Na`Vi ease past G2; FaZe crush HellRaisers

Natus Vincere and FaZe are through to the 1-0 pool at IEM Katowice after beating G2 and HellRaisers, respectively.

On Inferno, Natus Vincere won their CT pistol on the back of a triple-kill from Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev in a 4v4 retake. G2 pulled off a force-buy in the next round, but the Ukrainians would still manage to take a 4-1 lead.

The match quickly turned into a back-and-forth affair that saw G2 reduce the deficit to 4-6. From that moment, although Natus Vincere strung three rounds together fairly easily, they could not stop Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon's men in the final two rounds of the half.

Natus Vincere further added to their lead in the second half, winning three rounds in a row before G2 were able to buy weapons, 12-6. The Frenchmen then picked up their seventh round, but it was simply too little, too late, for them to stop Natus Vincere, who finished things off without much effort.

The match between HellRaisers and FaZe was played on Train, where the latter team picked up a 3-0 lead after winning their Terrorist pistol. HellRaisers responded well, eventually equalizing the score, but a successful 2v3 situation from Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács and Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard set their team up for a great run, losing just one more round to bag an 11-4 half-time lead.

In the second half, FaZe refused to take their foot off the gas, and quickly put the game to bed with a five-round winning streak, with Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač leading the way for his team with a 1.63 rating.