Natus Vincere through to StarSeries semis over ENCE

Natus Vincere have defeated ENCE 2-1 in the quarter-finals to advance to the semis at StarSeries i-League Season 7.

The best-of-three series kicked off on Train where the T-sided ENCE won the pistol round as Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen picked up a triple kill. Natus Vincere then went on a seven-round run to lead 7-1. ENCE got their breakthrough in the ninth round thanks to Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli who got two opening kills with the AWP.

After ENCE took four more rounds to trail 7-6, Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev and Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev got double kills to stop the Finnish team's streak. Sami "⁠xseveN⁠" Laasanen stepped up with a triple kill in the final round of the first half, which ENCE won to get their seventh (8-7).

ENCE secured the second pistol round victory as Jani "⁠Aerial⁠" Jussila got a triple kill in a 2vs3. The Finns then got three more rounds to lead 11-8. Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov picked up a quad kill in the 20th round and Natus Vincere went on to tie the game at 11-11.

electroNic missed out on an ace in the 23rd round when he almost clutched a 1vs3 clutch but was denied by allu. ENCE secured the following four rounds to win the map with a 16-11 scoreline.

Natus Vincere started Inferno on the CT-side, taking the first two rounds as Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev got five kills. ENCE responded with a four-round streak to take the lead but Natus Vincere won two in a row to tie the game at 4-4. The Finns made it 7-4 with allu's 1vs2 clutch in the 11th round and went on to lead 9-6 at halftime.

Edward and electroNic's opening kills brought the second half pistol round victory to Natus Vincere who won two more rounds to tie the game at 9-9. The tide was turning against the CIS team, who lost the following two rounds, but s1mple stepped up with a stunning 1vs4 clutch and an ace on the B-site as his side reached double-digits.

s1mple and Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko clutched a 2vs4 in the 22nd round to make it 11-11 and Natus Vincere earned four map points after Zeus clutched a 1vs2 in the 26th round. Edward and company closed it out two rounds later, winning 16-12.

ENCE kicked off Overpass by taking the pistol round victory on the CT-side but lost the following five rounds to trail 5-1. Aleksib clutched a 1vs3 in the seventh round to stop Natus Vincere's run. The Finnish team almost managed to tie the game at 5-5 but Natus Vincere widened the gap, leading 9-6 at halftime.

electroNic's triple kill in the second pistol round extended his team's lead to 10-6. Natus Vincere put their foot down and took the map victory with a 16-11 score. With the 2-1 series win, they have moved on to the semis where they will face Renegades.