Na`Vi beat Astralis; to Major final

Day five at MLG Columbus continued with the first semi-final between Astralis and Natus Vincere, starting on the former's pick, de_inferno. It was the latter who kicked it off the better however, as they got up to 5-0 after the pistol and the first gunround, where they conserved grenades to force the Danes on a low timer.

Two perfect A executes worked out well for the Astralis squad, who picked up their third and fourth round once they delivered a fake based on the previous strategy. A triple by Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz pushed it to an even 5-5 before Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev and Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev regained the lead after winning a 3-on-5 situation.

Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács kept getting shut down by the opposing AWPer however, which helped the Danish lineup push it to 8-6 in their favor before a strong defence on the B bombsite gave Na`Vi the last round.

The beginning of the second half saw a similar start play out, as Natus Vincere got five out of six rounds much thanks to GuardiaN's clutch triple. A clean defence on A and a 3-on-3 retake on B helped Astralis claw it back to 12-11, but more great play from Edward meant his team would go on to take the 14th round.

Three rounds in a row for Astralis made it seem like they'd be able to take match point first, but a buy worth of only a single rifle somehow worked out for the CIS-based squad, who pushed on to take map one for 16-14.

Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin kicked off Dust2 with a triple in a rush on short for 3-0 in his team's favor. Natus Vincere put on an unexpected tempo as they started with a few quick executes, surprising Astralis and taking it to 6-0. 

GuardiaN and Edward denied Astralis the first real chance at a round win with a couple of doubles, and not even a timeout seemed to have worked as the last major's runner-ups made it 8-0. 

Finally three rounds in a row went the Danes' way, but a crucial mistake by René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg, who peeked in the last second, threw away a round, setting off another streak by Natus Vincere.

This time it wasn't stopped, even despite close situations, and the score soon showed 12-3 at halftime, at which point Astralis were staring down the barrel. Losing the pistol round didn't help things, but losing to a forcebuy after just winning one added insult to injury, as Natus Vincere took it 16-5 in the end to make it to the grand final.

MLG Columbus 2016Best of 3

Natus Vincere

Matchpage

2

0

2nd April 2016

Astralis

16

Inferno

14

16

Dust2

5

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Ioann 'Edward' SukharievEdward	50 - 28	+22	97.1	72.5%	1.44
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie	46 - 29	+17	94.5	76.5%	1.43
Danylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoZeus	28 - 30	-2	75.8	70.6%	1.06
Denis 'seized' Kostinseized	28 - 29	-1	57.7	66.7%	0.95
Ladislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsGuardiaN	24 - 30	-6	59.3	60.8%	0.93

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	32 - 33	-1	71.2	60.8%	0.89
René 'cajunb' Borgcajunb	28 - 34	-6	70.3	56.9%	0.88
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh	28 - 36	-8	66.3	64.7%	0.88
Nicolai 'device' Reedtzdevice	31 - 39	-8	65.0	66.7%	0.85
Finn 'karrigan' Andersenkarrigan	27 - 34	-7	60.5	60.8%	0.81

Only one best-of-three remains on day five at MLG Columbus, as Liquid and Luminosity are getting ready for the second semi-final of the eighth major.