ESL Pro League S8: defeat against BIG

The final battle of EU online stage

The final Bo2 for NAVI.GG.BET at ESL Pro League was against BIG. The series was a very intense one, as a concluding one should be, with NAVI dropping the first map 5:16, and the second 17:19.

Cache - Natus Vincere [5:16] BIG

The first game started off with the pistol round going the way of BIG, and they converted it into the second point. However, NAVI claimed the first point during the buy round, suffering minimal casualties. The 5th round was very tense, as  Zeus was left in a 1v1, and he managed to clutch it, saving the AWP. We climbed to 3 points, and BIG came back, ruining our economy for a little bit. However, during the 9th round, as s1mple was left in a 1v2, he killed both opponents, bringing the 4th point home. Unfortunately, NAVI didn't capitalize on that enough and got reset.

BIG continued their series, and very soon, they won the half with 8 points. NAVI were not very keen on going through the middle, and BIG were using it to their advantage. As the 14th round hit, flamie managed to find an ace for himself. Still, ultimately, the half ended with 5:10 score, as we had quite a lot of work to do in the second half.

The second pistol round, just like the first, was taken by the opponent. NAVI tried to take the next round, and even started off well, but failed to finish the job convincingly. Our economy was in shambles, as we didn't come back into the half at all. Cache went the way of BIG with a score of 5:16.

Natus Vincere

Player	Kill/Death	+/-	ADR	Rating
flamie	22-16	+6	108.1	1.45
s1mple	17-17	0	82.0	1.02
Edward	15-20	-5	80.0	0.92
Zeus	5-19	-14	35.4	0.35
Kane	0-19	-19	13.4	0.09

Inferno - Natus Vincere [17:19] BIG

The second game started with a clutch, but s1mple didn't manage to finish the round in our favor. BIG took another point before NAVI came online on the map, getting some good guns. We converted that round into more points, as BIG briefly ran into some problems. The bomb plants coming in for NAVI helped our economy even more. We climbed up to 4:2 before BIG managed to stop us, as we had to save in the 7th round. The opponents went on a streak of their own, breaking ahead. NAVI only claimed 1 round meanwhile but got immediately reset. For the rest of the half, NAVI fell short of taking a single point, as the half ended 6:9.

The second pistol round was claimed by NAVI, and we capitalized on it, taking another point. BIG managed to claim a couple of points on the way, but NAVI kept on taking rounds - despite not yet claiming the lead, we came very close, hitting 10:11 soon. Unfortunately, after that, BIG denied us the chances to bounce back into the game for now. The score hit 10:14, and NAVI seemed to regain their composure, starting to climb back into the game. A few clutches secured us some points, and as the game tied 14:14, BIG had to eco. Finally, NAVI hit the match point, but BIG hit 15 as well - overtime.

The first half of the overtime had NAVI take the first two rounds, but the last one proved to be to be tough - 17:16. The temporary tie followed soon, as BIG claimed 17:17, and subsequently 17:18. The final round saw a lot of trades back and forth, but ultimately, BIG take the game 19:17.

Natus Vincere

Player	Kill/Death	+/-	ADR	Rating
s1mple	28-17	+11	87.6	1.42
Zeus	26-19	+7	100.1	1.35
flamie	24-18	+6	91.0	1.32
Edward	11-19	-8	54.1	0.75
Kane	7-22	-15	26.1	0.54