NAVI stroll into grand final with 2-0 win over Vitality

It was a comfortable series for Natus Vincere as they kept Vitality to single digits on both maps.

Natus Vincere made quick work of Vitality, winning 16-7 on Inferno and 16-6 on Nuke to book a spot in Sunday's grand final. Whilst the start of Inferno provided an entertaining battle, Vitality really didn't muster much of a fight for the rest of the series.

When asked in the winners interview if he felt his team were untouchable, coach Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy gave a humble response: "We don't want to feel like that at all. The way we beat teams is by respecting them, we try not to underestimate them."

Natus Vincere move on to the grand final on Sunday at 19:30 , whilst Vitality will take on either Astralis or HEROIC in the consolidation final on Sunday at 15:30 .

The series opened on Inferno, the Vitality pick, and it presented a hard fought battle. Natus Vincere started on the CT side and seemed to take early control of the game, winning a force after the pistol and getting up to a 6-2 lead.

The rounds were close but it seemed Natus Vincere would put together a convincing half, until Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut came up with an incredible 1v3 clutch to get his team back in the game. Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev was not to be bested and a couple rounds later came up with a special round of his own, grabbing a 4k and breaking the Frenchmen's economy to ensure the CIS squad went into the half with a 9-6 lead.

Vitality never really got going in the second half, Natus Vincere winning the pistol and comfortably converting that into a 16-7 map win, with the Frenchmen picking up a single round. As per the usual, s1mple was the standout performer for the Major champions, but Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy and Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov were not far behind.

That took the series to the Natus Vincere pick of Nuke, and the CIS squad proved why they are considered the best team in the world, particularly on this map. Starting on the T side, Natus Vincere showcased an excellent dynamic offense, particularly effective in creating opening frags. Vitality were simply too static in their defensive play, and their opponents took advantage of every gap and weak point in the Frenchmen's defence.

With an 11-4 lead going into the second half it was a formality, and Natus Vincere took the map comfortably 16-6.