ESL Pro League S8: a draw with Astralis
NAVI.GG.BET played their second series of the day against 
Astralis. The games were tough, and at the end of the day, we split the maps - Overpass goes the way of Astralis, while NAVI take Dust2 in the overtime.
Overpass - Natus Vincere [0:1] Astralis
The first game started off poorly for NAVI, as flamie was left in a 1v4 situation, opting to save the armor. The subsequent force buy didn't work for us, so we eco'ed. The 4th round, though, saw NAVI spring into action, as we lost only 1 player, but found the entirety of Astralis. This round, though, was the only bright spot in the first part of the half, as Astralis managed to upset our economy right after. Another 3 rounds passed before NAVI found another point. Yet again, Astralis got the upper hand in the following round, denying us the chance to take a streak.
The 10th round saw s1mple in a 1v1, and he managed to clutch it out, defusing the bomb. That round gave us a chance, and we used it to the best of our abilities, yet that was it for the half. Astralis continued to assert dominance all the way till the end of the half, and our attempts were falling short. The first half ended rather bad for NAVI, as we were sitting at 4:11 by the start of the second half.
The second half also started off in a rather bad fashion for NAVI. Astralis claimed the first 2 rounds, while NAVI almost secured the third, but the last man standing on the side of Astralis managed to defuse the bomb. It didn't take the opponent long to claim the match point, and we had a long road ahead of us, which proved to be too tough for us - NAVI lose the game 4:16.
| Player | Kill/Death | +/- | ADR | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 flamie |
11-13 | -2 | 68.5 | 0.78 |
| s1mple |
11-15 | -4 | 68.0 | 0.71 |
| electronic |
8-15 | -7 | 57.1 | 0.57 |
| Edward |
6-16 | -10 | 49.6 | 0.49 |
| Zeus |
6-17 | -11 | 39.5 | 0.42 |
Natus VincereDust2 - Natus Vincere [1:0] Astralis
The second map was Dust2. Astralis claimed the first round, and the second didn't see much improvement either. NAVI came online in the fourth round, successfully defending the bomb, but there was still a challenge of converting that point into something bigger. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be that easy, as Astralis denied us that chance, moving ahead still. We had a really hard time finding anything until Astralis hit 7 points. At that moment, NAVI were able to get a point our way, but this time, we had the means to capitalize on it and string together some rounds.
Very soon, Astralis hit some financial problems, as NAVI were able to afford decent guns. Unfortunately, the opponent was still the first to get to 8 points - electroNic didn't have enough time to plant the bomb despite killing quite a few opponents. Still, at the end of the 1st half, NAVI were just 1 point behind the opponent, which was a rather solid comeback considering that at one point, we were 1:7 behind.
The second half started with Astralis pouring down mid and towards the B bombsite. They secured 3 rounds for themselves, climbing to 11 points. Yet NAVI didn't want to let go of this game that easily, as we found our own footing into the game, catching up to Astralis - 11:11. Still, taking the lead so far was too big of a challenge, with the opponent dealing a serious blow to our economy - with nobody alive after the force buy. Round 25 saw flamie left in a 1v1 - despite winning the clutch, he ran out of time to defuse the bomb - Astralis claim the match point.
We still put up quite a fight for Astralis. NAVI quickly eliminated 4 members of the opponent and claimed the next round. With a series of rounds going our way, Astralis had no means to buy for the final round, and NAVI took the 15th round, going into the overtime.
The first round of the overtime saw NAVI go for a double AWP - the setup didn't quite work, as Astralis managed to find the opening kill on the A bombsite. The next round, though, had NAVI win their duels, leading to the point our way. flamie stepped up massively in the coming round, dealing with 2 opponents alone and defusing the bomb - we were 2 rounds away from securing the map, which soon became 1. The last round of the game had Astralis crumble under presure - we take Dust2 19:16 after a truly incredible comeback from 1:7.
| Player | Kill/Death | +/- | ADR | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| s1mple |
32-21 | +11 | 95.2 | 1.50 |
| flamie |
29-19 | +10 | 83.6 | 1.26 |
| Edward |
21-24 | -3 | 73.1 | 1.08 |
| electronic |
25-25 | 0 | 79.1 | 1.01 |
| Zeus |
19-26 | -7 | 67.9 | 0.87 |
