Na`Vi dismantle Astralis to book IEM Katowice final spot

Natus Vincere are through to the grand final at IEM Katowice following a 2-0 thrashing of Astralis in the second semi-final at Spodek.

"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." Mike Tyson's iconic quote perfectly sums up what happened in Katowice, where Natus Vincere needed less than two hours to beat the world No.1 in one of the most dominant performances in the semi-finals of a Big Event in a long time. Heading into the series, Astralis coach Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen had said that the team had a "pretty good gameplan" based on playing structured Counter-Strike and giving Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev and Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov as little room as possible.

But that went out of the window as soon as bullets started flying.

It is difficult to overstate Natus Vincere's dominance in this one-sided affair. The Russian team were on the front foot from the offset against an Astralis side who started sluggishly and were simply ineffective against the firepower of their opponents. Na`Vi are hungry for titles and they will be heading into Sunday's final against G2 brimming with confidence after claiming the scalps of two of the three best teams in the world.

Natus Vincere came out with all guns blazing and took the lead in the game after an all-out brawl on B in the pistol round. Astralis responded in the first full gun round, prompting an immediate timeout from Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov, and s1mple made sure to keep his team in control with a trio of kills. That was the start of the s1mple and of a dream run from the Russian team, who ruthlessly tore the Danish defense apart to head into the break with a commanding 14-1 lead.

There was more misery to come for Astralis as Na`Vi hit map point after winning the following pistol. A desperate force-buy yielded results and bought Astralis some time, but Na`Vi did not let the game get away from them and put the map to bed in the 20th round.

Nuke has historically been Astralis' home turf, but the Danes endured a nervy start despite winning the pistol round. They were immediately traded back by Natus Vincere, who responded thanks to two Scout kills by Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev, and after that the CIS giants simply ran away with the game, giving up just one more round before the break.

Astralis responded after switching to the CT side, picking up some much-needed rounds, but it all fell apart in the 19th round, in which Na`Vi responded in a 3v4 situation with nothing but pistols. It is the sort of round that Astralis never lose, but today, they were nothing like the team that had dominated the game in 2018 and 2019. That round showed just how mentally broken the Danes were, and everyone knew then and there that it was over.

Was this Na`Vi's best performance ever? "Yes, 100 percent," s1mple said after the match. Anyone who watched can only agree. That was perfection in the server. It was just a shame that there was no-one in the stands to watch it.