Natus Vincere smash BIG; to Major semi-finals

Natus Vincere win the first quarter-final in London against BIG on Dust2 (16-2) and Nuke (16-6) to become the first semi-finalists at the Major.

The quarter-finals kicked off on Dust2, as Natus Vincere flew past BIG in the pistol round and the two anti-ecos. The first gun round went all the way down to the wire as Tizian "⁠tiziaN⁠" Feldbusch was able to get four kills with a Galil as his team planted the bomb on A, but it was Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev who was able to finally win the last duel to go on to defuse and keep his team ahead. An opening kill by Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz on Edward who was flanking from B to Terrorist spawn and a long push by BIG with two unchallenged frags gave them their first round on the board.

BIG then followed it up with a play on B, planting it in a 4vs4 situation and defending Na`Vi’s push through Doors and Window. Natus Vincere then won a crucial round that would have sent them into an eco had they not taken it as Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev downed two players trying to hit B after crossing the double doors in Mid. At this point, Natus Vincere got an 8-2 lead going into the late stages of the first half. A huge three-kill round by s1mple with the AWP on B supported by Edward and Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev kept the CIS side well ahead as BIG struggled to build an economy. Na`Vi then closed the half out 13-2 with two huge rounds in which Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov manhandled BIG.

The second half kicked off with Natus Vincere winning the attacking pistol round, and with 14-2 on the board and s1mple and electroNic leading the way, the CIS side went on to win the map out, 16-2, as Edward clutched out the last round on Dust2 with a with three MAC-10 headshots.

BIG started out the second map, Nuke, on the right foot, winning the second pistol round as Fatih "⁠gob b⁠" Dayik and tabseN stopped a push on the upper bombsite while tiziaN got two USP headshots in Radio Room. Two entries by Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko and Edward with pistols followed by a quick plant gave Na`Vi the second round, which they were able to follow up to take the lead early on. Down 4-1, BIG were finally able to put a proper buy up in a round that came down to several trades in exterior eventually going the way of gob b & co. A successful 5vs4 hit on B then got the CIS side back on top, forcing BIG on a pistol buy with two saved rifles.

Once again, Natus Vincere started racking up the rounds, going up 8-2 and once again putting BIG against the wall, and once again they were able to go to the half with a great lead, this time 12-3. The second pistol round went the way of BIG, who were finally able to take the first one of the match with a successful play on the A bomb site. BIG then followed it up with a clean round against the forcebuy, and made it 6-12 against the anti-eco.

The first gun round then went the way of Na`Vi, though, as they were able to stop a push by BIG with doubles by flamie and Edward. Able to follow it up, Natus Vincere made it to 14-6 as BIG started to see their comeback dreams fade. s1mple then played an amazing round to get on match point before his team would go on to close it out, 16-6, for a 2-0 win and a spot in the semi-finals.