EnVyUs win CS:GO's seventh major

The grand finals of DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca, CS:GO's seventh major, kicked off with a face-off that many may not have expected: EnVyUs versus Natus Vincere.

With the French team looking to redeem its downfall at the previous major grand finals and the Ukrainian-Russian-Slovak team entering its first grand finals at a major, the first map of contention was de_train.

Pointman Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub looked determine to bid adieu to his underwhelming performance at the Cologne finals and took off from nV's CT pistol round onwards, and with his help as well as the whole team hitting its shots EnVyUs moved ahead to a 7-0 scoreline before Na`Vi could answer back.

Na`Vi's return into the arena that is train's outer and inner bombsites was spearheaded by Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin in the first half, who picked up multiple two and three kill rounds to give Na`Vi a string of rounds and end the half 9-6 to nV's advantage.

EnVyUs defeated Na`Vi on the latter team's map choice

On the second half, Na`Vi took CT pistol and Slovakian Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács finally began to warm up and string together frags and the Eastern European team moved ahead to a 11-10 lead before nV answered back.

The remaining rounds on de_train were fiercely contested, with single rounds often going back and forth. On the 28th round, Vincent "⁠Happy⁠" Schopenhauer saved his team with a grenade onto a defusing Na`Vi member. Despite a small Na`Vi comeback, it was therefore the French team which took the first map 16-14.

With de_cbble being EnVyUs' map choice, the boys in baguette kicked off their T-side with entry fragger Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire dropping a quad kill and giving the team momentum on the second map.

This opener allowed nV to surge forward, and kennyS's seven kills by the seventh round were already testament to the player's focus since it was more kills than kennyS had altogether on de_cbble in the Cologne finals. Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt also chimed in on the seventh round with an ace of his own to pull nV ahead even further.

In a similar fashion to de_train, Na`Vi woke up after being down 0-7 and managed to defeat EnVyUs on a force-buy round, which gave the Eastern European team two rounds. Then, kennyS and GuardiaN faced off in a one-versus-one and it was the Frenchmen who emerged the victor, bringing the score to 8-2.

Na`Vi set a record by making the grand finals of a major, but ultimately fell short

GuardiaN redeemed himself with a triple-kill shutdown in the next round on the B site which reset nV's economy and forced the French to buy TEC-9's. Thus, with desperate tenacity, the CIS-region team clung onto the game and ultimately picked up five rounds on their CT side; the half finished 10-5 for nV.

Happy and his crew held the front on the team's CT pistol to pull ahead 11-5 and move even closer to guaranteeing kennyS and apEX their first major championships.

And that was all she wrote for this match as nV simply outplayed and outaimed Na`Vi for the remaining rounds to win the map 16-5 and win the major at DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca.

DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 final standings:

1. EnVyUs - $100,000
2. Null element Na`Vi - $50,000
3-4. G2 - $22,000
3-4. NiP - $22,000
5-8. TSM - $10,000
5-8. Virtus.pro - $10,000
5-8. Luminosity - $10,000
5-8. fnatic - $10,000
9-12. CLG - $2,000
9-12. Cloud9 - $2,000
9-12. mousesports - $2,000
9-12. Titan - $2,000
13-16. FlipSid3 - $2,000
13-16. Liquid - $2,000
13-16. dignitas - $2,000
13-16. Vexed - $2,000 

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter