DreamHack Winter 2017: to the playoffs
Natus Vincere G2A are going to the playoffs of DreamHack Winter 2017
The last series of the group stage at DreamHack Winter 2017 for Natus Vincere G2A was against the Danish team Heroic. The Bo3 ended with a close victory by Natus Vincere G2A - 2:1!
Natus Vincere
Heroic
Game 1 - Natus Vincere [1:0] Heroic
The pistol round of the first half was taken by NaVi, as we killed off everyone, but did not manage to take the next round. Heroic snatched 2 more rounds before we got back on track and ended their streak, picking 4 in a row to give us a 2-point lead. We carried on, making sure we do not get reset economically, as we were getting closer to getting the first half under our belt, but it was still anyone's game. Eventualy we secured the first half, and worked on making the round gap as wide as possible. A single round picked up by Heroic did not salvage their situation, as we closed out the half 11:4.
The second half had NaVi display an extremely dominant performance, as we had 7 rounds behind our backs in case something would not go as planned. However, as the half kicked off, Heroic only managed to get a single round on board. The matchpoint came soon, and we executed precisely what we planned to do, claiming the first map 16:5!
Game 2 - Natus Vincere [1:1] Heroic
The second map kicked off roughly for us, as Heroic picked up the pistol round and maintained the lead for several rounds. Our economy was quite limited, and that allowed the opponent to make the gap quite large, with NaVi not getting a single point even 6 rounds in. Only in the 7th round did we get the first point, but got immediately reset, with Heroic eventually claiming 8 points. The second point for NaVi came 11 rounds in, and since then we picked up a couple more to have a better starting point in the second half, with the first ending 5:10.
The pistol round in the second half went our way right away, and the score improved right away thanks to the 3 rounds right off the bat. The 4th round of the half went to Heroic, though, and they claimed another one, going on a streak of their own. Our economy wasn't in its best condition, and we did not manage to get any points despite our best attempts, but finally the first map point came at 8:15, but we denied it thanks to a smoke by Zeus that stalled the push. Next round, though, was taken by the T-side, as we move to the decider map - 9:16.
Game 3 - Natus Vincere [2:1] Heroic
The last game of the series started off with Heroic getting 2 rounds, but the initiative was snatched by us soon after, claiming 3 rounds. The CTs managed to get one off by defusing the bomb, but NaVi managed to reset them, making Heroic go on a force buy. It did not work out for them, and they had to eco, so NaVi used this to their advantage. Another streak for us was interrupted by Heroic, yet did not cause any significant damage economically. Ultimately, the first half ended with NaVi in the lead, 11:4.
The second half started off with a pistol round victory for Heroic, and several rounds in a row went their way, as we preferred to play carefully and saving. Only after the opponent picked up 5 rounds, we managed to snap out of it, and claimed 2 rounds in a row, damaging the economy of Heroic, but not capitalizing enough on that. We traded rounds, but ultimately got the matchpoint - 5 to work with. The first got denied, but the next one had all the pieces of the puzzle come together - NaVi take the map and the series!