Natus Vincere and Liquid advance to 2-0 pool

Natus Vincere beat Vitality in a multiple overtime match on Mirage, 25-22, to go 2-0, while Liquid did the same after beating Ninjas in Pyjamas, 16-13, on Overpass.

The match pitting Natus Vincere and Vitality kicked off with the former taking the 2-0 lead on the CT on Mirage. The CIS side kept ahead, winning the first gun round and a following forcebuy, before going on to make it 5-0. Vitality were finally able to get on the board with five Desert Eagle headshots, three of them by Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire, but Natus Vincere didn’t let them follow it up, making it 6-1. Vitality then made an A play work, not letting the half get out of control early on. It then became a match, as Vitality took several more rounds and brought it close, going so far as to keep it within one before the half, 7-8.

An B hit in the second pistol round kept Na`Vi in the lead. It was the CIS side then that were able to start to increase their lead, once again racking up rounds early in the half, making it to 11-7 before the French team was able to strike back. Natus Vincere then kept their supremacy on the attacking side, keeping Vitality struggling for money. After a dominant second half, they gave up a slew of rounds to Vitality when they hit 14, and then made it to triple match point. Vitality kept their momentum going despite being against the ropes, and brought it all the way to the last round of the match before pushing it to overtime.

The first half of overtime started off with Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev going big with a four-kill round to open the scoreboard. A successful B hit wasn’t enough for a follow-up, however, as Vitality were able to retake to tie it back up and go with the lead to the second half after winning a second round. The teams then traded rounds, giving Vitality match point, 18-17, but a triple opener by s1mple in middle tied it back up again.

On the attacking side, a B hit got Vitality back ahead, but a triple by Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev helped his team even it back out once again, which Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov was able to follow up with a huge play from CT to go ahead at the half, 20-19. The teams then once again traded rounds, going on to hit another overtime before Natus Vincere could finally take a 24-22 lead on the defense and go on to close it out 25-22 in a long match.

Liquid and Ninjas in Pyjamas kicked their match off on Overpass with the North American side taking the lead on the CT side with a successful B site defense. They were then able to defend the same site on the first gun round, increasing their lead to 3-0. It was finally on the sixth round that the Ninjas were able to get on the board after two opening frags by Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman cleared their path to the A site. Ninjas in Pyjamas then linked a second against an eco, cutting Liquid’s lead to 6-2. The North American side then took the reins back, winning two more, which Ninjas in Pyjamas traded back to make it 4-8. The Swedes lost one more rounds, but were able to bring it back to a palatable 6-9.

A retake on A by Ninjas in Pyjamas then further closed the gap, as Ninjas in Pyjamas went on to win against the forcebuy and an eco to tie it up, 9-9. They then kept going against another pistol buy, taking the lead for the first time in the match. Liquid then started to take control, bringing it back to 11-11 and even retaking the lead ahead of the last stretch of the match. Ninjas in Pyjamas didn’t let up, however, and won two to take the lead back, 13-12, following several AUG multifrag rounds. Once again trading rounds, Liquid were able to get the lead, 14-13, after an explosive B execute as the match started to get to its last rounds. It was the North Americans that were then able to finally close it out after 29 rounds, to move on to the 2-0 pool.