Natus Vincere to GG.BET ICE Challenge grand final over Heroic

Natus Vincere took Train (16-8) and Mirage (19-16) against HEROIC to move on to the GG.BET ICE Challenge grand final, where they will face North.

Train kicked off with Natus Vincere going to the outside bomb site on Train, with Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov closing out a 1vs3 afterplant to give his team the lead. The first gun round came after two failed forcebuys from HEROIC, and it looked good for the Nordic team, but Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev and electroNic with a full house of frags in a 2vs5 were able to make it 4-0. After an eco, HEROIC were finally able to get on the board. The two teams then traded rounds, but HEROIC came out on top in the long run, going on to win five in a row to even it out, 6-6, before going out to win the half, 8-7.

Natus Vincere then brought it back to 8-8 after the first pistol round, and started their way towards a first map win. At 11-8, HEROIC were able to almost surprise Na`Vi with an outer execute on a pistolbuy, but Natus Vincere were able to turn the round around to defuse the bomb and keep their roll going. Without giving up a round on the defense, Natus Vincere closed the map out 16-8.

A contact B play by Natus Vincere with an opening frag by Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev and doubles by Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev and electroNic gave the CIS side the first round on Mirage, HEROIC’s map pick. A fast play to A by Natus Vincere ended up in a 2vs2 with a minute and a half left in the first gun round, which s1mple was able to win by stopping Adam "⁠friberg⁠" Friberg from defusing. Off of the back of a won forecebuy, HEROIC brought it back to 4-4, but s1mple put his foot down with two opening CZ75 kills before getting two more to keep his team in the lead.

Natus Vincere then took the reins of the half, keeping HEROIC on their heels to take a 9-5 lead. Finally, HEROIC were able to win the last round of the half as Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen opened on s1mple with an AWP kill in the B halls to keep it within three going into the attacking side.

HEROIC won the first round of the second half, and they were able to tie it up on the first gun round thanks to four frags by Daniel "⁠mertz⁠" Mertz, including a 1vs3 clutch. Slowly but surely HEROIC started to get ahead, winning the clutches and close situations to take a 14-10 lead. Natus Vincere then started to claw their way back in, putting up a wall, and making it all the way to 14-14.

Natus Vincere then firmly won the first half of overtime on the CT side with Edward stepping up his game to help his side take the three first rounds. mertz opened up the first round of the second half of overtime, which Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer was quick to close with four kills to keep his team in the game, but it was too little too late as Natus Vincere were able to win the following to close the map and match out.