Na`Vi and C9 secure wins in Group B

Virtus.pro got into the lead early in their match against Natus Vincere, but the CIS side was quick to equal the score, going from 5-1 down to 5-5 as their B hits proved successful.

Jarosław "⁠pashaBiceps⁠" Jarząbkowski delivered in a low-buy round for Virtus.pro, getting two kills with the CZ-75 and closing out the round with the AK-47, but Natus Vincere replied with a similar round soon, as Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev opened up B from the upper ramp while using an interesting smoke for cover, making the score 7-6.

The back and forth continued until the end of the end of the half, with the teams trading the last two round to make the score 8-7.

Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács secured a triple-kill in the pistol round to start off what turned out to be an impeccable Counter-Terrorist side for his team. With the economy on their side, Natus Vincere were repeatedly able to get entry kills which lead to Virtus.pro struggling on the offensive.

With GuardiaN, Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin and Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev all stepping up when needed, Natus Vincere won eight rounds in a row to get to match point and then closed out the game after losing only a single round as Counter-Terrorists.

IEM Katowice 2017Best of 1

Natus Vincere

Matchpage

16

9

2nd March 2017

Virtus.pro

16

Train

9

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	23 - 13	+10	84.3	76.0%	1.34
Ladislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsGuardiaN	18 - 13	+5	74.3	68.0%	1.24
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie	18 - 15	+3	81.8	68.0%	1.22
Denis 'seized' Kostinseized	17 - 14	+3	72.1	76.0%	1.18
Ioann 'Edward' SukharievEdward	13 - 17	-4	64.9	60.0%	0.84

Virtus.pro	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasTaZ	19 - 17	+2	87.8	64.0%	1.11
Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskipashaBiceps	18 - 19	-1	66.3	64.0%	0.93
Paweł 'byali' Bielińskibyali	13 - 17	-4	69.7	72.0%	0.92
Filip 'NEO' KubskiNEO	12 - 17	-5	54.4	52.0%	0.63
Janusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiSnax	9 - 19	-10	65.6	44.0%	0.61

The second game, between Cloud9 and SK, started well for the North American side who got a 5-1 lead before the Brazilians managed to step up their game on the Terrorist side of Nuke. Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo's team was able to tie the score at 6-6m prior to running into an in-form Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta again. The 20-year-old was playing great on Nuke and made big contributions in the last three rounds as his team finished the half 9-6.

SK picked up the pistol round thanks to Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga's hat trick of USP-S headshots, but Cloud9 managed to instantly reply in the following round with a combination of Tec-9's, UMP's and Deagles. The North American side kept putting on the pressure from the Terrorist side and it was the combination of autimatic and Jordan "⁠n0thing⁠" Gilbert to hold off the 2v3 retake of the A bombsite that got Cloud9 on match point.

Their relentless outside aggression paid off again in the last round once again as Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip and co. closed out the match 16-9.

IEM Katowice 2017Best of 1

Cloud9

Matchpage

16

9

2nd March 2017

SK

16

Nuke

9

Cloud9	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Timothy 'autimatic' Taautimatic	26 - 14	+12	108.6	68.0%	1.54
Jake 'Stewie2K' YipStewie2K	21 - 16	+5	92.0	64.0%	1.27
Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamSkadoodle	16 - 14	+2	70.0	64.0%	0.99
Mike 'shroud' Grzesiekshroud	16 - 18	-2	64.9	64.0%	0.92
Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbertn0thing	10 - 16	-6	60.0	64.0%	0.85

SK	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
João 'felps' Vasconcellosfelps	22 - 18	+4	96.2	56.0%	1.25
Marcelo 'coldzera' Davidcoldzera	18 - 16	+2	83.6	80.0%	1.11
Fernando 'fer' Alvarengafer	16 - 18	-2	75.0	60.0%	0.97
Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFalleN	13 - 19	-6	49.3	68.0%	0.69
Epitacio 'TACO' de MeloTACO	9 - 18	-9	54.6	56.0%	0.61

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