ESL Pro League S7 EU: the first draw

The first draw, but intense games!

The first match of  NAVI.GG.BET at ESL Pro League S7 was against  HellRaisers. The first game of the Bo1 took place on de_inferno, while the second featured de_overpass. The dual Bo1 ended with a draw, as we won the first game, but lost the second.

Game 1 — Natus Vincere [1:0] HellRaisers

The first game was off to a very good start for  NAVI, as the pistol round was taken by us, and we capitalized on the lead to establish a solid map control and advantage. Even the first buy round did not turn the situation around for  HellRaisers, and we got 5 in a row before the opponents managed to get a single one on board. The CTs got two rounds, with 1 defuse, and then we traded rounds.

The advantage, even if somewhat smaller, was still fairly comfortable, but we had to watch out to not get into a sticky economic situation. Unfortunately, that is precisely what happened, as  HellRaisers started to come back into the game, and soon we had to eco. Despite, we maintained the positive round difference, and took the first half 9:6.

Pistols were taken by  NAVI yet again, as  flamie was ready for the attack on the bombsite. 2 more rounds went our way again. First gun round was lost by the attack yet again, and they had to eco, which allowed us to get a lot closer to closing out the map. A couple more rounds sealed the deal, as de_inferno goes to  NAVI with 16:6.

Game 2 — Natus Vincere [0:1] HellRaisers

Pistols on de_overpass were taken by the opponents, and the buy round did not help us a lot, as  Zeus was left in 1v1 which he did not manage to clutch out despite coming close. However, the next round saw a swift execution by  NAVI, as we won it even without the top-notch weapons.

This became a pivotal round, as the economy started to shift towards us, and we tied up the score. The 1-round lead of  NAVI was annihilated right away, though, as the scoreline came to 5:5. Ultimately,  HR broke the 8-point threshold, and the first half ultimately went to the opponent at 6:9.

Second pistols were taken over by the defense, as was the next. The third round saw  Zeus plant the bomb in the 1v2 situation and managed to deny the defuse, which improved our position on the map. Soon  electronic stepped up to the challenge, claiming an ace to his name. Slowly but steadily,  NAVI were coming back into the game, tying 11:11; yet the advantage was not yet ours to take, as  HellRaisers managed to stall out the round to time us out.

13:12 was the score, and the game was as close as ever.  HR saved a couple of weapons for the next round, but it did not really salvage the situation. A couple of rounds were traded, and the round difference did not move at all, as we were still sitting at +1. Yet the first team to get to match point was not  NAVI, and we had to deny it to go into the OT. That did not happen, though, as we dropped the second map 14:16.