NAVI defeat Heroic to secure EPL semi-final spot

The Ukrainian side is set to face FaZe on Saturday at 19:00 .

Natus Vincere defeated HEROIC in the ESL Pro League S17 quarter-finals with a 2-0 scoreline. They opened the series with a close victory on Anubis (16-13) before dominating the Inferno offense to secure a 16-8 win.

HEROIC took a risk in the veto by not banning Anubis in the first rotation, a decision that came back to bite the Danish squad, who last played the map in December. In a post-match interview with HLTV, Andrii "⁠npl⁠" Kukharskyi touched on their decision. "Yes, we didn't expect it, I don't know why they didn't ban Anubis. They could have practiced three weeks in a row because they didn't have games, and maybe they added something new on Anubis, but we didn't see it in the game."

The youngster also touched on his individual performance, considering he put up his highest-rated series at EPL against the Danes with a 1.13 rating. "There is still a lot of work to do and I need to work on not making mistakes. But yes, I feel more comfortable than at Katowice, for example," said the 17-year-old about his form at EPL.

Natus Vincere are now set on a collision course with Grand Slam-chasing FaZe, with the semi-final set to be played on Saturday at 19:00 .

HEROIC's gamble in the veto meant that Anubis was the first map of the series. Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev opened the map with a 1vs3 clutch in the pistol and Natus Vincere won the resulting forcebuy wars as well as the first gun round to go 6-1 up. HEROIC, who needed some time to warm up, answered back with an aggressive style that few teams can pull off on Anubis. They showed proactive moves on all areas of the map and looked coordinated during them, as they came back to win the half 8-7.

Natus Vincere won their second pistol of the map to set themselves up for a quick start, with s1mple's ace getting them up to a 12-8 lead. HEROIC eventually got going on their offense, tying up the scores at 12-12 after making the most out of Natus Vincere's economical struggles. Their inexperience on Anubis showed eventually, however, as a couple of misplayed situations meant they dropped the map 13-16 to go into their map pick of Inferno a map down.

HEROIC won the opening exchanges on Inferno to go up to a quick 4-1 start on the T side. Their lead failed to last, however, as Natus Vincere came back into the game spearheaded by confident plays by s1mple. He first shut down an A attack with a saved M4 and continued to punish HEROIC's default, which resulted in his team taking a 7-4 lead. The Danes did put together a resurgence at the end of the half and reduced the deficit to just one at the half-time switch.

The second half of Inferno was complete domination for the Natus Vincere side. They lost just one round in the entire half on their way to the victory, but needed Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov and Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy to save them with respective 1vs2 clutches in the opening exchanges. That got them the needed confidence to go for aggressive peeks all throughout the half, bulldozing their way to a 16-8 win and a semi-final spot at ESL Pro League S17.