NRG took a clean sweep over CIS fan-favorite Na’Vi going 2-0 against them at the Berlin Major today.
The map picks went as follows:
- NRG removed Overpass
- Natus Vincere removed Vertigo
- NRG picked Dust2
- Natus Vincere picked Mirage
- Natus Vincere removed Train
- NRG removed Inferno
- Nuke is the decider
The first map was Dust 2. Na’Vi took a head start after securing a pistol round with a bomb defuse, but NRG responded with a risky force buy in the second round which transitioned into a round win. NRG gained a lot of momentum on their T-side and Tarik “tarik” Celek demolished the Na’Vi lineup with a quad kill in the 12th round on B-site. The first half went 10-5 in favor of NRG. In the second half NRG took the pistol round and the round following it but Na’Vi managed to answer back with a 5 round winning streak after the initial two round losses. Sadly, the star player of Na’Vi Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev seemed to be failing today as he kept missing crucial AWP shots which allowed NRG to take the first map 16-12.
With the score set 1-0 in the Best-of-three series, the second map of the day was Mirage. On Mirage NRG took the first pistol round on the CT-side but lost four of its players in a weak anti-forcebuy effort in the second round thus sustaining huge economic losses. With a relatively weak CT-side NRG struggled against the onslaught of s1mple and co. but did manage to pull of some amazing plays such as the aggressive AWP from tarik in the 12th round. The first half went 10-5 in favor of Na’Vi. In the second half NRG streaked an initial pistol round win into a four round win streak before they were shut down by Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov executing a quad kill hold on the A-site. In the 22nd round tarik helped NRG gain some more momentum with a 1v3 clutch on the B-site with excellent utility usage. The map went into overtime with a 15-15 scoreline as both the teams traded rounds back to back and nobody seemed to go down without a fight. The overtime began with NRG taking 2 wins and putting up a score of 17-15 before s1mple and Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko managed to pull of an impressive B-site hold winning the final round of the first half of overtime 1. After the switch, Ethan “Ethan” Arnold pulled of an outstanding A hold enabling tarik and Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte to carry out their rotations and secure the round on time. NRG kept their momentum going and overpowered Na’Vi to close out the map with a score of 19-17.
With the win on Mirage and Dust 2, NRG closed out the BO3 series 2-0 and earned their spot in the semi-finals where they will face off against the winner of the Liquid vs Astralis series. Na’Vi, on the other hand, will face disappointment at a Major event yet again and will be eliminated from the Berlin Major.
