Natus Vincere defeat Gambit to set up IEM New York CIS semi-final bout against Virtus.pro

Natus Vincere will get to rematch Virtus.pro in the IEM New York CIS semi-finals after defeating Gambit in a two-map quarter-final series.

Natus Vincere and Gambit faced off in the first IEM New York CIS quarter-final match after the former’s rocky group stage performances landed them in third place of Group A following losses to Virtus.pro and FORZE. Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev and company didn’t fret in their first playoff match, however, defeating the recently promoted Gambit squad, Group B's second seed, in a two-map series on Train (16-12) and Overpass (16-11).

This quarter-final victory sets Natus Vincere up against a red-hot Virtus.pro, a team they lost to in the group stage and will be eager to take revenge on in the playoffs. VP will be no easy target, though, as Aleksei "⁠Qikert⁠" Golubev and company are not only undefeated in the ongoing IEM New York CIS tournament, but are also on a 14-series win streak dating all the way back to mid-September.

Natus Vincere opened up Train with a fast B play on the attacking side, winning the first round of the series as Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov clutched a 1vs2 afterplant situation. Gambit then retaliated on the forcebuy, going up 3-1 ahead of the first gun round, which they won to make it 4-1. s1mple and company brought it back to a tie with guns in play, shifting momentum on the often less favored Terrorist side, winning it 8-7.

NAVI increased their lead securing the second pistol round and hit double digits, 10-7, before Gambit won their first round with AKs. They then took control on the defending side increasing their lead to 14, and although Gambit made a last ditch attempt to come back by winning four rounds in a row, it wasn’t enough to turn the tides of the map, which ended 16-12.

Gambit were able to get the early lead on the attacking side of Overpass, their map pick, but were stopped by a forcebuy in the second round after which NAVI started to run away in the early stage of the map, 5-1. Gambit brought it back to a tie by the tenth round with Sergey "⁠Ax1Le⁠" Rykhtorov leading the way on the scoreboard. The two teams remained tied after two more rounds, 6-6, but Natus Vincere plowed through to the end, taking a 9-6 lead at the half.

Gambit won the second pistol round and were en route to tie things up, but a 1vs2 clutch by electroNic in the first gun round kept his team ahead, 10-8. Natus Vincere didn’t slow down after that, setting the pace reaching a 13-8 lead before Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov and Ax1Le dismantled the attackers for the first time since the early rounds of the half. Gambit then hit double digits, but were quickly laid to rest as NAVI cruised to a 16-11 victory to close out the map and series, proceeding to the next round of the IEM New York CIS playoffs.