ESL Pro League S7: a victory over Astralis

A back-and-forth series.

Another series of NAVI.GG.BET at ESL Pro League S7 EU featured Astralis as the opponents for the dual Bo1. The match ended with 1 OT victory and 1 victory in regular time.

Game 1 - Natus Vincere [1:0] Astralis

The first half of de_train started with the victory of the opponent in the pistol round. NAVI tried to break the opponents' economy, but it was a challenging task - we've only managed it during the fourth round, making the score 1:3. We've tied the game eventually, but dropped a big chunk of rounds - Astralis went up by 4 points. They maintained the advantage until the end - even if NAVI snatched a few wins, the opponents stayed strong till the end - 6:9 is the final score.

The second half was rather different, though - the initial rounds were traded between the teams. However, eventually NAVI hit a couple of streaks, only interrupted by occasional upsets from Astralis. We were the first ones to hit the match point, yet failed to secure it, as Astralis extended the game into the overtime.

The first OT round was taken by the opponents, as Zeus found himself in a tough situation. It did not upset us, though, as the following 2 rounds were claimed by NAVI. The game ended in the second OT, with electronic coming in big with 43 kills - 19:16, as we take 2 points.

Game 2 - Natus Vincere [2:0] Astralis

The second game started under the complete control of Astralis - they were up to 0:5 lead very soon, before NAVI shook off the initial slumber. Despite a few close rounds, which we almost dropped, NAVI pulled off a temporary tie at 5:5. Not willing to stop there, we tried to press the advantage, and succeeded in doing so - despite Zeus being left in a 1v2, he dealt with both opponents and defused the bomb to push us forth. Only in the final round did Astralis get a single point - the first half ended with 9:6.

The second half did not kick off in NAVI's favor - Astralis started their journey back into the game. They successfully equalized the score to 9:9, but failed to secure the advantage right away, as NAVI break the double digits. Astralis went on the defensive, unwilling to go for any aggressive moves. We exploited the broken economy and the careful manner of the opponent but still had to trade rounds. The trade did not solidify the position of [:dk:] Astralis on the map, as NAVI secure 16 points to win de_inferno.