Natus Vincere and FaZe Clan was the first match of the IEM Katowice 2019 Major Playoffs. FaZe Clan and Natus Vincere have rosters overloaded with talent. With that being said, many thought that this would be a close series between the two teams.
FaZe Clan picked Inferno as the map they wanted to play. Natus Vincere went with Mirage a map they feel extremely comfortable on. After the whole pick and ban process, Dust2 was left over as the third and decider map.
Map One (Inferno)
Inferno was a relatively close game. Natus Vincere started on the counter-terrorist side. They ended the half down 5-10. For those of you who do not know, Inferno is one of the more counter-terrorist sided maps in CS:GO. Therefore, it was surprising to see Natus Vincere struggle to get more than five rounds however, the second half would be a totally different story. Natus Vincere would dominate on the terrorist side and win the map 16-13.
Also, Egor “flamie” Vasilyev and Denis “electronic” Sharipov led Natus Vincere to victory. Flamie would finish with a map high 1.29 rating and electronic finished with player 1.28 rating.
However, both Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev of Natus Vincere and Nikola “NiKo“ Kovač of FaZe did not make massive impacts during the first map. It is unusual for two players who are ranked number one and three in the world.
Map Two (Mirage)
Furthermore, FaZe would have to beat Natus Vincere on their map pick to stay alive. Unfortunately, this map did not play out in FaZe’s favor. However, Natus Vincere would dominate FaZe on Mirage and win the map 16-7. Electronic was the star of map two finishing with 24 frags and a 1.75 rating.
What’s Next for Natus Vincere?
Finally, after the 2-0 win Natus Vincere advance to the semi-finals of the IEM Katowice 2019 Major. They will play the winner of the Team Liquid versus ENCE match up. Natus Vincere looked good in their first match hopefully they continue to ride this momentum. Look out for s1mple to make a bigger impact next time around.
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