern that had existed from Liquid's opening match.

malbsMd started the tournament with a 1.65 rating in Liquid's 2-0 victory over Chicken Coop, where NAF was almost equally influential at 1.63. Liquid won Inferno 13-3 and Cache 13-4 in that series.

Their next opponent provided significantly more resistance. NRG pushed Liquid to 13-11 on Dust2 and 13-10 on Mirage, but Liquid again escaped with a 2-0. EliGE led the team with a 1.24 series rating, while malbsMd contributed a 1.18.

The semifinal against M80 brought another spike from malbsMd. Liquid needed overtime to win Cache 16-13, but then destroyed M80 13-2 on Anubis. malbsMd finished that series 41-22 with a 1.56 rating.

He followed it with 41-22 and a 1.62 in the grand final.

That sequence made his performance against Wildcard less of an isolated explosion and more of the continuation of his tournament form. HLTV's event history lists him at a 1.40 rating for iBUYPOWER Masters FML 2026, a significant improvement on his 1.09 at Liquid's previous PGL Masters Bucharest North America Closed Qualifier campaign.

Liquid go 8-0 in maps

Liquid's route to the trophy was unusually clean.

They opened by beating Chicken Coop 2-0, defeated NRG 2-0 for a direct playoff berth, eliminated M80 2-0 in the semifinal, and finished the event by sweeping Wildcard. Across those four series, Liquid went 8-0 in maps.

Only three maps were genuinely close: the 13-11 Dust2 and 13-10 Mirage wins against NRG, and the 16-13 overtime victory over M80 on Cache.

The other five finished 13-4, 13-3, 13-4, 13-2 and 13-9.

That distinction matters when assessing the final. Liquid had already shown they could survive close maps against NRG and M80, but Wildcard never managed to put them under the same sustained pressure.

Wildcard’s lower-bracket run finally runs out of momentum

Wildcard's second-place finish came after a far more difficult route.

They began the tournament with a 0-2 defeat to NRG, losing Inferno 7-13 and Cache 9-13. A 2-0 win over Chicken Coop kept them alive before they received another shot at NRG in the Group A decider.

The rematch produced one of Wildcard's best performances of the tournament.

HexT recorded a 1.55 rating and Cxzi added 1.30 as Wildcard reversed their opening defeat with 13-10 and 13-9 victories on Mirage and Cache. The win eliminated NRG and sent Wildcard into the playoffs.

Their semifinal against DENDELE required another recovery. Wildcard lost Mirage 11-13 before overturning an 8-4 halftime deficit on Nuke to win 13-10, then completed the comeback with a 13-8 victory on Inferno. nEMANHA finished the three-map series with a 1.32 rating.

That run showed Wildcard could respond to adversity. What changed in the final was the level of resistance: Liquid gave them almost no route back into Inferno and had enough individual depth to halt the Anubis comeback at 9-9.

Liquid leave Las Vegas without dropping a map

The championship gives Liquid first place and $12,500, while Wildcard finish runners-up and collect $7,000. M80 took third place, with DENDELE completing the top four.

For Liquid, the strongest takeaway is not merely the trophy but how they secured it. They won all four series 2-0, finished 8-0 in maps, received tournament-leading production from malbsMd, and had NAF, EliGE and Jorko provide enough secondary output that opponents could not build their game plan around shutting down one star.

Wildcard's run from an opening defeat to the grand final was substantial, including revenge over NRG and a three-map comeback against DENDELE. The final, however, exposed the gap between surviving difficult series and controlling them.

Liquid did the latter throughout the weekend — and ended iBUYPOWER Masters FML 2026 without conceding a map.