EPICENTER 2018: starting with a victory
The first opponent down
NAVI.GG.BET played Group A opening match against 
HellRaisers. The Bo3 unraveled on Train and Overpass, with Dust2 as the decider. The series ended 2:1 the way of NAVI after victories on Train and Dust2.
Train - Natus Vincere [1:0] HellRaisers
The first game was off to an electrifying start, as 
electroNic pulled off a 4k. HellRaisers didn't want to go for a force buy, and NAVI gladly claimed the second round. However, as the game split into several duels in the third round, HellRaisers got their first point on board, yet a reset quickly came from our side. The momentum was on our side, as we continued rolling, taking round after round. Eventually, the score reached 7:1.
At that point, HellRaisers got their second round of the board, but it didn't damage our economy a lot. In return, NAVI claimed the 8th point, securing the half at least. Our economy was getting incredibly solid, as eventually, we broke double-digit barrier. s1mple and Zeus were left in a 2v2 situation soon, but a good execution of the duo and great aim of s1mple secure us the point. By the end of the half, though, NAVI seemed to slip a bit, as HellRaisers claimed last 2 rounds - 11:4.
The first pistol round saw a defuse coming in from NAVI, while the next one went the way of HellRaisers, as they managed to plant in the last second, and s1mple didn't want to risk the retake. The teams kept trading the rounds - both had taken 2 rounds off of each other. The tides have turned right when HellRaisers managed to convert the last round into a decent string - our economy was struggling a bit. Even without the full purchase, we still were able to stop the streak of HellRaisers, hitting point 14.
Still, it wasn't enough to secure the match point just yet. It took NAVI two round to finally make it to the map point. The last round saw HellRaisers trying to plant the bomb with minimal casualties - they even had a numerical advantage during the plant. However, in the post-plant retake situation, NAVI managed to decimate the opponent, with Edward finalizing the defuse to give us the map victory.
| Player | Kill/Death | +/- | ADR | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| s1mple |
29-12 | +17 | 109.5 | 1.83 |
| flamie |
23-15 | +8 | 89.2 | 1.31 |
| electronic |
19-17 | +2 | 85.8 | 1.18 |
| Zeus |
14-14 | 0 | 58.3 | 0.98 |
| Edward |
14-19 | -5 | 63.5 | 0.90 |
Natus VincereOverpass - Natus Vincere [1:1] HellRaisers
The first half started with the victory in the pistol round, Yet NAVI didn't manage to convert this victory to a series straight away, as HellRaisers took 3 rounds. electroNic stepped up in a 1v2 clutch to defuse the bomb and give NAVI the second round. Still, that wasn't enough for us, as NAVI had a hard time coming back up online, the economy being a rather significant factor. Occasional rounds take by us weren't really contributing much to our economy, with HellRaisers eventually taking the 8th point.
As the game went on, we were still falling behind. Edward tried to make it on time to contest 1v2 situation, but unfortunately, it was not meant to be, as he made some noise. As the half was coming to a close, NAVI were still not managing to pick up and rounds, so we finished the second half with a hefty disadvantage - 4:11.
The second half still didn't bring much improvement. NAVI dropped the first round and decided to eco. That eco worked out very well for us - Edward was the one to bring us online for the first round of the second half. 2 more rounds our way made the situation slightly better, but 5th round saw NAVI left in a 3v5 relatively early. A few more back and forth trades helped us scrape together some money, enabling to get better guns. Slowly but surely, we made it into the double-digit.
After 4 straight rounds, NAVI were finally left in rather dire straits. HellRaisers hit the match point at 11:15. Our best effort wasn't enough to stop the opponent, as they take the match point and the map 11:16. The outcome of the series would be decided on Dust2.
| Player | Kill/Death | +/- | ADR | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edward |
21-19 | +2 | 76.7 | 1.15 |
| electronic |
16-17 | -1 | 66.8 | 1.06 |
| Zeus |
18-19 | -1 | 75.8 | 0.99 |
| s1mple |
16-15 | +1 | 63.9 | 0.97 |
| flamie |
12-17 | -5 | 72.9 | 0.89 |
Dust2 - Natus Vincere [1:1] HellRaisers
The final map started with a pistol round victory for NAVI. We converted that victory into a three-round lead, so HellRaisers had to eco. flamie picked up 4 kills straight, as we continued to play our confident game. The 7th round saw NAVI capitalize on the A bombsite, while HellRaisers were trying to plant the bomb - sure, it was planted, but defused just as fast.
Zeus secured the 8th point for NAVI, taking down 3 terrorists around the long. Only after 9 rounds the way of NAVI did HellRaisers manage to claim their first round. Despite a lot of kills going our way, the utility use from both sides prevented the retake and defuse. Towards the end of the half, NAVI let a couple of rounds slip, and for the penultimate round, we had Zeus take an ace. The half ended with 12:3 on the board, as we head into the second half with a sizeable advantage behind our back.
The pistol round saw NAVI carry over the momentum, as Zeus and flamie split kills, with the latter planting the bomb. Only 2 rounds later we arrived at the match point, and we had 12 more to go. We didn't use any of those, though, as the next round spelled an end to the series. NAVI wins the map 16:3.
| Player | Kill/Death | +/- | ADR | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| s1mple |
25-7 | +18 | 125.5 | 1.96 |
| Zeus |
18-7 | +11 | 93.9 | 1.80 |
| flamie |
18-10 | +8 | 87.7 | 1.50 |
| Edward |
13-7 | +6 | 79.1 | 1.41 |
| electronic |
13-9 | +4 | 85.2 | 1.36 |
Overall match stats
| Player | Kill/Death | +/- | ADR | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| s1mple |
70-34 | +36 | 96.6 | 1.52 |
| flamie |
53-42 | +11 | 82.7 | 1.20 |
| Zeus |
50-40 | +10 | 74.3 | 1.18 |
| electronic |
48-43 | +5 | 78.5 | 1.18 |
| Edward |
48-45 | +3 | 72.6 | 1.12 |
