Na’Vi comes into this tournament as possible a favourite to win the entire event. With Astralis absent from the event, their only real competitor should be Faze Clan. However, Na’Vi has not been the most consistent team throughout the last few months. This match against Hellraisers proved yet again whey they are not always considered to be better than the rest of the pack.
The Maps for this match were as follows :
- Na’Vi picked Train
- Hellraisers pick Overpass
- Dust 2 is the third Map.
Despite having two of the strongest players in the world, Na’vi was unable to secure a strong performance. They started off really strong on Train with 11 rounds in the first half. The majority of these rounds were possible due to the poor economic situation for Hellraisers. While they would manage to win the occasional round, they were never able to string together more than 1 round. The lack of any feasible economy, the absence of AWPs spelt doom for the Hellraisers roster on Train.
During the second half, the two teams traded rounds. This obviously favoured Hellraisers as they were on the Terrorist side. However, they did not have a lot of rounds to offer [ after being down 4-11 ]. Once Na’Vi reached 15 rounds, it was only a matter of time before Na’Vi closed out the map. Despite their win, the latter half of the map was definitely scary for the Natus Vincere players. One could see their exasperation at being unable to close out the map early on.
Overpass
When Hellraisers picked Overpass as their map of choice, it raised quite a few eyebrows. Despite the map being a strong suit for the Hellraisers roster, Na’Vi was and probably is, one of the strongest teams on Overpass.
However, Hellraisers played to their strengths and their game plan was successful. They have excellent coordination as they were able to implode into the bomb sites with relative ease. Their ability to shut down Na’Vi players for being too aggressive worked out well for them. S1mple would constantly push out with the AWP and there were multiple occasions when he was caught. The man disadvantage for Na’Vi on a map like Overpass meant that they had t spend considerable time in trying to catch up.
Hellraisers had 11 rounds on their T half after crushing Na’Vi’s economy. The ESL One Cologne winning squad is well-known for force buying but it simply did not work as well in this map. When hellraisers won the second pistol round, things looked extremely bleak for Na’Vi. They did force-buy and ensure a win in the 17th round. Na’Vi was able to string together multiple rounds, but Hellraisers only needed a handful of rounds to win the map. They were able to close it out with relative ease in the end.
Hellraisers won this map and the series was tied up at 1-1. With Dust 2 as the third map, things were already looking up for the Hellraisers squad.
Dust 2
A quick glance at the first two maps definitely made for an exciting series. However, Dust 2 was a complete whitewash. Na’Vi was dominating the map through and through. Despite being up 6-0, they would take some really strange gambles. There were times when Na’Vi just abandoned the B Bombsite. This move definitely seemed to be a calculated move, one that would help the Na’Vi squad against Hellraisers strategy.
Unfortunately for Hellraisers, they had no clue as to which site to go to. They were often caught unawares by timely rotations or great trade frags. Na’Vi would often gamble 3 players on A long. This would definitely be a huge surprise to their opponents. There is nothing much to report about Dust 2 except that Na’Vi won 90% of the rounds played. With a 1.96 rating, S1mple on the AWP was lethal for Hellraisers.
For Hellraisers, the final map has to be extremely unlucky. They were unable to win the map and the series, but when S1mple has such a performance there is not much anyone can do.
Hellraisers will face off against ENCE in the elimination match. On the other hand, Na’Vi will compete against Faze Clan in the winner’s match tomorrow.
