IEM Katowice 2019: victory vs Team Vitality

The test of strength — passed!

The next game of NAVI.GG.BET at IEM Katowice 2019 was against another French team — Team Vitality. The Bo1 took place on Mirage; the game was intense, going all the way to the third overtime, but NAVI proved to be stronger in this test of endurance, claiming the map 25:22.

Mirage — Natus Vincere [25:22] Team VItality

The first half kicked off with a dominant play from NAVI — we eliminated all Vitality members and repeated the same in the next round. For the third one, we managed to pull off a retake and a defuse, scoring yet another point. Eventually, we went up to 5:0, sitting at a good economy. NAVI seemed to have a perfect read on the situation, but unfortunately, Vitality managed to outperform us, scoring their first point. Still, NAVI took the game right back — Vitality was able to plant, but we responded with a defuse. From there onwards, teams started trading rounds — Vitality found an opening pick, and secured the plant and the round, flamie being the sole survivor.

Another round, another opening pick allowed the opponent another plant and another point. Even though we were dropping the rounds, NAVI were still making Vitality pay for them dearly. The round difference was constantly shrinking, and our economy wasn't doing too well. This ultimately allowed the opponent to tie the score 7:7. The last round of the half saw 3v3 bomb plant, and NAVI were able to decimate the Terrorists, closing the half 8:7.

The pistol round saw a very intense trade happening, and NAVI found the better end of the trade, and the second round followed the suit. We broke into the double digits in the 17th round; Vitality went for an eco in the 18th, managed to kill 2 our players, but didn't do much damage otherwise. Their buy round, however, allowed Vitality to come online in the second half for a round. However, NAVI went for another plant right in the next round, and the lone CT had to save.

Another round victory spelled the end of Vitality economy — they had to save 2 weapons. Round 23 started off well for NAVI, as we finished off 3 opponents, but then all went wrong, as we found ourselves losing players constantly. Eventually, Vitality broke double-digits and started catching up to NAVI; round 26 saw us almost pull off a plant, but not quite. Round 26, though, had NAVI cross the bombsite after killing the A defenders in the jungle and planting — round 15 is ours! Still the game wasn't over yet — 1 round was all both teams needed, and the opponent got there first — overtime.

The first OT round had NAVI trade opening frags, and it boiled down to 2v2 — 4 frags on s1mple. The next 2 rounds, though, saw Vitality pull off almost impossible rounds, as they emerged on top — 16:17. The first round of the second half had NAVI lose no players, as we had a very good position to deal with the Terrorists. Vitality claimed the next round, and they only had 1 left to take the game, but s1mple had other plans, scoring a 3k with an AWP.

The second OT started with bloodshed at the B bombsite, and another round trade — 19:19. electronic scored several kills through smoke, one being on the bomb planted, as we break ahead again for just a moment: flamie found himself alone against multiple opponents, and he chose to save the AWP. The game equalized at 20:20, and NAVI broke into the A from middle, planting the bomb, but were unable to defend; it seemed we were close to losing in a 3v5, but NAVI still went in from the connector, spilling onto the A bombsite, planting and killing all of the defense.

The first round of the third OT saw NAVI go for an A split, and that didn't work out for us at all, as Vitality claimed the lead, but only for 1 round, with Edward and flamie both scoring 2 great kills. Straight away NAVI switched up the strats, going for the plant on B — 23:22. Vitality almost managed to plant the bomb, but s1mple and electronic had different plans — they controlled the bombsite, the former being over towards B, and denied the plant chances. For the final round of the game, we saw a 2v2 clutch — s1mple denied the plant while Zeus came from behind, sealing the deal with 25:22 on the board in the third overtime.

Natus Vincere

Player	Kill/Death	+/-	ADR	Rating
flamie	39-23	+16	89.2	1.38
s1mple	43-28	+15	81.7	1.31
electronic	32-34	-2	83.1	1.16
Zeus	26-31	-5	59.9	0.85
Edward	26-32	-6	71.0	0.84