ESL Pro League S11: facing Astralis
The game starts at 18:00 CEST
In the new round of ESL Pro League S11 
NAVI will face 
Astralis. The match will begin on April 5 at 18:00 CEST and will be held in the best of 3 format.
Despite the unsuccessful start of the previous stage (defeated by North and 
BIG), our guys were able not only to improve their position in group B, but also to take first place, having won in the remaining matches (
forZe, 
Complexity, 
fnatic). As for Astralis, the Danish squad lost only one game in the last round ( NiP). Thanks to this result, the Danes took the lead in group A, avoiding the deciders.
The last time NAVI faced Astralis was at IEM Katowice 2020, and then our squad defeated the opponent (2 : 0). In the last three months, the Danes have the best results on Nuke (2 wins, 0 losses). On the other hand, their worst maps are Inferno (1 victory, 2 losses) and Nuke (2 victories, 2 losses). Astralis has a permaban map as well - Mirage. We hope that Natus Vincere will thoroughly study the opponent and begin the new stage of the tournament with a victory! #navination
Natus Vincere
s1mple
electronic
Boombl4
flamie
Perfecto
Astralis
dev1ce
dupreeh
Xyp9x
gla1ve
Magisk
Inferno — Natus Vincere [5:16] Astralis
The initial part of the game was dominated by Astralis: the Dutch won the pistols, force buy and eco. The first gun round was claimed by NAVI, but unfortunately, we lost the subsequent one, which dealt quite a serious blow to our economy.
When the economy of the CT side stabilized, Astralis still kept control of the game. NAVI had to go for a timeout before round 8, as the game was becoming hard. Round 9 saw the first point go to our team, after the gun round at the beginning. This turn of events forces the opponent to go for a tactical timeout. The end of the first half was good for NAVI, so it ended with a more acceptable score – 5 : 10 in favor of Astralis.
The second half didn't go much better from the start. We lost the first few rounds, as the opponent gained even more points. During the gun round, NAVI was close to winning, but unfortunately, s1mple wasn't able to clutch it out against Xyp9x. Astralis gained 10 match points after the next round. In the end Astralis defeated NAVI on Inferno — 16 : 5.
| Players | Kill/Death | +/- | ADR | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| s1mple |
16-15 | +1 | 88.2 | 1.12 |
| flamie |
10-13 | -3 | 48.2 | 0.72 |
| Boombl4 |
12-17 | -5 | 69.0 | 0.70 |
| Perfecto |
7-15 | -8 | 63.4 | 0.62 |
| electronic |
6-14 | -8 | 38.4 | 0.56 |
Natus VincereDust2 — Natus Vincere [16:10] Astralis
The pistol and eco round, like in the previous game, were taken by Astralis. In the gun round, NAVI tried to go for a play on A short and stairs but that didn't quite work out. As a result, the Danes claimed a comfortable 4:0 lead. It took us a while to get the economy back on track, but when we did, we managed to claim the first point of the game, playing through A long.
2 more rounds followed the suit, and Natus Vincere managed to break even (4:4) and take control over the situation. The teams traded rounds, and CT side was left with no money in the bank but keeping 2 rifles. Those rifles didn't help much, though. The end of the half was dictated by 
NAVI till the very end — 10:5
Astralis had to win either pistol or force buy to be able to bounce back into the game. This proved to be too hard for them, and they fell further behind.
The last chance round for Astralis was the 19th, as the economic advantage of Natus Vincere was becoming too overpowering to deal with. The attackers went for B split, planted, but didn't manage to take down the CTs.
Following that, the T side had a few successful rounds going towards B. Round 24 saw NAVI finally get to the match point — we had 6 rounds to close out the game. It didn't take us long to do it — 16:10, and we go to the decider.
| Players | Kill/Death | +/- | ADR | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| s1mple |
21-12 | +9 | 77.8 | 1.37 |
| flamie |
16-11 | +5 | 59.4 | 1.17 |
| electronic |
16-16 | 0 | 90.0 | 1.14 |
| Perfecto |
17-17 | 0 | 77.8 | 1.02 |
| Boombl4 |
15-17 | -2 | 57.3 | 1.00 |
Train — Natus Vincere [16:8] Astralis
The starting portion of Train was claimed by NAVI: pistol, force buy and eco all the way to seize an early 3:0 lead. The victory in the gun round destroyed the money of the opponent and allowed us to secure even more points, as we landed on a comfortable 5:0 lead.
As the CT side managed to get their economy together, they earned their first point, yet immediately trading a round back, which dealt a blow to the economy of Astralis. Before the round 10, the opponent took a tactical timeout, which yielded its fruits — after the short talk, the opponent managed to claim a second point. However, there was not much left to be in the first half, so NAVI kept the lead, going into the second half with 5:10 score.
The second half started with Astralis winning the pistol, and our squad got a point back in the force buy. Due to technical issues, there was a pause before the gun round. The gun round went the way of the opponent, as they got their second point, but that was it for this half. Despite the best attempts, Astralis wasn't able to do much. So, NAVI takes the win on Train with the score of 16 : 8, winning the series 2:1.
| Players | Kill/Death | +/- | ADR | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boombl4 |
21-13 | +8 | 105.9 | 1.50 |
| electronic |
19-14 | +5 | 95.2 | 1.47 |
| s1mple |
20-16 | +4 | 81.0 | 1.17 |
| Perfecto |
17-16 | +1 | 68.9 | 1.03 |
| flamie |
12-16 | -4 | 39.2 | 0.83 |
Overall match stats
| Players | Kill/Death | +/- | ADR | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| s1mple |
57-43 | +14 | 82.0 | 1.22 |
| Boombl4 |
48-47 | +1 | 77.2 | 1.07 |
| electronic |
41-44 | -3 | 76.5 | 1.06 |
| flamie |
38-40 | -2 | 49.3 | 0.92 |
| Perfecto |
41-48 | -7 | 70.5 | 0.90 |
