ESL One Cologne 2018: to the grand final!

A deserved victory

The semifinals of ESL One Cologne 2018 pitted  NAVI.GG.BET against one of the most formidable teams out there -  Astralis. The heated fight saw  NAVI.GG.BET take the intense series 2:1, moving to the grand finals!

Game 1 - Natus Vincere [1:0] Astralis

The first game of the series started off with Astralis taking over the game initiative from the very beginning. Pistols and the subsequent couple went the way of the opponent, getting up all the way to 3:0. However, from the first gun round, NAVI stepped up massively, going on a 7 round spree.

Astralis managed to break it with a couple rounds their way, but it didn't last long. Teams traded rounds, and the first half finished with 9:6 our way.

At the beginning of the second half,  Astralis showed their dominant side yet again.  Astralis took a temporary lead, and till the end of the game, the action never settled. The teams were trading rounds, but NAVI managed to go on a 3-round spree, securing a fairly good economy.

Towards the end of the game, some rounds looked quite shaky, but we had what it takes to secure the most important buy round. The last standoff saw a 2v1, and we denied just enough time to not leave any time for the plant. The first map goes to NAVI!

Game 2 - Natus Vincere [1:1] Astralis

The second game kicked off very tough for us -  Astralis claimed the advantage in the half. Not only did they take the first three rounds,  NAVI didn't manage to overpower the opponents, and they used this to their advantage.

Astralis took 7 rounds before NAVI came online, but only for a round. Even if we traded, the overwhelming advantage was still on the side of the opponent. Trades till the end continued, and NAVI gained some points, closing the gap a bit. The half ended at 5:10.

The second half saw Astralis take the first two, but  NAVI retaliated quite soon, forcing the opponent to take a timeout. Unfortunately, Astralis made a break for it, as  NAVI only claimed a single round in the second half. The score hit 6:16, as we move on to the decider map.

Game 3 - Natus Vincere [2:1] Astralis

Inferno started with the first pistol round win for NAVI, but the next one saw a 2v1 lost by us, as the round ended before  NAVI planted the bomb. Our 3-round streak was interrupted by  Astralis' own, as they hit a tie - 4:4.

However,  NAVI managed to deny Astralis the advantage, taking a round yet again. Neither team really managed to get a very convincing lead up to a certain point. Towards the end, NAVI managed to break the opponent's economy, and thanks to some good trades, were able to break ahead, winning the half 10:5.

The second pistols was taken by NAVI yet again, but the follow-up wasn't there, as soon we had to do an eco. Despite keeping the advantage score-wise, the game started to look roughю The 22nd round saw s1mple left in a 1v1 against dupreeh -  Astralis were denied the chance to tie the game.

We capitalized on that moment to claim a few rounds, going as far as taking it to the first match point. All the while Zeus achieved quite impressive 30 kills. Unfortunately, the fast round didn't work out for us, so we had to eco before a buy. That buy, though, proved to be exactly what we needed, as we close out the game 16:13 and going to the grand finals!

Overall game stats