s1mple shines as Na`Vi beat Renegades to move into StarSeries final

Natus Vincere are through to the grand final of StarSeries i-League Season 7 after defeating Renegades 2-1 in the first semi-final in Shanghai.

Fresh off a 2-1 victory over ENCE in a nail-biting series, Na`Vi entered the match against Renegades with all guns blazing. After losing the pistol round to a B execute, the Ukrainian side rallied back immediately with pistols and used that momentum to carve out a 5-1 lead.

Renegades were not willing to let the game out of hand, though, and picked up the pace, stringing three rounds together off the back of a Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage clutch to bring the deficit to a minimum. It looked like Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward's troops had found the formula to break through the Na`Vi defense, but the CIS giants were in control for the rest of the half and they raced to an 11-4 lead.

Things then went from bad to worse for Renegades, who quickly lost the A site in the pistol round and in the first gun round, which put Na`Vi on map point. With no margin for error, the Australians still attempted a response, but a quick double kill by Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev opened up the A site and allowed the CIS side to deal the finishing blow.

After the one-sided affair on Inferno, Renegades came out a different side on Mirage and jumped out to an 8-0 lead on the CT side without letting their opponents plant the bomb even once. Natus Vincere, who were struggling to exert any mid control, then found an opening kill onto jks and used that momentum to get their first round on the board.

Na`Vi went on to claim the next four rounds, bringing the scoreline to 5-8, before Renegades secured the final two rounds to hit double digits.

A trio of Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov kills in the second half pistol pushed Na`Vi to make a slight climb back into the game, with the Ukrainians also winning an anti-eco and a full gun round.

And that was when Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad came to the team's rescue. The Norwegian talent caught Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko off-guard with a CZ and delivered four more frags with an AUG, leaving Na`Vi's players strapped for cash. That round ended up being the turning point as Renegades were in control from that point on, a 1v2 clutch from jks minutes later just rubbing further salt into Na`Vi's wounds and powering the Australians to take the map at 16-8.

Renegades were put on the back foot for the majority of the first half on Train as any round that they won was quickly countered with a round by Na`Vi. Still, the Australians were not too unhappy with the seven-round deficit as they headed to the CT side after being overrun by the dynamic duo of s1mple and electroNic, who had 39 frags between themselves, during the first half.

Na`Vi further added to their lead with a B push in the pistol round. The Ukrainians continued to run all over the Renegades defence after that, wrapping things up without losing a single round in the half.