EPICENTER 2018: Wrap-up

NAVI.GG.BET — the silver medalist of EPICENTER 2018

Last week, the  NAVI.GG.BET took part in EPICENTER 2018, where it took second place, losing in the grand final to  FaZe Clan (0 : 2) and earned $ 75,000. Let's summarize the performance of the Born to Win in this championship.

The guys definitely came to the final in a good mood. The successful week in the ESL Pro League S8, where they played 20 matches, of which they won 16. It certainly had a good effect. Such a performance provided
Natus Vincere second place in the standings, as well as, most likely, a place in the LAN-finals. More details on the provisional results can be found .

At the group stage of EPICENTER, our team's rivals were HellRaisers, FaZe, and ENCE. While with the last participant Born to Win did not crossroads, with other two European teams the matches were quite simple. So, despite the loss on Overpass, on the other two maps in a match with  HellRaisers, our guys had an obvious advantage (16 : 10 - Train; 16 : 3 - Dust2).

The failure on Overpass pushed NAVI to work on the mistakes, and subsequently, the guys have defeated
 FaZe Clan in the finals of the upper bracket (16 : 5), and on the Train (16 : 13) they made a small comeback after a cool by  electroNic in the eco-round. However, the best player in the group stage was
s1mple: he finished the match with HellRaisers with a rating of 1.52 and KD 70–34, and the match with
FaZe Clan with a rating of 1.45 and KD 54–28.

Unfortunately, the guys could not repeat the success accompanying them in the group stage. The  AVANGAR (2 : 0) was defeated in the semifinals, but with  FaZe,  NAVI was not able to repeat their previous success. This time we saw a completely different set of maps: Mirage and Dust2, with the exception of the decisive map, which after all was not required (Overpass). In both cases, the Europeans seized the advantage early - while on the Mirage the Born to Win were close to making a comeback, on Dust2 they failed to seize the initiative.

Such result for the fourth time in 2018 brought
Natus Vincere, the silver medals, as well as the tenth time in the top 4 of the tournaments.

Positive trend Dust2

Of course, it is impossible not to note the progress of our players on Dust2. At some point,  Natus Vincere had a streak of 6 lost matches (the statistics of performances at LAN tournaments are taken into account). Only in the quarter-finals of the FACEIT Major,  NAVI broke the protracted streak, beating BIG with a score of 16: 3. After that, guys had a winning streak of 4 games up to the grand final.

Interestingly, in two other meetings NAVI crushed their rivals (16 : 5 in the match against MIBR; 16 : 3 against HellRaisers) and only in a match with AVANGAR, the opponent managed to score more than ten points (16 : 11). Curiously enough, this progress is accompanied by a significant increase in individual performances of s1mple and Edward. Thus, Sasha’s rating increased from 1.04 to 1.43, while Ioann's increased from 0.71 to 1.11.

Main statistics of the tournament

In this championship, our players have scored high in some HLTV nominations. First of all,  s1mple shown himself remarkably. Sasha achieved the best difference in KD (+ 93), performed the highest rating of the tournament (1.45), took the first place in the number of rounds with one kill or more (55.8%), ahead of everyone with the number of killings with AWP per round ( 0.50), and also had the highest rate of successful first encounters on the map (66.7%).

Natus Vincere

Player	Kill/Death	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
s1mple	211/118	+93	91,4	1,45
electronic	151/140	+11	76,2	1,12
flamie	145/147	-2	73,7	1,03
Zeus	137/142	-5	70,6	1,02
Edward	132/144	-12	66,5	0,95

Of the other players of the Born to Win,  flamie ranked fifth in the total number of assists (34), and Zeus ranked fourth in the number of rounds as a support (22.8%).

From the point of view of the teamwork,  NAVI had the highest result in the number of "force buys" won, after a lost pistol round - 50.0% ( Team Liquid is the closest pursuer with 33.3%). Our five also led when they were in the minority (4 vs 5) - 32.1% ( FaZe Clan - the second team - 31.5%). But when in the majority (5 vs 4) our guys performed worse (76.8%) and took the third place, allowing  Team Liquid (79.3%) and  FaZe Clan (79.7%) surpass them.

In the near future,  NAVI players will have two matches in the ESL Pro League, after which our guys will perform at the BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen, which will be held on November 2nd-3rd. We believe that
Natus Vincere will once again delight the fans with their game and win the champions title of the BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen! #NAVINATION

Prize pool distribution

1st place: FaZe Clan — $ 150 000
2nd place: NAVI.GG.BET — $ 75 000
3-4th place: AVANGAR,  Team Liquid — $ 20 000 each
5-6th place:  HellRaisers, NiP — $ 10 000 each
7-8th place: Swole Patrol, ENCE — $ 5 000 each