ESL Pro League S7 EU: the tie against North

A tie against North!

The next series of NAVI.GG.BET was against North. The first game took place on de_train, while the second one on de_inferno. The series was tied, as we took the train, but lost on inferno.

Game 1 - NAVI.GG.BET [1:0] North

The pistol round went the way of North despite a very good attempt by flamie to clutch the round. Despite the lost next round, we had a pretty good economic situation, as we managed to save good weapons, allowing us to take the third and fourth rounds - 2:2. Some trades happened, but the main economic gains were still ours, as NAVI forced the CTs into the eco and claimed the fourth point. We've established a decent advantage.

9 rounds in Zeus pulled off few people expected, coming up big with an ace. After a good series of rounds, we lost a few, but maintained the round lead fairly well, yet the round 14 saw North tie the score 7:7, though the last say was still ours, as the first half closed off with 8:7 for us.

Pistol round for the second half almost went to the opponent, but we managed to retake, defusing the bomb. 3rd round saw s1mple survive on 1 hp to defuse the bomb and take another one. The gap was increasing, as NAVI were managing to pull off some very close plays. North did not manage to get anything for 6 rounds straight, and they only got 1 before we closed the map 16:8.

Game 2 - Natus Vincere [0:1] North

The pistols this time around went to North, and we saved our force buy in the second round. The gun round saw the Terrorists plant the bomb, but a very good retake by NAVI salvaged the situation, as zoning Molotov did not hit Zeus, allowing for a defuse and the first round on board. Unfortunately, we got reset right away, and that prevented us from going further.

Only the 8th round saw the first good start for us, as we went up 3:6, damaging the enemy economy quite hard. North turned the game around, though, and ultimately broke the 8-point barrier, as NAVI were still lagging behind. Despite the lost half, we tried to diminish the disadvantage as much as we could, but the half ended with 4:11 on the board. We needed to make a good second half happen.

Pistols were not very good for us, as North took that one, yet we went on a 5-round streak, which was interrupted by a 3-point score from the opponent, as they hit the first match point. The first one got denied, but the comeback was not to happen, though, as the opponent took the second match point to tie the series 1-1.