NAVI survive serious scare by ENCE, fnatic best G2 in Katowice

The reigning Major champions were made to work for their win in the series against ENCE, whilst fnatic came out on top against G2.

Both series, fnatic vs. G2 and Natus Vincere vs. ENCE, ended 2-1 and there were stark similarities between the two, with both featuring the teams trading blowout maps before battling in close deciders.

Natus Vincere continued to struggle individually at points throughout the series and need Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy to bail them out in the final map, with ENCE impressing with their aggressive and dynamic style. fnatic needed a slick T side on Inferno to get them over the line against G2 who simply ran out of ideas on the decider.

This series kicked off on the fnatic pick of Nuke and, starting on the T side, they were made to thoroughly rue the choice. G2 came into this one incredibly crisp individually, with everyone winning their duels and making it tough for fnatic to make any headway in the rounds; even if the boys in black and orange did find some space, G2 read the offense like a book. fnatic never got going, and the map was a quick 16-2 in favour of G2.

The next map was the G2 pick of Mirage, and you would be forgiven for thinking a quick 2-0 was looming, however fnatic started the brighter side on map two; they seemed to have shaken off some of the individual cobwebs, with several key clutches going their way. Only Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug of the G2 squad seemed to maintain the form from Nuke, and this resulted in a 10-5 half in fnatic's favour.

fnatic's offense continued to display the squad's individual prowess, as well as the solid teamplay, that had punctuated the first half; as if to make a statement fnatic ensured G2 did not get back into the game, allowing them a mere two CT rounds on their own pick, closing the map out 16-7 to take us to a decider.

The strong form continued for fnatic onto the decider of Inferno as they started 1-4 on their CT side. A surprise eco round win off the back of a Alex "⁠ALEX⁠" McMeekin 1v1 didn't help much for G2 and fnatic displayed excellent protocols and trading throughout the half, mounting a slick offense that was helped by ALEX picking the right points of attack more often than not. This resulted in a 10-5 half in the Anglo-Swedish side's favour.

G2 kick things off well on their T side by winning the pistol and converting to a 9-10 score, before a scrappy back-and-forth streak ended in fnatic's favour when they won a half-buy off the back of a correct read on G2's B execute. This allowed ALEX and co. to get all the way up to 15, leaving G2 with far too much to do, and they quickly fell 11-16 to lose the series 1-2.

fnatic looked like a well-oiled machine under the intelligent direction of ALEX, and FaZe will not be looking forward to their the upper bracket match on Saturday at 16:00 . As for G2 they still have work to do despite signs of promise, and will seek to get started on that work in the lower bracket against Liquid on Saturday at 12:30

ENCE got to open the series on their map, Mirage, but it did nothing to boost their confidence as they were thoroughly outclassed. They started on the T side and were absolutely blown off the server by the reigning Major champions, who looked like they had something to prove after the disappointing showing at BLAST Spring Groups; Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy, Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov and Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev all displayed vintage form. ENCE couldn't get into the first half and went down 3-12, giving themselves too much to do in the second half.

There was an improvement in the second period from the international squad, with Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi in particular leading the resistance, but it was too little too late as it only began after Natus Vincere had grabbed the pistol and converted to put themselves on 15; the CIS giants eventually closed out the map 16-8.

Nuke was a completely different story, with Natus Vincere struggling desperately on their map pick. ENCE took advantage of starting on the preferred CT side, almost entirely shutting Natus Vincere out as the CIS squad struggled to make any headway, finding virtually zero entry kills; that stat ended 14:6 in ENCE's favour by the end of the map. A 12-3 score made the second half unlikely for the boys in black and yellow, and Natus Vincere lost the pistol to virtually confirm the result; it ended 16-4 to ENCE.

The decider of Overpass started positively for ENCE as they displayed a dynamism and aggression on their CT side that took Natus Vincere by surprise, as the CIS squad were often undone by fast flanks both early and late round. Perfecto was so vital in keeping Natus Vincere alive in this map, and his contributions helped his side find a formula to punish ENCE's aggression, resulting in a surmountable 5-10 deficit going into the defence.

Natus Vincere were infinitely more comfortably on CT, and seemed to settle individually whereas on Nuke and early on Overpass many had struggled. They set about putting up a complete wall that ENCE found monumentally tough to break, and even when they did get into reasonable late-round situations the boys in black and yellow seemed to have their number more often than not; ENCE came alive at the end of the half to make things close, but Natus Vincere did enough to close the map 16-14 and the series 2-1.

Whilst Natus Vincere did continue to underwhelm, nothing should be taken away from ENCE who played a fantastic game for the majority of this series; they will be left rueing the fact they could not put away a 10-5 lead on Overpass. Were it not for Perfecto's monumental performance, the decider may very well have gone ENCE's way.

Natus Vincere move on to face FURIA in the Group B upper bracket semi-finals, with that match taking place on Saturday at 16:00 . ENCE will have the chance to fight for survival against Astralis on Saturday at 12:30 .