IEM6 WC: Na`Vi vs ESC preview

We are down to just two teams at the Intel Extreme Masters 6 World Championship in Hannover where Natus Vincere will take on ESC Gaming at 09:10 to decide who will go home with gold medals and $50,000.

Today we saw Natus Vincere take down Lions in the earlier semi-final with a 2-1 score including three lopsided maps with de_dust2 going to the Ukrainians 16-6, Lions winning de_tuscan 16-7 and Na`Vi clinching the series with a 16-3 score on de_inferno.

The re-match of the grand finals of World Cyber Games was much closer as ESC mounted a massive comeback to win 16-14 on de_nuke from a 3-12 deficit. Second map de_mirage went to SK 16-11, and although SK came back from 1-14 on de_train to 14-15, it was eventually the Poles who qualified for the grand final.

Last season's grand final saw the two giants duke it out on de_train and de_dust2 with Natus Vincere winning their second consecutive IEM world championship. The two also met in the grand final of SEC 2011 in October, where ESC, then known as AGAiN, came out on top 2-0 with a 16-11 win on both de_train and de_dust2.

09:10 Natus Vincere vs ESC Gaming

15-15	vs SK Gaming	16-9	vs mousesports
16-14	vs mousesports	16-6	vs TyLoo
6-16	vs TyLoo	16-9	vs Anexis
16-14	vs Anexis	4-16	vs SK Gaming
16-14	vs ESC Gaming	14-16	vs Natus Vincere
16-7	vs fnatic	16-14	vs Moscow Five
16-4	vs fnatic	16-5	vs Moscow Five
16-6	vs Lions	16-14	vs SK Gaming
7-16	vs Lions	11-16	vs SK Gaming
16-3	vs Lions	16-14	vs SK Gaming

History

On paper you already know this is going to be an amazing match up and one that everyone interested in Counter-Strike should, and hopefully will be tuning in to watch. These two teams are possibly the two most successful teams in the game's history and it would be hard to find a match they have played against each other that did not come down to the wire. Both have looked equally impressive so far in this tournament, although one could argue that ESC Gaming faced tougher opposition in Moscow Five and SK Gaming than Natus Vincere did in fnatic and Lions to reach the grand final. They also shared group A together, where Natus Vincere came back to win 16-14 from a 10-14 deficit on de_tuscan in a must win situation to avoid elimination.

Maps

When it comes to maps, we already know for certain that de_nuke, de_forge and de_inferno will not be played in this series. I doubt de_mirage will see the light of day tomorrow either, which would mean the IEM6 World Championship will be decided on de_dust2, de_train and de_tuscan. I think predicting a winner on de_dust2 and de_train is almost impossible. Na`Vi are favorites on de_tuscan regardless of what happened in the group stage match, as overall they are a stronger team on the map than ESC based on their past matches over the course of a long period of time on the map.

de_dust2

In particular de_dust2 will be an interesting map to watch as everyone will be expecting the super aggressive Polish Counter-Terrorist play from Samsung Euro Championship to make its return on the game's biggest stage. Both teams have always been strong on the map, and what sticks out is that both are known to be able to put up big numbers both as Terrorists and as the defenders, as opposed to most teams where they are clearly stronger as one or the other. I could realistically see de_dust2 going either way and so much strategy in figuring out how the opposing team is planning on playing it is going to go into it that just the strategic part of the match tomorrow will be very interesting as Jakub "kuben" Gurczynski and Ischuk go head to head in that department.

de_train

On de_train it will be a battle between ESC's amazing Terrorist side and Na`Vi's double AWP defense that has stopped so many teams from even getting close to the bombsites. On the flip side of the coin, ESC just put up a 14-1 lead against SK Gaming today, and Na`Vi has plenty of strong Terrorist side performances in their history as well. Once again, I honestly couldn't predict who is going to win, as I could see it going either way. Na´Vi's biggest problem so far in this tournament has been seemingly getting frustrated and starting to argue over mistakes which has clearly lowered their level of play, something they can't afford to do tomorrow if they wish to stand on the highest part of the podium around noon local time. While ESC had major problems on their reknown Terrorist side against SK Gaming earlier, Na`Vi hasn't really gotten a chance to showcase their abilities just yet as they only needed four rounds to secure victory.

de_tuscan

Unfortunately for Natus Vincere, I think Lions actually showed the one weakness on de_tuscan in their Terrorist side; problems getting rounds on the board when sewers get shut down. To be fair, I heard Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko might have been calling during that map for one reason or the other which these days is out of the ordinary (if true), but shutting down sewers seemed to shut down the Ukrainians in general. ESC Gaming has been known to have problems with de_tuscan for quite some time now, and although they have clearly improved a lot on it, I still have to pick Na`Vi as a slight favorite on it. 

Individuals

Individually Natus Vincere has more fire power in Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev and Yegor "markeloff" Markelov than ESC in Filip "neo" Kubski and any other one of the Poles. However, individual skill has never been ESC's bread and butter, it has always been great team work and chemistry. Jarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski, Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas and Teslenko have all been playing great this tournament so far as has Sergey "starix" Ischuk who is currently ranked fifth in the event overall in stats. Ironically enough as to how fans might perceive these teams, it has often been Mariusz "Loord" Cybulski or Arseny "ceh9" Trynozhenko who came up with the biggest clutch to win it all. More than pure skills, it will also come down to the psychological effects a big final like this one has on people, and these ten individuals are some of the best in the game at handling such moments as proven by the numerous big comebacks and performances they have showcased over the years.

Prediction

No matter how you play this out in your head or on paper, it would be impossible to pick a favorite going into this match. Because of that, I actually won't predict a winner here as it would be, even more so than usual, just a guess. Instead, I think everyone should try to put their favorite teams aside for one day regardless of who they root for to win and just enjoy the show.

HLTV.org will continue its full live coverage from Intel Extreme Masters 6 World Championship on its final day and you can expect demos, pictures, stats and videos of the action surfacing right here tomorrow.