ESL Pro League S7: the tie with Space Soldiers

1-1, as each team gets the points.

At ESL Pro League S7, the next opponent of NAVI.GG.BET was Space Soldiers. The dual Bo1 ended with the first map for Space Soldiers, while the second one went to NAVI!

Game 1 - Natus Vincere [0:1] Space Soldiers

The first half started off not too well for our team, as we lost the pistols and the follow-up, only claiming the 4th round with the quadra kill by Flamie, while the next one saw a clutch by Edward, enabling us to tie the score 3:3. NAVI did not manage to break ahead, though, as Space Soldiers took 5 in a row to secure the first half. For a while, we did not manage to get a solid grip on the game. Despite getting a few rounds, the first half ended with 4:11.

The second half started not too well for NAVI, as we lost 3 initial rounds, and the game was coming dangerously close to the match point. NAVI did not manage to get a single point into the second haда all the way to 4:15, when we pulled ourselves together and closed off 2v2 in our favor. Despite the attempted comeback, we did not extend the game into the overtime and drop the game 5:16.

Game 2 - Natus Vincere [1:0] Space Soldiers

The second game started off with rounds traded between the teams, yet at the end of the day, we took 2 rounds to secure the 3:1 lead. We continued our streak, not allowing the opponent to get a single point until round 7, when Space Soldiers got 2. A round our way forced the opponents to use a tactical pause, which did little to salvage the situation, as NAVI broke 8 round milestone and counting, loosing to take as many as possible - 11:4.

The second half kicked off with 2 rounds for NAVI, but the third one was taken by the opponent, as they started to come back into the game, diminishing their round difference. We were getting closer to the line, but the round trades coming in did not allow us to close the game decisively. Our economy was still in a decent shape, which allowed us to finally get the 15th point on board, with 7 match points to go. The opponents' economy was not faring too well, and that allowed us to take the very first match point and the second series!